Information technology is one of the most dynamic and promising industries, so it’s no surprise that these days it seems so attractive to anyone, regardless of their gender or age. Besides, world history knows great female programmers.

Among them is Ada Lovelace, the daughter of a poet, who was expected to love literature from childhood, but was interested in mathematics. Growing up, she wrote Bernoulli’s algorithm for calculating numbers and became the world’s first programmer. Betty Holburton worked on the electronic numerical integrator and calculator ENIAC, which became the first general-purpose digital computer. Erna Schneider Hoover gave the world a data processing system with an installed program that allowed the computer to automatically adjust the speed at which telephone calls were received.

Not to be forgotten is Karen Spark Jones, who developed search and retrieval technology that allowed users to work with computers using ordinary words instead of equations and codes. And Radia Perlman, who created the symbolic tree protocol, has been called the mother of the Internet. But all of these examples, from a historical perspective, are rather exceptions. For decades, information technology was considered to be a strictly male domain.

Why is this the case?

According to the 2016 Education at a Glance report, the gender disparity in IT is a result of the education system. The authors of the study concluded: due to social prerequisites, it is mostly boys who go into technical professions, so it turns out that there are more men in the profession. But according to Microsoft study among Russian girls aged 11-18 years old interest in the exact sciences is much higher than in Europe. We have a future profession with the exact sciences link more than 50% of girls, in European countries – only 40%. Of the 29 employees of the Department of High Performance Computing at ITMO University, nine are women, and in two key IT-related metafacultures of the university, about the same third of girls study. Thus, we have a gender gap in IT education, but it can hardly be called grandiose.

At the same time, a study of programmers platform Stack Overflow found that 92% of the developers of the world are men. The number of women in this industry has really been falling in recent years. According to Head Hunter, in Russia there are three women for every ten male IT specialists.

We can connect this fact with a more global phenomenon: in our country only 2% of fathers go on maternity leave. In the vast majority of cases women have to give up building a career and devote themselves to the family – including the fact that men on average receive a third more. A working father brings home more money than a working mother. However, experts say that the situation in our IT-sector is not so deplorable.

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IT-professions, where you need to program

• Software / QA-engineer tests and verifies the correctness of the development at all stages (sometimes these specialists are called testers). The profession requires patience and full concentration, so it is ideal for diligent, goal-oriented girls.
• The Internet of Things (IoT) is smart homes, phones, smart watches, and drones that make people’s lives easier. To create even more smart gadgets, IoT programmers work hard and get a good salary. If a girl likes generating ideas and creating unique things, she’ll love this job.
• Specialists in big data have learned to process and store trillions of gigabytes of information. This is one of the most in-demand professions nowadays, it is divided into segments: architect, analyst, engineer, researcher, and database manager. It requires patience and perseverance, so the work is suitable for women who can sit in one place for a long time and do the same kind of work.
• Since hackers do not doze off, the demand for information security specialists is growing. The main task of such a specialist is to prevent hacks and manage security systems. One of the areas of IT security is pentesting (system penetration testing). Pentesting initiates hacker attacks in order to identify weaknesses in programs and install protection. Do you want to act as an Internet beta man? Welcome to IT security!
• A DevOps engineer oversees the work of developers and technicians to ensure that they perform quality software releases. The profession is in demand and well paid, perfect for girls with a mathematical mindset.

IT professions that do not require programming

• Business Analyst – is the link between developers and the customer. This is a very in-demand profession, because as a rule technicians do not understand business processes, and customers are usually ignorant of programming. Therefore, a business analyst first of all listens to the customer’s wishes, and then sets a task for the technical specialists to solve the problem. The profession is suitable for communicative women with knowledge of IT and business.
• The modern world of information technology offers a huge amount of computer technology that only a specialist can understand. That is why even large companies ask for IT consulting. The specialist will help to make a strategy and transform business with the help of modern technologies, for example, to scale the database or to attract new clients. There is always a place in this field for women with an analytical mindset.
• A project manager is another important team member who helps set up team processes. This is the person who makes sure that all the work is done on time and that the customer gets what they want. The manager is responsible for the project plan, which specifies the amount of work, deadlines, budget, and necessary resources. To get a job as a project manager, you need to have knowledge in different fields: programming, web development, business processes, management.
• Marketer. Programmers and developers also need someone who will sell their products and services. Therefore, the IT field has a constant need for experienced marketers. Copywriters, SEO specialists, SMM specialists are needed to build the company’s sales funnel.
• Any girl can find a suitable profession for herself, and you can learn it not at university, but on courses online: it’s faster and more useful.

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