Kaspersky survey: Women in IT love their careers - so where is all the new talent?

According to a recent Bitkom study, the middle-ranking IT industry has created 20,000 additional jobs within a year. Nevertheless, employers continues to struggle in their search for new employees, and female applicants are especially rare. 

Although women in the world of IT professionals continue to be clearly underrepresented and the number of computer science students is declining, female IT professionals rate many facets of their work in the technology industry quite positively. More than half (52%) of the surveyed German participants in a recent study by Kaspersky describes their professional field of activity as "exciting".

This pretty picture is somewhat clouded, however, when examining the career level of female IT professionals who make it to interviews in comparison with men; additionally, most end up in middle management (54%) compared to a 24.4% male share. So where do men end up? In the senior management sector, 11.8% of men climb the ranks compared to 6.4% of women - moving on to the level of owners and partners, the figure for women bumps up to 9.2%, but still doesn't contend with their male counterpart's 20.8% success.

Classic key data, again, receives a high level of approval. For almost six out of ten study participants (59%), very good payment in the IT sector is an important criterion. In addition, 43% consider the ability to pursue a clearly defined and defined career path to be extremely positive. To be able to travel in the context of the professional practice was affirmed by 35% as a positive motive. Overall, 42% of female German IT experts described a career in the IT sector as "helpful" for their personal development and 49% in the industry as "inclusive."

"We want more and more dedicated and motivated women to pursue careers in IT, helping us make the world a safer place by bringing different experiences and perspectives to our business. Because a career in the cybersecurity industry does not just benefit women; the industry itself benefits enormously from a more diverse workforce," says Ilijana Vavan, Kaspersky's Managing Director of Europe. 

Careers in IT: Individual skills more important than gender

Only a few of the study participants see a connection between gender and professional advancement. Only 14% believe that their gender has an impact on their own career; 64% are of the opposite opinion. 71% of female IT professionals surveyed in Germany are convinced that whoever is good at their job will quickly advance on their career path. This is in line with the proportion of 82% of respondents who believe that their skills and experience have been de facto considered more important than their gender throughout their careers. 

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