Guess what? Not all women have the same career goals, work habits, or family constraints. Unbelievable, isn't it? I know that our readers understand this, but I think it is important that employers understand it.
My first job out of school was for a large consulting firm that focused primarily on Defense and Federal government projects. My assignments were exciting, very challenging, and fun. Then I got married and my projects changed. I was given assignments that were boring and not challenging. When I asked my project manager why, I was told that I had married and would probably leave the company to become a housewife, so he wasn't going to put me in a position that would be at risk when I left. This is also the same guy that put in my performance appraisal under Technical Skills: "None Observed" when I had removed 7 minutes (not seconds, but minutes) from the application start up, designed all the databases, developed code, designed user interfaces, fixed thousands of bugs in the existing app, you name it. When I questioned him on this, he said "Joe has technical skills, ask him". Joe was our show guy, the one sent to conferences to demo the product. He had very few technical skills. My appeal of the appraisal was the first of many that others on our project filed.
The sad part is that I finally left that company for better assignments in another company, thus proving to this idiot that married women leave the company. I don't think he ever clued in that he was the cause.
But back to women and careers. Eileen Trauth, professor of information sciences and technology at Pennsylvania State University has presented her findings on why women are opting out of IT:
"Policy makers, educators, managers need to recognize that you can't generalize to all women," said Eileen Trauth, professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). "There is far too much variation in the paths that women take for anyone to assume that women's career motivations are the same, their methods of balancing work and family are the same, or their responses to motherhood are the same."
Trauth conducted interviews with 167 women who were working in IT in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United States. Besides their place of residence, the women also represented a range of racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Those interviews suggested women's career choices were influenced by a wide range of factors including gender stereotypes, societal messages and family dynamics, Trauth said. But she also recorded a wide range of responses to the motherhood, career and educational choices and gender stereotypes, reinforcing her belief that recognizing such diversity may yield more opportunities for women.
While I'm thrilled that research is being completed in this area, I am saddened by the fact that employers and project managers think that all women are the same or that all women will leave. My guess is that managers who believe this have behaved in a way that drives women to other projects or companies -- and that these ill informed managers see this as proof of their beliefs.