Last year I gave a keynote and mentored at an event for twenty 14-17 yr-old girls to talk about IT and the opportunities therein. I compared IT to Charlie’s chocolate factory (distant, a little scary, full of weird people but so amazing and fun once inside!) which they really took to. Since then I’ve spoken to a few of the girls and am helping one of them secure work experience. Anyway, it was
a very interesting experience, particularly when only a few girls coming into the sessions were at all interested in working in IT, but by the end of 2 days, almost all of them were keen for it. The other interesting thing I found after talking to these girls was the high proportion of them who had told their careers advisors they wanted to work with computers who were told, “oh no dear, you should try social work or teaching”. WTF! Anyway, they came out with a report about the event, which also has some good stats and information about women in IT generally.
I think the exercise clearly demonstrated that girls at school are not getting any support or encouragement even if they demonstrate a specific interest in computers, so there is where we need to be focusing our efforts if we want to see equal access to ICT opportunities for both genders. Please note, I am not lobbying for equal numbers in ICT for women, I simply feel that at a young age women are being actively discouraged from ICT and I feel this is robbing both the industry from a huge demography and robbing many young women of the amazing opportunities ICT can bring to their lives and careers. I always use these opportunities to show the girls how working in ICT rocks, but also how being in the FOSS community I have had incredible and life-changing experiences due to the doors opened to me and the wonderful things I can achieve there. They have generally been very enthusiastic about the idea of socially responsible software, and achieving their personal dreams using technology to get there.
Oh, and Linux Australia is listed there as one of the sponsors 🙂 Hooray for Linux Australia!