The Women in IT task group has put forward a number of recommendations to IT Operational Management Team (ITOMT) which aim to address the issues around gender diversity in IT Services
Gender diversity in IT remains a problem and women generally find themselves underrepresented within the industry as a whole. Concerns around this issue have been raised within IT Services which prompted the creation of the Women in IT (WIT) task and finish group.
WIT is made up of representatives from across IT Services and is informed by both male and female perspectives. The aim of the group is to discuss the issue of gender imbalance within the IT sector in general and how we can tackle this within IT Services. Whilst the primary focus of WIT remains the issue of gender imbalance, recommendations from the group will also be used to tackle other cultural and diversity issues within the department.
Over the summer, the group met several times and have produced a number of recommendations which have been passed to ITOMT for consideration. Some of the recommendations have been informed by feedback from an online survey which was sent to all IT Services staff. Engagement with the survey was very good with 92 overall responses or 42% of all IT Services staff, and the information received from the survey has helped gain a better understanding of the issues around gender imbalance in IT Services.
The recommendations set out by WIT centre on recruitment, culture, career development and equal pay. Next steps are for members of WIT to meet with Rob Arnold to draw up an action plan to take the recommendations forward. This will be reviewed and signed off in December’s ITOMT and more details will be communicated in the future once it has been agreed.