CompTIA creates council to address decline of women in IT

To address a rapidly dwindling number of women in IT, the CompTIA Educational Foundation last week created the Women in Information Technology Council and charged it with convincing those with the right knowledge and skills to make IT their career of choice.

Only 25 per cent of U.S. IT professionals in 2009 were women, down from 36 per cent in 1991, according to the National Center for Women & IT. Further, only 18 per cent of computer and information sciences degrees in 2008 were awarded to women, down from 37 per cent in 1985.

Susan Krautbauer, head of business development for the Americas at Elcoteq, an electronics manufacturing services company, was elected as chair of the new council. Jean Mork Bredeson, general manager of Service 800, was elected vice-chair.

Charles Eaton, executive director of the CompTIA Educational Foundation in Downer's Grove, Ill., said in a statement that with the leadership of Krautbauer and Bredeson, "we hope to reach more women and show them the career possibilities that IT training can bring."

Krautbauer has 20 years of experience in IT and logistics, while Bredeson in the 1980s founded Service 800, which provides service quality and customer satisfaction measurements.

CompTIA runs a free training and IT certification program for women called Creating Futures.

Details on the new council are available at the CompTIA Web site .

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen, or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

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