Yes Hatt, we are far from satisfied!

Gender equality Education and training

The industry was slammed by IT Minister Anna-Karin Hatt at a gender equality conference this week. According to the minister, we have 20% women on the industry's boards and only 10% in the industry's management teams, and she saw this as a serious problem for the industry's future competitiveness.

Yes, we are far from satisfied! Of course we wish that there were 50% female students in the IT and civil engineering programs relevant to the industry, instead of about 20% as it is today. Of course we wish that the proportion of women employed in the industry was 50% instead of the approximately 30% that it is today. I don't even want to think about what proportion of female entrepreneurs we have in the IT sector. And the Minister's figure for the proportion of women in management teams is depressing. According to our statistics, the proportion of female managers in the industry is just under 30%, and the fact that the proportion of women in management teams is only 10% is of course not ok.

But we work long-term and across the industry with the leadership development and mentoring program Womentor as a tool to highlight and give female leaders development in our industry. A tool for more women to get and take the opportunity to step on and continue leadership careers in the industry, into the management teams and with experience also into the boardrooms. So far, almost 50 companies have participated with 220 leaders in the program. And the fifth round of the program, with 26 companies and 34 mentees and mentors, will start in January.

Companies participating in Womentor are very active in setting goals and plans to increase the proportion of women. The girls who take part in the program become role models for others and develop a strong network of their own in the industry. And there are many other good initiatives, from individual companies' girl meetings to Datatjejer.se and IDG's It-tjej with meetings and bloggers.

But of course much more can be done. We in the industry should get out more into schools throughout Sweden and tell them what fun jobs are available, for both boys and girls. And as role models, reflect that it is a good industry for everyone to work in. A good, simple and concrete way is to contact Transfer for a lecture and thus meet and inspire high school students to a future in IT.