Joining the information and communication technology (ICT) industry in 1981 was not a calculated choice. A single parent with a 3-year-old to support, I needed a secure job to pay the bills.

When I was offered a position with IBM, my family and some of my friends could not believe that I would even contemplate accepting it. Their comments were: ‘you’ll never be successful in computing’, ‘you’re no good at maths or science’ and ‘you’re better with people than you’ll be with computers’.

Hang on, I thought. My Higher School Certificate shows that I passed maths and science at the highest levels. I did economics and econometrics at university and passed. I can be successful. I took the job.

Little did I know that the ICT industry would provide me with such a dynamic, challenging and fulfilling career.

During my 26 years in the industry, I have travelled all over the world with my work. I have managed companies with revenue in the many hundreds of millions of dollars. I have also learned that the ICT industry is as much about people and solving their problems as it is about hardware and software.

My story is not unique. I’m sure I’m in the company of an audience of women who have enjoyed satisfying and stimulating careers in the ICT industry. And yet, statistics tell us that the number of women in the ICT industry is falling rapidly.

During the period from 2001 to 2004, women's participation in the Australian ICT industry declined by 7.6 per cent, despite the industry growing as a whole. The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that 23.6 per cent of employees in the ICT industry were women in 2001. By 2004, the percentage of female employees had fallen to 16 per cent.

Today, it stands at around 18 per cent. And this 18 per cent of females employed in the ICT industry represents only 1 per cent of total employed women in the population.

And here’s more food for thought. AIIA’s counterpart in Britain, IntellectUK, released a study last year which revealed that many women professionals are leaving the IT industry because the male-dominated environment and a lack of work-life balance made the industry unattractive to women.

For many women surveyed, the male-dominated culture went hand-in-hand with a ‘glass ceiling’, and they felt they had to work harder than male colleagues to achieve success. The ‘old boys club’ approach in some parts of the industry - with its informal male networking – also contributed to the perceived or real exclusion of women from many job opportunities in ICT.

So, we have female professionals abandoning the ICT industry because it is not providing them with the career challenges and work-life balance they are looking for. Simultaneously, the numbers of young women studying IT is also shrinking.

In 1996 the percentage of women enrolled in IT courses was 36 per cent, falling to 30 per cent in 2001 and declining even further to 22.6 per cent in 2003 – that’s 13.4 per cent in seven years.

And the outlook is grim. A survey of Year 12 students, conducted by Multimedia Victoria in 2004, revealed that only 3 per cent of the girls surveyed showed a strong interest in pursuing ICT as a career.

We know that many young women are turned off careers in ICT because they believe ‘it’s for computer nerds’, or ‘it’s for blokes’ or ‘it’s boring, you just sit in front of a computer screen all day’.

And yet, when they are asked what they are looking for in a career, young women say they are looking for fun, variety, security, interaction with others, helping others, financial reward, expressing their creativity and the opportunity to travel.

It sounds like they are describing our industry!

So, what can we do to make the ICT industry more attractive to young women entering the workforce and more flexible for women already in an ICT career?

Governments, industry associations, companies and professionals must work together. We each have a vital role to play in improving our industry’s image and attracting more women into the industry.

Companies small and large must plug the hole in the leaky bucket now, and retain the women who will act as tomorrow’s role models. They must foster the careers of talented women when they enter the profession and support these women at all stages in their careers and lives.

Companies in our industry must maximise the benefits of the technology they helped to create by offering women flexible working arrangements. The ABS tells us that just under a quarter of all Australians now do some work from home – this must increase if we are to capitalise on the skills of women who want to juggle career and motherhood.

Our sector must also foster a culture that ensures women feel valued and that recognises some of the ‘softer’ management skills that many women possess. Talented female professionals need access to business mentoring and networking opportunities to help their careers progress.

Governments and industry associations like AIIA must help women understand that a career in ICT is a career full of challenges and rewards and can be pursued within practically any sector they care to choose. From fashion to fitness, from art to architecture – ICT skills translate to virtually every industry across our economy.

Australia’s ICT industry is dynamic and world leading, but it won’t stay that way if we continue to lose valuable skilled women professionals from the sector. We must take action to ensure that we are doing all that we can to recruit, motivate and retain women within our industry.

Today, the Australian Government has announced a grant of $70 000 which will support a new training initiative, led by AIIA and supported by the Australian Computer Society. This training will provide female ICT professionals and their employers with the knowledge and skills to address barriers that limit women’s ability to progress in the ICT sector.

Engaging more women in the ICT industry is not just about helping bottom line profits. It’s not just about maximising women’s contribution to the labour force and to Australia’s productivity.

Being a part of the ICT industry enables women to influence technological innovation – everything from traffic and transport to communication and construction – across the entire spectrum of our society. And in return, it ensures that our society has a wider skill set to draw upon and benefits from the intellects and technological talents and experiences of all its members, not just 50 per cent of the population.