Cover Story

The IT Woman

It is no secret that women are severely underrepresented in IT and that there aren't many women CIOs. But with all the talk about how a greater gender diversity and better gender dynamics can help the cause of the IT organization, the current scenario could be in for a change in the days ahead. By Rajendra Chaudhary

Nita Mahuvakar Gammon India,

When I showed up at the Gammon India office for my 5.30 pm appointment with its CIO Nita Mahuvakar, nearly everyone had either left for the day or was about to, except for Nita and her IT team, of course.

She was pounding away at the keys of her workstation, going through some reports, it seemed. Between that and a meeting scheduled for later in the evening with her staff, she was able to steal a few minutes for a quick chat.

My first question was, “When do you get to go home?”

“Around 8.30 pm or 9.00 pm is when I usually leave,” she said casually.

“And you’re okay with staying back this late in the office?” I asked.

“It’s work and I’d rather finish all of it here than take it home. Besides I’m used to it,” she replied.

Nita Mahuvakar is one of the few female professionals who’ve made it in a profession that is predominantly made up of men—IT. She has seen past the challenges thrown her way by the trade of her choice, both on the professional as well as the personal front. Whether it is the long hours she has to put in to execute a certain project or striking a balance between her family life and work, she has done it all.

However, unfortunately there are not many like her. In fact there are few women who have made it to the top of the IT chain. Sure there are the odd exceptions here and there, but IT by and large continues to remain a man’s arena.

Where are the women?

Nishi Vasudeva HPCL

“Why so few women CIOs or better yet, why so few women in IT?” this was the question that that we wanted to dig out some answers for.

“It’s not an easy proposition for women to be in IT. The demands of the job are far more complex than perhaps in other functions such as HR or Finance,” said Mahuvakar. “IT has a culture of its own and it consumes a lot of time. For instance, as a CIO in charge of the IT systems, you must remain accessible all the time. This is often easier said than done.”

Concurring with Mahuvakar’s remarks, Nishi Vasudeva, Executive Director – Information Systems, HPCL said that personal obligations do not make it any easier for women either.

“I think women, in that regard, are at a disadvantage. Quite often IT demands traveling, even moving to outstation locations and staying there for extended periods of time. To a man, this may not be much of a problem whereas for a woman with a family, it’s really difficult since she has to take that into account as well. It’s not always possible for everyone to simply pack that bag and leave,” said Vasudeva.

Shikha Rai, Director – IT, Canon India has seen many women quit IT and move into other jobs purely because of their personal obligations.

“I’ve known many women who have chosen family over careers and even seen many explore opportunities in other less demanding functions simply because of their personal commitments. A lot of them are pressured by circumstances to opt out of IT at early stages of their careers. Probably this is why we do not see too many women leading IT teams today,” said Rai.

Challenges aplenty

S Shirali SVC Bank.

Balancing home life with work still seems to be the greatest challenge for women today, but is that the sole reason why we do not have that many women in IT?

What about the stereotypes that are tossed around the moment one picks up a topic like women in IT? What about stuff like women and technology don’t mix, women aren’t interested in techie stuff, or men are best suited for technology related jobs and other similar depressingly familiar statements made by many? Is there any truth in that?

We posed this question to a male CIO, ST Sathiavageeswaran, General Manager – Information Systems, HPClL and asked him if there was any truth to these arguments.

“It’s not a skills issue at all. Women are just as capable of handling technology as men,” he asserted. “The reason you do not see that many women CIOs today is primarily because women entered the realm of IT fairly late as compared to men. The IT boom came only in the recent decades in the country and women, perhaps due to lack of exposure did not get into IT until recently. Consequently, you have a scenario where most of the top IT positions are currently held by men.”

Some tend to suggest that the fewer number of women in IT today could have something to do with the fact that there was (and is) a pre-existing lack of women IT professionals. Earlier, women did not really look at IT as a viable career option because they did not necessarily have too many examples to go by. IT also had an image problem wherein individuals felt that there is not much of a career path because it is more of business expense much like the accounting department and that the attractive jobs are in revenue-generating areas of the business. Hence not too many women opted for IT.

As far as women lacking the interest and being apathetic towards technology is concerned, there does not seem to be any evidence to suggest that this is so.

“While it may be true to some extent that women in general do not have as great a technological bent as men, when it comes down to work-related competencies women are just as efficient and capable as their male counterparts,” said Subbalakshami M Shirali, Senior Manager - Information Technology, The Shamrao Vithal Co-Operative Bank.

Shikha Rai Cannon

She added, “IT requires logical thinking, foresight, the ability to adapt to changing business and technology dynamics, ability to think and make quick decisions, crisis management capabilities and a systematic approach to resolving issues. It’s absolutely untrue that women lack any of the aforementioned capabilities. In fact, women make far better CIOs than men in most cases.”

So, if the women do not lack in the skills department and have all the necessary traits, why then do so few of them make it to the top?

According to Gammon’s Mahuvakar, the reason for women not getting the top IT job is veiled discrimination that exists in a lot of organizations.

“The reason for women going only so far despite having the necessary credentials is because men tend to feel more at ease with men, and in most cases they are the ones who choose who gets promoted. Though it’s not as overt these days, women are often subject to discrimination in IT. There are instances when their views are not acknowledged or welcomed unlike those of their male colleagues, preventing women from moving up the IT ladder,” said Mahuvakar.

Shirali seconded Mahuvakar contention, and informed that in addition to hitting the proverbial glass ceiling women also tend to dilute their own position by not asking/pushing for the top job.

“At times we are not as confident of our abilities as we should be. Women very often fail to highlight their accomplishments and reach for glory. We do not ask for promotions like men or assert ourselves as potential leaders. These factors end us hurting our chances of getting promotions and moving up the ranks,” said Shirali.

The gender gap

It is no secret that there exists a fairly visible gender gap in IT. One only needs to take a gander at the composition of the IT workforce of a few organizations to get a sense of the current state of affairs. And we are not even talking about women CIOs and IT heads. Women IT professionals, even at the junior and mid-managerial level are missing at most companies. This is true of a great majority of organizations including some of the world’s leading companies. Seldom will one find many women handling IT.

Although absolute numbers and statistics are hard to come by based on our own research and conversations with a few companies we estimate that the woman IT staff percentage currently ranges between 10-15% at most Indian organizations at best. Though some might differ with the numbers and arguer otherwise, it has to be said that women are nowhere near as well represented in IT as they are in other departments including HR, admin, finance or marketing.

But why should a CIO care if (s)he has a good mix of men and women in his IT team? Can the IT organization benefit from greater gender diversity?

According to IT research firm Gartner, the answer is yes.

In 2007 the firm commissioned a study titled Women and Men in IT: Breaking through Sexual Stereotypes. Among other things, the study pointed to three key traits in woman that can affect the team performance of an IT organization. The first of these is listening skills. The study revealed that women are comparatively better at listening as they tend to use both the right (intuitive) as well as the left (analytical) sides of their brains whereas men tend to be left brained. This quality in women lends itself to roles such as that of a business analyst or team leader. The second important attribute is that of women’s proficiency in language skills; including verbal communication. Superior to men’s abilities, this can be applied to detailed analysis of human discourse, writing and overall communication techniques. The third important point according to the study is women’s superior social skills. Scoring higher than men, women tend to possess skills that include better social orientation, empathy and greater sense of understanding other’s view points. Women can apply this trait towards functions such as team building and negotiations.

The research firm said that women with their superior communications and listening skills are better suited than men to navigate through the new economy and by including women in their IT teams organizations can build stronger, better team dynamics which can translate into multiple tangible benefits for the business as a whole. These benefits can include greater employee satisfaction, increased productivity and innovation.

The report urged organizations and business leaders to consider gender differences as a plus in the IT environment. It asked CIOs to design IT teams and management platforms for a diverse world. It said that organizations should capitalize on women’s insights, traits and skills to help improve another culture’s tolerance for diversity, thus opening access to a greater pool of talent, ideas and expertise.

“Men and women behave, think and operate differently. To pretend otherwise is to ignore fruitful inputs into IT team building leadership, global projects, innovation and talent management,” reported Mark Raskino, the Gartner analyst who co-authored the study.

Giving an insiders perspective SVC Bank’s Shirali, emphasized on the criticality of the ‘women’s touch in IT.

“In my view women tend to look at technology from a user’s point of view whereas men more often than not tend to look at it in isolation, strictly from a technological perspective. With all the talk around about how IT departments are often disconnected from the end users, it’s critical that they bring in more women who not only understand technology but also the social aspects of it,” said Shirali. “What good it a program or an application is if users cannot use them? It does not matter how well written that application is, if users don’t accept it, it will not yield any positives. Women with their innate abilities understand finer nuances and can help a great deal in such instances.”

Taking the argument a step further Mahuvakar said that women in IT can provide a crucial balance within groups. Men are usually fascinated by technologies whereas women look at it as a tool for enhancing work/productivity.

“Women tend to bring in the thinking about the impact of innovation on human life and surrounding culture and society and if men and women can find a way to jointly contribute to innovation, it will lead to more positives than negatives,” said Mahuvakar.

Not all see it that way

However, not all are as keen on the issue of greater gender diversity as others. When asked about her views on the issue, HPCL’s Vasudeva asserted that skill should be the foremost criteria applied when formulating an IT team, regardless of the gender.

We need people who know their jobs well and can perform them in an efficient manner. While it is true that women fare better in some of the other areas such as communications and soft skills, it should not be the main reason for inducting someone in the IT team, be it a woman or a man.”

Lending his personal opinion on the topic, Sathiavageeswaran said that he is largely indifferent towards the idea of greater gender diversity in IT.

He said, “I do not think that having greater gender diversity will necessarily result in better IT. IT as a discipline has certain specific requirements and it is mostly about the skill sets an individual possesses. I would not go out of my way to hire more women just so that I have a better mix of male to female ratio in my IT team, at the cost of IT operations.”

What can be done

Organizations the world over are recognizing albeit slowly that team dynamics and the ability to co-exist and work together as part of the team is an important attribute. Women more often than not are better collaborators and team players and many if not most of the great technologies in the recent times have been developed by diverse teams.

It is important that organizations take concrete steps to create an environment which is conducive to greater gender diversity and attracts more talented women to IT.

One of the things organizations can do is give IT an Image makeover. Quite often women do not know much about the various roles IT plays in an organization or about the career track available.

“They don’t know much beyond careers in programming, engineering or help desk,” said Shikha Rai of Canon India. “It would be better if they knew the variety of jobs and how much that they get to work with customers and engage in the creative side of the business.”

Companies can also invest in improving the mentoring pipeline for their existing women IT staff and let them learn about the various career paths in IT by organizing or sending them to events/seminars/conferences that provide them with opportunities to learn and network with senior IT professionals including IT women from other organizations.

Similarly options such as flexi-hours or work from home facilities can help retain the interest of the female IT workforce, a great deal. Also recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of the women IT staff and nurturing their core strengths can help retain their interest in the work in the longer run.

rajendra.c@expressindia.com