The inaugural ‘Million Dollar Babes’ award has been announced, honouring six of the ICT industry’s most dynamic business women. The program recognises women in IT who run multimillion dollar technology businesses.
The winners were: Vanessa Brewis, CEO, Taurus Software; Liesel Capper, CEO, My Cyber Twin; Lisa Fletcher, CEO, b-Free; Raeleen Gillett, CEO, Octahedron; Julie Irwin, executive chairman, ADB Group; and Danielle Lehrer, CEO, GO Shout.
This program presents role models who are successful and creative innovators — something that that will be essential for the future of the ICT industry according to the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA):
“This is a welcome initiative that challenges the way we think about our workforce,” said CEO Sheryle Moon. “It is important that we do everything possible to address the stereotypes that are associated with our industry in order to attract and retain the best talent.”
One of those stereotypes is the IT worker as a ‘male geek working in a boring job’. This perception has little to do with the reality of people working in the technology sector.
“IT professionals reflect the dynamic community that they serve, and work in a wide range of challenging and high-risk roles,” said Ms Moon. “These stereotypes are misleading and dangerous to the future of our workforce.”
However, the proportion of women in the ICT workforce remains too low.
“Less than 15% of all ICT employees are women. And that number is falling, along with the number and percentage of women enrolling in ICT studies,” Ms Moon said.
The company’s special interest group, Females in Information Technology & Telecommunications (FITT), conducted research in 2006 which revealed that female professionals are leaving the ICT industry because the male-dominated environment, along with a lack of work–life balance, make the industry unattractive to women:
“We need to change the way that people think about our industry, and the way that our industry thinks about people,” said Ms Moon. “That means challenging community perceptions and listening to the needs of employees in the workplace.”
The company also runs SET Up for Success, a training initiative that provides women with the skills they need to succeed in today’s working environment, plan a successful ICT career and negotiate suitable work arrangements.
For further information, visit www.itmillion.com.
