Stanford University and the Anita Borg Institute, which funds research on the role of women at high-tech firms, released a report this week that shows a bias against hiring women where poor management and a “fly by the seat of your pants” work style prevails.
When you consider that work/life imbalance is frequently cited as the reason women aren’t welcome in many dev shops, this makes a lot of sense: because of mismanagement, projects get out of control, resulting in last-minute all-nighters that are difficult or impossible for people (men and women) who have family responsibilities.
This could also be the reason for the bias against older workers in IT shops and why unmarried IT professionals rarely advance to senior levels.
The Borg Institute also found that high-achieving women in tech consider themselves to be “assertive, collaborators, hard workers who work long hours, are unafraid to question, risk-takers and analytical in nature.”
These are attributes which tend to be valued in urban areas but not in exurban/rural areas, like Cape Cod. Thus, firms that need intellectual capital to survive have to locate in high-cost urban areas where risk-taking and assertiveness are consistent with the region’s cultural norms.
There seems to be consensus in the industry that mixed-gender teams produce software of higher quality.
Further, employers on Cape Cod have told me that they have trouble recruiting competent IT workers, and no doubt this is true of Southeastern Mass. and parts of Rhode Island as well. Whether for better or worse, this likely has less to do with salaries than with organizational values, priorities and management competence. It’s going to take a lot of effort to change these, but in the long run, for the health of our regional economy, that effort will be well worth it.