Technology, at the end of the day, is just a platform and you don't have to be a “techie” to have a career in tech.
This was the argument put forward by Debby Edelstein, host of the annual Wired Women conference, the 2012 leg of which took place last week.
The event, which concentrates on getting female voices heard within IT fields, played host to a number of conversations around girls and technology. A common theme that ran through almost all of the talks was that, at a basic educational level, girls are not given the right idea about what career paths are available to them when it comes to information technology and are put off, because they regard technology as boring, career-limiting and anti-social.
“People see tech as this geeky-type thing - you know you just have to sit behind a computer and not socialise with anybody,” one of the speakers, Lynette Hundermark, said on the sidelines of the conference.
Hundermark is head of product strategy at Prezence Digital, a mobile and online digital agency.
“I don't think it's broadly publicised that tech is not just about programming,” she said. “There are so many different aspects to it, because now, yes, I'm in tech, but I'm not actually perceived as being a techie.”
She explained that, in her current position, she is also involved in the “people side” of the business and in marketing/app promotion. Nevertheless, she still considers herself to be working in technology. Hundermark studied Science and Maths and spent eight years as a programmer prior to her current career.
“They're not aware that there's just so much more to it. That you can go into it as a geek, like I did, but that's not all that it can be. To be honest, who wants to just be a programmer your entire life? Very few people.“
Another of the speakers, Michelle Atagana, managing editor of Memeburn, added that women had been responsible for the invention of both the fridge and the dishwasher.
“They aren't developers, they aren't programmers. They are people with ideas to use technology,” she said. “Just because you can't code doesn't mean you're not into tech.”
Monica Singer, CEO of Strate, said she was a non-techie when she first started her own technology-orientated company, Strate (a Central Securities Depository).
“You don't have to be a techie to run a tech company,” she said. “You just have to hire the right people and you can be a conductor; let the IT people use the instruments.”
ITWeb's salary survey last year revealed that prejudice in recruiting women to IT positions is not nearly as large a problem as the tiny pool of women applying for these positions.
There's still a kind of stigma in getting involved in tech as a woman, Atagana pointed out.
“People always ask me why I don't write for a women's magazine rather than about tech. I say 'because I know jack about lipstick. I know about tech'.”
Changing this, according to the Wired Women speakers, starts in the home.
“Children are naturally curious,” said Dr Margaret Mkhosi, GM of special projects at the Technology Innovation Agency. She said that if parents can give children a springboard, they'll become interested in how things work by themselves and this will lead to an interest in Science and Maths. She described how her own daughter, when offered the choice of a range of prizes at a game arcade, chose a build-it-yourself remote-controlled car. The genderisation of toys comes from the adults.
“We need to redefine what it means to be a woman,” said Thandi O'Hagan, senior PR and marketing manager at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre. “Smart needs to be sexy.”
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