Women in Computing - Benefits of Gender Diversity

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.