CIO — Today, approximately 52 percent of the world’s population is made up of women. That’s a pretty well-known fact. Yet it’s one that much of the corporate world in general-and the IT community in particular-seems to be missing. Not only are most technology products designed and marketed primarily for men, but companies have been slow to recognize and seek out the talents of female IT workers. (See "Why Women Hate IT," CIO, Sept. 1, 2000.) That’s a problem, not just for women but also for corporations.

Without a doubt, the world of high-tech started as a man’s world. Sure, there were the occasional female programmers and engineers, but they were few and far between, certainly not in large enough numbers to have a significant effect on the direction technology has taken. From the heads of companies down to programmers, male preferences and perspectives have dominated. The end result is that products tend to be designed for men. That creates a male market, which leads to the perception that men have an inherently greater interest in technology products than women.

Take, for example, any Sharper Image or Sky Shopper catalog you find on most airlines. Except for a few beauty items such as electrolysis devices, face toners and hot waxers, most tech products are designed for men. Products such as electronic golf games and personal cooling systems appeal to male lifestyle preferences, and men are the consumers depicted using them. Most technology products developed for women, on the other hand, do not appeal to women’s intelligence or sense of adventure; instead, they are intended to improve the user’s physical appearance, propagating the idea that women need technology only to make themselves look better.

In general, women and girls lack interest in technology not because it is too difficult or abstract or "male" for them to grasp, but because technology has not been developed with their preferences and interests in mind.

How is this affecting our society? According to a recent study from the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation (www.aauw.org), only one out of every five information technology professionals is a woman, and only about 28 percent of all computer science bachelor’s degrees go to women, down from a high of 37 percent in 1984. Girls think computer programming classes are boring, computer games are pointless and violent, and career choices in the computer world are unexciting, according to the report.

Imagine instead a world in which technology companies design products with respect to women. Everything from software to hardware for leisure lifestyle and the workplace would be made with consideration of women’s varied preferences. A new market would open, both women and men would accept that women and technology need not be mutually exclusive, women would begin to see how technology can be relevant to their lives, and their interest in technology would grow. They would feel capable rather than intimidated, excited rather than disinterested, included rather than left behind. Ultimately, that would result in more women pursuing technological careers, flooding the industry with new talent and fresh perspectives, resulting in even greater products, thereby increasing the market population and value, and so on. Consumers would be happy, tech companies would see greater sales than ever before, and the quality of the IT and other tech labor force would increase exponentially.

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