Benefits of Gender Diversity
It can be argued from an economical standpoint that for a country's IT industry to withstand competition from abroad, underrepresented groups like women must play a greater role.
It has also been claimed that there is a growing demand for IT workers with leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills to combat the general drop in worker retention and ineffective training. In particular, the cost of replacing a skilled technical employee has been estimated to be as high as 120% of the yearly salary of the position. Furthermore, over 50% of 900 IT leaders in the US who were surveyed in 2006 cited retention of skilled professionals as a primary concern. In addition, leaders with business and soft skills are sought after. Qualitative studies shows that many women in technology are interested in this combination of technical and non-technical work, hence they are potentially a good fit in these roles.
On a similar note, it has been argued that the inclusion of women in computing will mitigate innovation-hindering effects such as groupthink by preventing the group from becoming too homogenized. Gender diversity has been suggested to give benefits such as better decision making, increased creativity, and enhanced, innovative performances. Additionally, a gender diverse workforce will help businesses to better cater to their clients since their product and service offerings will reflect the varied interests of those who pay for these items.
The book Gender and Computers: Understanding the Digital Divide claims that the lack of participation of females in computing excludes them from the "new economy", which calls for sophisticated computer skills in exchange for high salary positions. A consequence from such exclusion will likely result in further social and gender inequality.
Read more about this topic: Women In Computing
Famous quotes containing the words benefits of, benefits, gender and/or diversity:
“It is too late in the century for women who have received the benefits of co-education in schools and colleges, and who bear their full share in the world’s work, not to care who make the laws, who expound and who administer them.”
—J. Ellen Foster (1840–1910)
“Unfortunately, we cannot rely solely on employers seeing that it is in their self-interest to change the workplace. Since the benefits of family-friendly policies are long-term, they may not be immediately visible or quantifiable; companies tend to look for success in the bottom line. On a deeper level, we are asking those in power to change the rules by which they themselves succeeded and with which they identify.”
—Anne C. Weisberg (20th century)
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)
“... city areas with flourishing diversity sprout strange and unpredictable uses and peculiar scenes. But this is not a drawback of diversity. This is the point ... of it.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)