Women Closed Out of IT Industry

Women are being systemically closed out of the IT and web development industries in Australia, and the jobs that they are able to obtain are the lowest paying ones, according to figures from a leading software training provider.

Dynamic Web Training recently released data showing that men dominate most of the IT career paths available in Australia.

The figures showed that men held an average of 72 per cent of IT and web development jobs.

They also showed that in the highest paying fields, men held most of the jobs, while the only field dominated by women was one of the lowest paying.

The average salary for an IT Manager in 2016 is $90,447, with experienced people making up to $162,000 for that role.

Men hold 92 per cent of IT Manager positions in Australia, according to the data.

In contrast, women hold 62 per cent of desktop publisher positions, for which the average salary is $50,868 and the most experienced people can expect to make around $81,000.

In releasing the data, Dynamic Web Training said there were several key reasons that women were significantly underemployed and underpaid in the IT and web development industries.

“We can also see the ratio of males to females for different jobs, most of which are still dominated by men,” Dynamic Web Training said.

“Previous research has shown that lack of flexibility, long hours and unconscious bias from already male­ dominated teams are all contributing factors to the lack of females being driven to these roles.”

The company said there had been an increase in demand for people working in the fields.

“As some of the fastest growing and most in­ demand professions in the digital age, IT and web development have seen a spike in salaries over the last few years,” it said.

“This can largely be put down to the growth of online purchasing and mobile device usage.”