Thinking outside the PMBOKs and other ways to encourage more women into IT project management
March 8th is International Women’s Day.
According to the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Annual Global Survey (2022), just one in five working in IT Project Management are women (20%). I remember initially recoiling at this figure when I first read it in the PMI’s The State of Women in Project Management (2023), BUT I’m the glass half full type and, this puts IT “mid-table” on the Women in Project Management league table. That gives me cause for hope.
Hope, but not joy, our industry needs to catch up with the likes of Financial Services (29%), Training / Education (37%) and Healthcare (41%). That is possible, Stoneseed’s PMO is run by women – leading the way again! Just saying.
In a more recent survey of 700 signatories, The Tech Talent Charter’s annual report Diversity in Tech (2024) reveals that women account for 21% of senior tech leadership roles, and while that’s down 1% from 2023, glass half full, I call that a hold, BUT the report also found that 1 in 3 women in tech are planning to leave their job, and that should be cause for concern and concerted action.
IS PROJECT MANAGEMENT MACHO?
I remember reading a piece, published over 20 years ago by the International Journal of Project Management, written by Pamela Buckle and Janice Thomas entitled “Deconstructing project management: a gender analysis of project management guidelines”.
It was a fascinating thought starter for a young Project Manager, and I recall these words vividly: “While the historical dominance of men in organisations is no longer the case, the dominance of masculinity in most workplaces remains.”
It struck a chord because, at the time, it wasn’t uncommon for project bosses to be intimidating, with zero (what we now call) emotional intelligence, leading teams built on fear. Some proper bullies had made it into leadership positions, and it seemed not to matter whether they were men or women. Indeed, it was as if they all had been subjected to a kind of isomorphic, learned behaviour or, in the manner of a sci-fi movie, their personalities and human traits had been replaced by a standard operating software – Proj-bots!!!
Isomorphism is the process that leads to individuals, in a given environment, thinking and behaving in hugely similar ways, regardless of their gender or background. In their article, Buckle and Thomas explore how our beliefs about what it means to be a project manager get internalised and become hard wired early in our careers, thanks to dominant voices like PMI, well respected publications, and the PM’s bible – Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).
In other words, female or male, we all model the characterisation of a project manager as prescribed by PMBOK, or successive PMs model the behaviours of their mentors – who model the characterisation of a project manager as prescribed by PMBOK.
The first edition of PMBOK was published in 1996, a time when project management had been characterised as a “macho profession” {A} and {B}. Things have changed since then, but have we?
Over the years, PMBOK iterations have been updated to cover evolutions in the profession, like the 2017 edition that included agile practices for the first time. As PMs rely more and more on EQ and similar soft skills, perhaps future editions could lean into aspects that would feel a natural fit for female applicants, thinking outside the PMBOKs might encourage more women into the industry!
It’s certainly works when advertising vacancies.
ADVERTISING A ROLE
Let’s be clear. You have to hire the best candidate for the position that you have, regardless of any other consideration. Moving the gender balance to 50/50 will be a shallow and short victory if all your IT projects fail.
That said, giving some measured thought to the wording of your job posts can attract a higher number of suitable candidates from all backgrounds. I have noticed this subtle evolution is occurring. The advert for the first job I applied for leant heavily into the technical aspects of the job (and I was the only female candidate there on the morning of the interviews). Job adverts that catch my eye now focus on skills like, collaborative leadership, attention to detail, emotional intelligence and great communication. (Wait till the boss reads that you look at job ads – Ed)
Great communication is a skill especially worth highlighting in job posts. Anecdotally, women consider themselves to be better communicators than men, I have the results that a New Insights Communication reader poll pinned to my wall – Are men or women better communicators? WOMEN: 41.18% | MEN: 29.41% | BOTH SAME: 29.41%.
In an article Women in IT: A Work Ecosystem Perspective, Alexei Tretiakov, Tanya Jurado and Jo Bensemann share a “thematic analysis of 46 interviews of women employed in IT roles in New Zealand”. Heather, a project manager, believes that “being a female in the IT industry, you have an advantage because you automatically have better communication skills…. I find that people are very respectful toward me.” Lesley, a business analyst, agrees “women tend to have better communication skills… able to maintain relationships.”
So, make “Great Communication Skills” a priority.
Also, candidates juggling child-care are drawn to “perks” like flexible and remote working. In many organisations, women’s career advancement slows around the mid-career stage, often due to challenges that returning to work after having a child can bring, resulting in fewer women achieving senior positions and remaining with their companies long-term – all that lost knowledge!! A number of organisations are benefiting from “returnships” and attracting talented project managers and business analysts back into the industry after welcoming a child into their family.
McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2024 reports that eight in ten employees say flexibility has improved over the past ten years, mainly due to the pandemic, and they report key returns like greater productivity and reduced burnout. Flexibility is especially important to women, who say they have “more focused time to work when working remotely”. So, highlight flexibility too!!
Lastly, be watchful of biases in hiring!
According to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2024 report, companies that are making the most progress in reducing bias in hiring and performance evaluations all excel at five key de-biasing practices: establishing clear hiring criteria before reviewing candidates; providing bias training for hirers and candidate evaluators; ensuring diverse pools of equally qualified candidates; setting clear performance review standards; and issuing reminders to minimise bias during evaluations.
The report reveals that only one in four companies surveyed have adopted all of these but those that have fully implemented these practices tend to see the most significant progress in promoting women.
LASTING CHANGE
This is not a “do it once and you’re done” situation. Organisations serious about harnessing the benefits of diversity of thought and execution are committed to lasting change. “DE&I isn’t about boosting numbers through quick fix solutions,” says Theresa Palmer, Global Head of DE&I at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence.
Writing for TechUK, in an article entitled “Plugging The Gender Diversity Gap To Ensure Lasting Change”, Theresa analysed the state of gender diversity within the tech industry adding, “Driving impactful, long-term transformation requires continues investment and a focus on three core elements: repeatability, sustainability and scalability.”
It’s a thought-provoking article!
A FINAL THOUGHT
Perhaps, when tackling the gender gap, we should use the same approach as any other project or business challenge – identify, solve, execute.
By actively involving stakeholders (other employees, etc) we can gain a thorough understanding of the problem in our organisations, and ensure the solution is effective and sustainable. To deliver powerful and lasting change, after implementation, we should continuously evaluate to drive ongoing momentum and improvement. That sounds like something the project management industry would be great at!
Finally, remember if you ever identify that you have a talent gap, of any kind, Stoneseed’s PMaaS (Project Management as a Service), BAaaS (Business Analysis as a Service) and PMOaaS (Project Management Office as a Service) have all the resources you need. Factor in Stoneseed’s Technical Advisory Service, providing support for CEOs and CIOs looking to deliver digital and infrastructure transformation, and a full end to end service is just a call away 01623 723910.
Happy International Women’s Day!
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Sources: (A) Project management: different gender, different culture? Leadership & Organizational Development Journal 1995;16(4):12–17. Cartwright S, Gale A. (B) Women in project management: entry into a male domain? A discussion on gender and organizational culture. Gale A, Cartwright S. (C) Reducing gender biases in modern workplaces: A small wins approach to organizational change, Gender & Society, December 2017, Volume 31, Number 6. Shelley J. Correll (D) Why most performance evaluations are biased, and how to fix them?” Harvard Business Review, January 11, 2019. Lori Nishiura Mackenz 6, JoAnne Wehner, and Shelley J. Correll.
www.pmi.org/learning/library/women-project-managers-gender-gap-11156 www.pmi.org/learning/thought-leadership/women-in-project-management-2023 www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08874417.2024.2346766 www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026378630200114X www.techtalentcharter.co.uk/reports/diversity-in-tech-report-2024/ www.drogrady.com/198/new-insights-communication-poll-are-men-or-women-better-communicators/
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