Women in ICT - Retain and Sustain: An Overview of the ACS-W Survey

Many attempts have been made to retain women in the ICT industry but a high level of attrition persists. A perceived lack of data about the actual needs, experiences and challenges of women in the Australian sector prompted the Australian Computer Society's Women's Board (ACS-W) to undertake a survey of all female members of the ACS. This paper gives a brief summary of the literature, an outline of the methodology and an overview of the results of the survey highlighting the primary concerns of respondents: remuneration; the male dominated working culture; and work-life balance. An overview is also given of some specific issues from some cohorts that emerged from the data, in particular, older women, non-Australian citizens, the unemployed and rural women. The paper summarise "what women want" on the basis of the survey results and concludes with some suggestions on how some of these issues can be addressed. � 2009 Bandias & Warne.