The Hindu Business Line : Ratio of women in IT services rising steadily

Belying the trend in developed markets such as the US, the proportion of women in the Indian IT services workforce (excluding ITES/BPO) is rising steadily, and may touch 30 per cent this year compared to 24 per cent in 2004.

"We are definitely seeing an increase in the ratio of women in the Indian software services industry. In 2004, the proportion of male versus female workers in IT services was 76:24, while in contrast, in the BPO industry, the ratio stood at 31:69. Based on our interaction with various IT companies, we estimate the ratio this year would stand at about 70:30 in IT software services," Mr Kiran Karnik, President of Nasscom, said.

This assumes significance as software services are perceived by many as higher-end work in the overall IT basket, requiring cutting-edge skills. Hence, the increasing ratio of women in such a segment indicates that more and more women are entering professional streams such as engineering, B. Tech and Masters in Computer Applications, an industry analyst pointed out.

Take the case of Wipro Technologies. The company saw the ratio of women workers (excluding BPO) rise to 21.22 per cent as on April 2005, compared to 18.75 per cent as on April 2004. According to Mr D.K. Srivastava, Vice-President (Corporate HR), HCL Technologies, the company expects its women workers to exceed 20 per cent of the software services workforce in the financial year ended June 2005, against 18 per cent in the previous year. "Overall, women with domain expertise in verticals such as banking and hospitality are acquiring software skills and entering the IT space. We expect the ratio of women professionals in HCL Technologies to further rise by a few percentage points in 2005-06."

"There was a time when marriage meant the end of career for women, but now you see less women dropping out," said Mr Karnik.

In contrast to the Indian scenario, a recent study by the Information Technology Association of America has revealed that the percentage of women in the US IT workforce has declined by 18.5 per cent since 1996, from a high of 41 per cent in 1996 and 32.4 per cent in 2004. "Employers hired men at a higher rate than women between 2003 and 2004... The declining representation of women is largely due to the fact that one out of every three women in the IT workforce fall into administrative job categories that have experienced significant overall declines in recent years," the study said.

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