In the Metro newspaper there was an article a couple of weeks ago regarding what kind of jobs men and women dream of and comparing that to where there is a shortage of competence in different job areas.
In the left column we read professions such as Engineer, Developer, IT-architect followed further down in the list by tester and testleader within the IT-industry. These are the jobs that companies are searching high and low for people to employ.
The list in the middle states the jobs men dream of. In second place we find Engineer, only beaten by Entrepreneur taking place as the number one dreamjob. So far, there is a good match between the needs of the industry and the desires of men to work in this area. Other jobs also on the list are for example pilot, photographer, adventurer and inventor. Quite a broad range of titles I would say.
Furthest to the right we find the sad list of the jobs women dream of. I say sad, because even though doctor, veterinarian, author and human relations manager are all respectable jobs, it is a bad omen for the IT-industry that no IT-roles what so ever made it to this list.
Once again it is painfully evident that we have a very, very long way to go to ensure that we get more women in IT. If IT-jobs are not even something women dream of, then they will of course never consider it as a career.
So the million dollar question becomes: How do we get more women in IT? Well, I have a few ideas up my sleeve, which I will share with you readers throughout the year. So stay tuned!
