Information technology offers many opportunities for women

As director of information systems at McAfee & Taft, Liz Groom was never prouder than when she successfully led the transfer of the Oklahoma City law firm from a mainframe operating system with WordPerfect applications to a PC (personal computer)-based system using Microsoft Word.

From planning to cutover, it was 18 months of long, hard work.

Her worst moment? When the "I Love You” virus in 2000 shut down the e-mail of the firm's 260 users for 28 hours.

"I felt like I was in a fish bowl with employees' noses pressed against the glass, waiting for the system to come back up,” Groom said.

Since the days of gigantic computers, information technology has been the land of opportunity — for men. Largely because of false stereotypes that women aren't interested in or good at technical work, they have been underrepresented in the field.

Today, industry observers encourage women to explore IT jobs, which are integrated within organizations across all industries and increasing at more than twice the rate of total new jobs. According to estimates of the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, more than 1 million computer and information-related jobs are expected to be added to the U.S. work force by 2014, an increase of 40 percent to 56 percent since 2004.

"Human resource managers are seeking out and hiring women IT managers by the dozens and they reference the kinds of skills generally associated with women as being a priority for business,” said Warren Kuehner, director of the Information Technology Studies Program at the Women's College of the University of Denver.

"Despite the stereotypes, the computer field isn't a bunch of techno geeks working alone in a corner in some cubicle,” Kuehner said. "The fact is that the industry needs more than just technical skills. They need people who are strong leaders with solid communications, organization and team-building skills. Women are intuitive and creative and often come to the table with this exact skill set and are well-equipped to manage projects.”

According to the state Employment Security Commission, women comprise 1,624 of the 4,196 workers in computer and mathematics occupations in Oklahoma. The mean annual wage is $52,090.

Groom earned a bachelor's degree in information technology from the University of Central Oklahoma in 1989. She'd planned to be a certified public accountant, but soon switched to IT, after she kept books for a computer company.

"I like the fast pace, and figuring out how to make things work,” she said. "You're constantly learning something. It's rarely boring.”

Groom started as a coder or programmer, doing application development for AT&T, but soon jumped at consulting work because she missed the people interaction. In general, she sees more men in the hardware/operating system side of the field and more women in consulting and management. In her professional organization, the International Legal Technical Association, men still outnumber women, but leaders tend to be women, she said.

"You've got to be able to interpret and listen to people, understand their goals and the goals of the organization