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February 28, 2000

Women At Work
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Statistics show women are making progress penetrating IT departments. Beverly Lieberman, president of IT executive search firm Halbrecht Lieberman Associates, says women make up 40% to 50% of internal IT shop staffs. The numbers are the same among project and program leaders.

Services firms have traditionally had a particularly difficult time retaining women, Lieberman says, because of their intensive travel demands. In response, some services firms, such as Plaut Consulting Inc. in Boston, have programs that let consultants tackle more client work remotely from the consultant's home city.

"Technology itself is a tool for work flexibility," says Lotus CIO Chris Counoyer, who uses Lotus Notes to stay in touch with her employees and to finish work in the evening after her two children go to bed. Lotus programs such as job-sharing also help women in IT jobs juggle careers and family, says VP of human resources Chris Ciotti. Lotus lets two employees divide the work of one position, as long as the two put in a total of at least 40 hours per week.

But as women move up the IT ranks, taking advantage of flex-time programs gets more difficult. "Once any person, man or woman, has reached the executive level, it becomes impossible for them to leave the office at 5 or 6 every day to pick up the kids," Lieberman says. "As women have escalated to CIO, they've had to adapt to male executive standards."

Lieberman says that as women reach upper-management and executive levels in IT, "you'll find that many have live-in nannies or stay-at-home spouses." That's the case for Avon's Edelman. Her husband was an Avon executive until about four years ago, when he became a full-time parent to their 8-year-old daughter.

GE's Morrison travels about 60% of the time--and says she has missed some important events with her two children, who are now teen-agers. Morrison's husband, who's in sales, also travels quite a bit, so the couple depends a great deal on friends. But Morrison refuses to keep a notebook PC at home. "When I'm at home, I'm focusing on my family," she says.

Chris Counoyer Photo by Tsar Fedorsky Other female managers also make concessions. Nancy Martin, manager of GE's internal IT lab, says that while she and her husband care for their two children, ages 7 and 3, "we've talked about who's career comes first--and it's mine." When Martin was hired for her current position at GE 2-1/2 weeks before giving birth to her second child, she was the first woman to fill the role. "I felt I was under a microscope," she says. "I told my boss he could call me even if I was in labor or delivery."

Perhaps the best news for women in IT is this: While companies are desperately seeking IT talent, the compensation offers they're making to female candidates are nearly equal to the ones made to men. "It's not perfect, but it's closer than ever," Lieberman says. "I'd estimate that in IT, women earn about 92 cents for every dollar made by men."

An InformationWeek Research online survey in June 1999 indicated that the average male IT nonmanagement staffer earned $55,000, while his female counterpart earned $49,000. In IT management, there was still a gap of about $5,000--men earned $72,000, while women earned $67,000. However, many more men than women responded to the survey: 21,218 vs. 2,800. Says Lieberman, "When it comes to placing women in high-level positions like CIO, there's no difference in the perks and terms offered."

Some companies, including GE and Lotus, do regular benchmarking to ensure that salaries are competitive and balanced. Lotus analyzes its salary data annually for discrepancies related to diversity, gender, and race, says compensation and recruitment director Liz Spada. If one person is making less than another for the same job, the company checks to see why, then raises the lower salary if appropriate.

Lieberman says that while the gap is narrower between women's and men's compensation in IT compared with other professions, an IT-salary spread exists because women made different demands than men. "Some women came into IT jobs and asked for increased flexibility and lifestyle benefits--arrangements that left them earning less than their male counterparts," she says. While companies such as Avon, Charles Schwab, Cigna, and Lotus offer flex programs in which employees working reduced hours receive pro-rated pay based on full-time salaries, companies without formal policies often penalize workers who opt for increased flexibility.

Nonetheless, many women who have taken advantage of flex-time schedules say they doubt the programs will have a dramatic impact on career advancement. Lotus' Lanich managed a staff of 50 before the birth of her twins and her two-year part-time stint, during which she opted out of management duties. Now that she's back to full-time work, she's managing 20 high-level IT staffers.

As a leader in the GE Women's Network, Morrison is involved in GE's recruiting efforts aimed at university women. She and her staff participate in campus recruiting at East Coast schools so female students can "see that we have female role models," she says. "If you can create a work environment that's supportive of women, demonstrate role models, and show your efforts to promote, you can attract them."

Lieberman agrees. "There's such a demand for talent that there are tremendous opportunities for women with diverse backgrounds," she says. "You can be a systems analyst, and you don't need to be a geek."

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