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IT women network their way to the top
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TUESDAY 14 October 1997
THE AUSTRALIAN Journalist. Philippa Yelland A NETWORKING group for women IT professionals has made its Sydney debut. The group, Women are IT (WIT), aims to encourage women to network their way to the top - just as men do. "Men have a fabulous network in any industry - the old boys' club or whatever you want to call it," said Jenny Barbour, Victorian manager of Netbridge People and one of three WIT conveners. "Women don't, and so they have to create their own network." |
The other two conveners are Madeleine Sanders, project control group manager at IBM Global Services, and Susan Coleman, lT columnist and editor of Coleman's Choice newsletter. The group began in Melbourne in February, after the three women had seen men networking. "We watched these men. They knew everything about each other even though they were competitors." Ms Barbour said. "It was so obvious they all tap into each other, even if they're in opposition firms"
Four meetings later, the Melbourne group had 350 women on its books. The first Sydney event - the result of requests from many Sydney-based women who had heard of the Melbourne group's activities - was a lunch last week. The speaker was Macquarie Bank's IT director, Gail Burke. It was a sellout, attracting an audience of chief information officers and other senior IT managers.
Ms Burke, arguably the IT user community's most senior woman, said her grandmother and mother, who both had careers, provided her with highly effective role models. Ms Burke said that persistence was the most important attribute for ambitious women. "I kept applying for roles until someone said ‘Yes'," she said. "Pick the firm rather than the job," she added.
WIT's Web site is at www.witwomen.org.au
- PHILIPPA YELLAND