Recent articles by Ed Chabrow of CIO Insight's Parallax View, "Getting Women Back Into IT," and Ed Cone, "Where the Girls Aren't," rely on their analysis of government labor data and conclude that there has been an exodus of women out of IT. According to the two authors, the number of women in IT fell by 76,000 from 984,000 in 2000 to 908,000 in 2006. These numbers were drawn from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics for eight groups: managers, computer scientists/systems analysts, programmers, software engineers, support specialists, database administrators, network/computer systems administrators, and network systems/data communications analysts.

Hmmmm. These categories/numbers, however, do not account for women IT professionals who have transitioned into business analyst roles, for example. Nor do they account for the many women freelancers, like me, who juggle several consulting gigs at the same time but don't necessarily have IT titles. Moreover, the aforementioned eight categories are very button-down IT and don't account for the more amorphous IT roles. What about the whole spectrum of IT communications professionals such as technical writers, journalists, industry analysts, etc.? And, let's face it, the business people have gotten IT-savvier. That's why there are so many accounting and other business professionals attending the enterprise application conferences. They may not be hard-core, pocket-protector-wearing IT people, but a large part of what they do is IT.

OK. So that's my analysis of the IT categories determined by the august Bureau of Labor Statistics. So now let's explore the reasons women may be exiting IT and/or no longer wish to pursue a career in IT—if that is really the case.

Let's flash back a decade or so. It used to be "cool" for a woman to be an IT professional. In the immortal words of Dr. Evil, there was a certain "I don't know what," something that had cachet about it. Remember the lyrics of the old Helen Reddy song, "I am IT woman, hear me roar?" And there was a practical side to being a woman in IT: I recall attending conferences and symposiums when, during break time, the line to the men's room was around the block and women could sashay in and out of the ladies' room at their leisure. Try that at a librarian association conference.

But a lot has changed. The cachet has vanished. A lot of women have hit the proverbial glass ceiling, and many felt IT was far too demanding, thankless, and even demoralizing. About two years ago, I decided to make a mid-life career change. (OMG! I'm admitting to being middle-aged. Hey, 50 is the new 30, right?) I'm 48 and am currently a Master's candidate in a health advocacy program at Sarah Lawrence College.

Women (in IT) aren't really vanishing; they may just be re-inventing themselves. An undergraduate or graduate degree can open new doors and provide for a longer working career for women IT professionals. Healthcare IT is a burgeoning field, especially since the current administration has mandated electronic health records for the nation but has not provided any guidance on standards, interoperability, security, and compliance. I call this the "employment protection act" for IT professionals seeking new opportunities.

And IT by the book has lost its luster. Being pigeonholed into one of those eight categories will likely not ensure employment until 65—or later for many of us. Also, a lot of people still don't understand IT. They think a computer is a PC and IT "people" can get the laptop and the BARCO synchronized and working. "You're the IT person; can you fix it?" When did AV begin to equal IT? Anyone? I was attending a seminar recently on the research ethics of clinical drug trials and asked the physician who was presenting a question about how the data in the trial he was discussing was protected (i.e., what were the backup and recovery policies for the database as well as the security policies?). His response: "You must be the IT person?" Yeesh!

IT has also had a reputation, deservedly, as being inflexible for women, especially if they are/were on the "mommy track." And we really had to work a lot harder than men to be considered credible in the industry.

I like to think the old IT career paradigm is morphing into a new paradigm—one that is non-traditional and dynamic. IT pervades every aspect of the business—heck, it pervades every aspect of our lives. It may be too early for the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics to acknowledge and account for new IT job titles because of the blurring and blending of opportunities across the IT-business continuum. But they are there, and women are likely filling them. Find us if you can.

Maria A. DeGiglio is President of, and Principal Analyst for, Maria A. DeGiglio & Associates, an advisory firm that provides clients with accurate and actionable information on business and technology initiatives. You can reach Ms. DeGiglio at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..