News Release

Number of Female Networking Engineers in Western Europe Set to Double by 2004 Says Latest Cisco - IDC Survey

But the research suggests they will still be massively under-represented in the networking profession despite a major skills shortage
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Nov 26, 2001

LONDON, UK, November 26, 2001 - Almost 94,000 women in Western Europe will be working as Internet networking engineers by 2004, but they will still only represent 7.3% of the industry. These are the findings of IDC in its latest research carried out for Cisco Systems.

In the first-ever calculation of the number of women who make Internet systems work, the study reveals that at the end of 2000, 5.6% of networking engineers were female. While the number of women in the industry will double in absolute numbers within five years, so will the number of men.

This will not be enough to offset the networking skills shortage, which is expected to exceed 500,000 in Western Europe by 2004. Despite the current economic slowdown, the rapid assimilation of networking technology by organisations in the past few years is driving the demand for the skills required to install, maintain and operate this technology.

According to IDC, one way to help offset this shortage is to encourage more women to enter the profession. But their research suggests that women are turning away from careers in the Internet networking industry because of its "nerdy" image, a lack of strong female role models and a perception that women are less able to undertake technical tasks than men.

On a country-by-country breakdown, France will have the highest percentage of women in the networking industry, with participation rates expected to be over 12%. This is followed by Spain, Finland, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Norway.

The research concludes that the key to ensuring a future pipeline of skilled women is through education and that government and industry must work together to encourage females to consider networking as a career.

Mike Couzens, Managing Director of Communications and Training, Cisco EMEA said: "The networking skills shortage is not going away, despite the recent economic downturn. A major increase in the number of women in the profession would help offset this potential crisis. It's a shame networking still suffers from an image problem and there is still a perception that networking is 'too technical' for women. At Cisco, we know female networking engineers are as capable and talented as their male counterparts. And there is strong commitment at an EU level to address the gender imbalance in the ICT profession."

Cisco Systems is one of a number of information, communications and technology (ICT) companies working with the public sector to help address the shortage of skilled professionals. It currently gives a 280-hour curriculum on networking free of charge to more than 2,000 education establishments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Report co-author Marianne Kolding said : "While the whole IT industry suffers from low female participation rates, it was surprising just how few women see networking as a suitable profession. But women who do enter the networking industry say it is well rewarded with opportunities for fast career progression. Our research shows that the focus for attracting more women to networking should not only be at the education level but also the retention of women already in the profession. The more role models there are, the more it will encourage other women to choose Internet Networking as a career."

Figure 1, Female participation rates in the Networking Labour Market (% of networking professionals, by country, 2001-2004

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Austria 4.1 4.3 4.4 4.6 4.7
Belgium 7.0 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.8
Denmark 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8
Finland 5.9 6.7 7.4 8.2 8.9
France 8.0 9.1 10.2 11.3 12.4
Germany 5.0 5.3 5.5 5.8 6.0
Italy 4.9 5.2 5.5 5.8 6.1
Netherlands 5.0 5.3 5.6 5.9 6.2
Norway 4.8 5.5 6.1 6.7 7.4
Spain 6.6 7.2 7.8 8.4 9.0
Sweden 5.3 5.7 6.1 6.5 6.9
Switzerland 4.8 4.9 5.1 5.2 5.4
UK 6.1 6.5 6.9 7.3 7.7
Total 5.6 6.0 6.4 6.8 7.3

Source: IDC, 2001

About IDC

IDC is the foremost global market intelligence and advisory firm helping clients gain insight into technology and ebusiness trends to develop sound business strategies. Using a combination of rigorous primary research, in-depth analysis, and client interaction, IDC forecasts worldwide markets and trends to deliver dependable service and client advice. More than 700 analysts in 43 countries provide global research with local content. IDC's customers comprise the world's leading IT suppliers, IT organizations, ebusiness companies, and the financial community. Additional information can be found at emea.idc.com.

IDC is a division of IDG, the world's leading IT media, research and exposition company.

Notes to Editors:

1. Methodology

Women networking professionals are defined as women who, as part of their job, engage in one or more of the following activities:

  • Planning and designing Internet networking infrastructures
  • Implementing networking products and infrastructures
  • Supporting networking products and infrastructure
  • Managing networking products and infrastructure
  • Training others to carry out one or more of the above activities

IDC interviewed over 400 recruiters in 13 countries across Western Europe. The countries included in the study are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The respondents came from a mix of ICT suppliers, ICT recruitment agencies and ICT dependent organisations. Part of the survey was to ascertain the proportions of female networking professionals in the labour market of the selected countries. IDC then applied these proportions to existing IDC data, which relate to the supply of networking professionals in Western European countries. Secondary information was then used to validate these findings.

2. Please call the numbers at the top of the press release if you would like to visit a school or college with female students taking the Cisco Networking Academy Program, or if you would like to receive a copy of the report.