If you were with me yesterday, you’ll recall that I re-published one of the first ever blogs that appeared on the Be-IT website, way back in 2014. It dealt with the perennial problem of the lack of women in IT: a subject we have written about consistently (with both male and female colleagues publishing their thoughts) over the years. Partly as a result of this, we commissioned a substantial piece of research in the summer of 2017 into the issue of sexism in IT. As I noted yesterday, the results of this were widely reported in the media. The key findings from 2017 were as follows:
In addition, there were a number of comments from female respondents about the way they felt they were treated, including this: “My work/decisions frequently checked with a man, even if he is junior or not in my area. It seems a penis is the qualification needed to check if I am correct.” From the male side, chauvinism was, in a few instances, very much the order of the day, as evidenced by this response from a male engineer, “Oh dear... Women simply need to take more interest in technical or engineering when they're growing up.”
Since we published these results, much has changed in the world of work, especially in the last year. While I am hopeful that at least some of the sexism we reported in 2017 has reduced, we now have a raft of other issues to deal with, almost all of which have the capacity to provoke strong, often contrasting emotions. The moment you step into the world of diversity, equity and inclusion, with its focus on issues such as transgenderism, critical race theory and intersectionality, then you’re not so much treading on eggshells as playing hopscotch in a minefield while wearing a blindfold. However, that is the task we handed to our research company, and tomorrow they’ll explain how they (and we) are going to handle it.
Nikola Kelly, MD, Be-IT Projects, Be-IT Resourcing
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