Perceived career challenges and response strategies of women in the advanced technology sector

Abstract

The objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of the perceived barriers to career advancement specific to women in the advanced technology sectors. Strategies employed in response to perceived barriers are also examined. Empirical results are based on analysis of qualitative data from a sample of 115 women members of Canadian Women in Technology. Personal-, firm- and industry-level barriers to career advancement were documented. The respondents attributed a high proportion of the challenges they encountered to gender. Respondents were most likely to resolve challenges through personal, or ‘do-it-yourself’, solutions. Few cited firm- or industry-related support structures. While mentoring was identified as a frequently used response strategy through which women address career challenges, the majority of firms in the advanced technology sector lack sufficient numbers of suitable women mentors. The lack of mentorship opportunities is particularly acute for women entrepreneurs. The findings are discussed from the context of contradictions between an industry need to attract and retain entrepreneurial talent and respondents’ perceived career barriers. Industry-level remedial strategies are advanced in the form of: a women's mentoring programme; case studies about successful women entrepreneurs and a website to inform women about career advancement strategies. The programmes were designed by the research team to respond to the challenges cited by women and were implemented in cooperation with the trade association as a critical component of an on-going applied research programme.

Keywords:

• economic development
• advanced technology
• gender
• women's careers

Acknowledgements

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Canadian Advanced Technology Association or CanWIT. The research team acknowledge the contributions of research assistant Michelle Dathan (University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management). The comments of reviewers for this journal were instrumental in improving this study and the authors gratefully acknowledge their insights.

Notes

Notes

1. Founded in 2005, CanWIT is a division of CATA, Canada's largest technology trade association. The mandate of CanWIT is to help further the engagement and advancement of women in the technology sector through networking, mentoring and professional development (http://www.catawit.ca/home/).

2. Panteli, Stack, and Ramsay (1999) also report significant gender differences in remuneration among both managerial and technical workers in the United Kingdom's IT sector. The wage gap appears to widen with age, from 5% for workers under 24 years of age to 15% for workers between the ages of 40 and 44 years old. Myers (1999, 7) summarizes Statistics Canada's data on the earnings of men and women working in science and technology: ‘Of professional workers, women's salaries were from 74 per cent to 115 per cent of men's. Women in pharmaceutical manufacturing earned more than men, although salaries in this sector were among the lowest of those reported. The deviation between men's and women's salaries was greatest in engineering and architectural services – $54,785 for men and $40,530 for women. Female mechanical and chemical engineers earn only two-thirds as much as their male colleagues’. An examination of American ICT salaries indicates that men earn, on average, 10% more than women with same job title (Wilde 2000). This does not include bonuses and other sources of remuneration.

3. Sample initiatives in the Canadian advanced technology sectors include: BringITOn (http://www.bringiton.ca/), Canadian Advanced Technology Canadian Women in Tech (http://www.catawit.ca/), Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology (http://www.ccwestt.org), the Hypatia Association ([email protected]), Women in Aerospace (http://www.womeninaerospace.org/), Alberta Women's Science Network (http://www.awsn.com/), Women in Aviation (http://www.wai.org/), Women in Aviation Resource Center (http://www.women-in-aviation.com/) and Women in Defense and Security Canada (http://www.wids.ca/).

4. In 2005, CanWIT used email to invite all 2300 women members to complete an on-line survey of challenges they had faced in their careers. A total of 169 responses were received (a 7.3% response rate). While the response rate was low, exploratory data analysis of the 2005 survey assisted the research team in anticipating the types of responses to be expected from the survey described here.

5. The Judy Project is a Canadian initiative to advance more women into CEO positions and build stronger organizations (http://ep.rotman.utoronto.ca/open/judy_project/).