New BCS President calls for Better Representation of Users in the IT Workforce

Wendy Hall of the University of Southampton has become BCS President for 2003-2004 – only the second woman in the top BCS post. Her research interests include web technologies, hypermedia systems, knowledge technologies, digital libraries, multimedia information management, agent-based systems and human-computer interaction.

One of her chief concerns is the relatively small and declining proportion of women in IT. IT would certainly benefit from having more women, she says. Research has shown that women have good organisational and management skills, they are good at listening, good at human contact – all characteristics that are prised in system development.

In addition, logic says that 50% of IT users are women, yet they are greatly underrepresented in decision making, influencing and the design of systems, user interfaces, handheld devices.

There is no easy answer, Wendy Hall says: 'We have to tackle this at every level, because there's a deeply ingrained culture in the UK that computing is geeky, and for boys.

'There's evidence that at primary school there's not much difference between boys and girls in the use of computers, but as they approach adolescence, gender stereotyping kicks in, the boys push to the front, the girls don't want to look unfeminine. As they move on, girls see computing as geeky, or all about game playing.

'Girls will use a computer like they'll drive a car, to get from A to B, knowing they don't have to be mechanics. But they see IT careers as meaning you’ve got to understand how they work, you've got to be an engineer.

'As a result it's not only women but also industry that's missing out.'

She would like to change much of this, not least by getting the BCS to take a lead by making positive moves to broaden its appeal to all ages, genders, races and backgrounds. She wants to work on ways for the BCS to encourage women to consider careers in IT – and to encourage those already in IT to join the Society.

'In addition the Society is about to go through one of the most radical changes in its history, following the almost unanimous vote in favour of changes to our membership structure and governance. These changes will allow the Society to move forward significantly in terms of widening its membership and increasing its claim to be one of the world's leading professional IT bodies. The new chartered title of Chartered IT Professional is very significant in this respect and hugely important for shaping the direction of the Society in the coming years.'

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