The next session was a talk entitled “IT is from Mars, Women from Venus” presented by Sarah Burnett, Executive Vice President and Distinguished Analyst at Everest Group, BCSWomen Chair and founder of AI Accelerator. Sarah began with an introduction of herself and her experience, then discussed the current state of the market, using the research of the BCS (“Inclusive IT – Gender” report 2019) and her work at Everest Group. She then expanded on some of the main issues – skills shortage, poor and costly product design, the perception of women that it’s hard to get a job in IT etc. She then gave a number of suggestions for IT/Tech managers to attract women to work in the sector. These included using less masculine and more neutral wording of job specifications and ads, promoting the flexible working opportunities in the sector and ensuring equal pay.
