Women Dominate IT Courses But More Men Get Degrees
There is a BIG difference between polytechnic degrees and university degrees and it has nothing to do with a 'geeky' image but more about women being intimidated to compete in the cut-throat scientific side of computer science.
The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) estimates that female IT students at tertiary institutions outnumbered male IT students in 2004, yet more men than women continue to earn IT degrees. Fifty-five percent of students in polytech IT courses last year were women, compared to about 38 percent of students studying IT at university over the past two years; women accounted for 63 percent of IT students at private training schools in 2004, compared to less than 50 percent in 2003. However, just 25 percent of Bachelor of Information Science students at Wellington-based WelTec polytech were female last year, although WelTec director Murray Wills hopes that more women will be drawn to polytech IT courses because classes are smaller and there is a greater focus on application. TEC's Bill Lennox thinks the gap between TEC and polytech estimates may be due to the TEC's concentration on courses taken, compared to polytechs' emphasis on students attempting to gain qualifications. Women in Technology general manager Cheryl Horo notes that TEC's figures do not estimate the number of women who complete their courses or enter the industry upon graduation, which would demonstrate an even smaller female presence. Gwyn Claxton with Auckland University of Technology's (AUT) computer and information sciences school reports that many potential female students are discouraged from enrolling in IT courses because they perceive IT as a geeky, mathematically-inclined boys' club. Fifty percent of AUT's faculty are women, but that does not seem to have encouraged more female IT enrollments. Horo sees a need to step up efforts to repudiate the geeky image of IT students by "[promoting] careers in industry rather than qualifications.