Should a woman be interviewed for every IT job opening?
Earlier this week, Network World published an article (http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/030612-women-it-257009.html) quoting an Anita Borg Institute report saying “at least 1 woman should be interviewed for every IT job opening.” The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology say this will raise the chances that the high-tech industry will begin to see a growing number of female technical specialists and managers.
Because I happen to be a female, I hope I can discuss this topic without being accused of being a MCP (and that’s not a Microsoft Certified Professional!).
As a woman in IT, I can definitely attest to the fact that there are very few female IT pros. This is actually an advantage at conferences when I don’t have to wait in line to use the restroom. Seriously, I stopped thinking about gender years ago. I am so used to being the only female in the group – or in a class or seminar – that I don’t even think about it, much less “keep score.”
Would it be nice if there were more women in IT? Sure. Would it be nice if they weren’t as qualified as male hires? No. I’m glad the report says every open technical position should have a viable female candidate (emphasis mine). Several years ago, my team had an open position. It happened that one of the candidates was a female. I remember my boss asking me if I would be glad to have another female on the team. My response was “only if they are as qualified for hiring as anyone else would be.” I think I surprised him.
Am I being idealistic?
It would be nice if everyone was hired based on their qualifications, regardless of gender or nationality. I have heard people say (not on any team I’ve been on) “why hire a woman, she’s just going to have a kid and quit.” (!) (Or, “she’s just going to take time off because her kids are sick” … I guess because the father is unavailable – or thinks his job is more important.) And I was definitely outraged to hear those comments. However, I don’t think that means you should hire someone who is less qualified.
And it would definitely be nice if everyone who was hired was paid based on their qualifications, regardless (in spite of!) of gender or nationality.
I also remember an employer saying they would love to hire more women, but there weren’t female applicants to consider. The study does say women aren’t coming out of computer science undergraduate and graduate programs in huge numbers (18% in 2009). If that’s the case, interviewing 1 woman for every IT job opening might be tough.
Meanwhile, companies such as Intuit, Cisco, IBM, HP, Microsoft, CA Technologies, Salesforce.com, Facebook, and Lockheed Martin, and government agencies including NSA and NSF offer public support to the Anita Borg Institute and its mission of bringing more women into IT. The problem is they can’t find qualified women to interview. Maybe instead of searching for possible female candidates to interview, the Anita Borg Institute should look at why there aren’t that many available in the first place and see what it would take to get that to change.
