Only One Third of IT Workers in Europe Appear to be Women

LONDON, March 29, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --

- A European Survey Conducted by the IT Job Board Finds That the IT Sector is not Doing Enough to Attract and Retain Women in IT

According to The IT Job Board's, http://www.theitjobboard.co.uk, latest European survey[1] findings, only one third (35%) of IT workers in Europe appear to be women. However the feeling within the IT community is that this is set to change. The survey highlighted that increasing numbers of women are entering the IT sector across Europe, and that 45% of women in the UK and Holland think this is set to increase.

The survey also found that 49% of women believe that working benefits and conditions in IT could be improved, and although there has been an increase in the number of women working in IT, 51% of women in the UK and 49% of women in Holland believe that working conditions are not equal for men and women. It seems that women in Belgium are struggling to find parity, 66% felt that working conditions favoured their male colleagues.

90% of women across Europe believe that women do IT jobs just as well as their male counterparts and 81% of women questioned believe that the industry should do more to encourage a mix of male and female employees in IT.

However in the UK, the phrase "boys club" was given by survey respondents on several occasions and it is clear that many women find it hard being a female in such a male dominated environment.

    Other surprising statistics the survey showed were as follows:

    - 49% of women in IT in the UK believe there are fewer opportunities open
      to them;
    - 20% claimed it was not important to have a mix of men and women working
      in the industry; and
    - 38% of women work in an IT department that has 1-3 women working in it.

Commenting on the survey, Alex Farrell, managing director of The IT Job Board, said: "While the number of women in IT continues to grow, it seems that there still isn't a level playing field. The dynamic needs to change in order to attract and nurture women to fulfil their potential. There is still a deep rooted "club for the boys" that will probably always exist, the question is whether this "club" has a future for the masses."

Notes to editors

About The IT Job Board:

The IT Job Board group of companies was set up in April 2002 in recognition that recruitment in the IT sector was increasingly dominated by the internet.

Today, The IT Job Board (http://www.theitjobboard.co.uk) is the UK's biggest IT specialist recruitment website with over 23,500 vacancies advertised (as at March 2010).

Online technology enables sophisticated targeting - for example by skill, region or experience - of The IT Job Board's database of 800,000 IT professionals. The company always tries to get closer to candidates either via planned content campaigns, or through the use of social networks.

The site also offers employers services such as branded job postings, a featured employer zone, targeted email campaigns and guidance on advertising copy. The managed campaign service filters responses to provide companies with a shortlist of applicants most suitable for the advertised position.

http://www.theitjobboard.co.uk's clients include Yahoo, Bloomberg, Accenture, SEGA and T-Mobile.

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    [1] 618 surveyed on `Professional Networking' in the UK March 2010

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SOURCE The IT Job Board