Today, thankfully much has changed in the world of IT and no-one can be in any doubt about the importance of women in IT roles all across the board.
In fact, in many areas there is evidence women are now excelling.
For example, new research by Cal Poly, San Luis, Obispo and North Carolina State University computer science departments suggests women write better code than men.
The researchers analysed 1.4 million users of open source program-sharing service Github.
They found pull requests – or suggested code changes – made by women were more likely to be accepted.
But here’s the rub: this higher approval rating was only true if their gender was not identified.
In fact, the study found women’s acceptance rates were 71.8% when they used neutral profiles, but dropped to 62.5% when their gender was identifiable. There was a similar drop for men, but the effect was not so strong.
It’s a gender bias that might explain why the percentage of women employed as tech company engineers is still relatively low.
According to figures released last year, only 18% of Google’s tech staff are women and at Facebook this falls to 16%.
What the new coding study should do is inspire more girls than ever before to think about jobs in all sorts of IT careers.
Software developer roles, in particular, top many top job lists because big organisations are willing to handsomely reward talented engineers.
Of course, there are many more reasons for girls as well as boys to consider software roles, including job security and flexible working hours.
As a career choice it can never be stale or boring: as technology evolves there will always be a need to constantly learn, create fresh solutions and overcome new challenges.
And, unlike the dark ages, you’ll find no IT roles on s1jobs that involve working in a sweltering basement full of whirring machines.
As well as opportunities to work all over the world, there are roles that allow you to operate from the comfort of your own home.
There are, indeed, many career paths in IT and it matters not a jot whether your name is Sid or Sarah.
If anyone says otherwise, just remind them it was a woman, Ada Lovelace, who invented software in the first place!
Forge a new career in IT and Telecommunications with s1jobs
The post A new code for a brave new world appeared first on .