A Gender-Based Look at Storage

It's no news-flash that there's a gender gap in storage networking -- or the rest of IT, for that matter. The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) reports that women held 26 percent of professional IT-related occupations in the American workforce in 2006, even though 51 percent of professional occupations in the U.S. were held by women that year.

We're all familiar with the theories about why women aren't attracted to IT: the hours, the glass ceiling, etc. At the same time, though, the reality is that, as more IT jobs open up, and more women are available to fill them, we're likely to see those figures change.

This process can be gauged through the stories of women who've "made it" in IT, particularly in storage networking and fields directly related to it. Their experiences testify to the broader appeal storage has for qualified computer scientists and engineers, who just a decade ago might have viewed storage networking as merely a sideline to the really exciting work of IT.

Indeed, we at Byte and Switch think the track record of successful women in storage reveals the process of change in the storage industry itself, from behind the scenes to center stage of data access and management.

Our feature article on "Top Women In Storage," published today, focuses on the careers of six women whose careers reflect this process of change. We think they stand as examples not only to other women but to the industry at large.So enjoy the article. And as ever, let us know what you think. If you believe we've missed someone, we'll follow up and profile deserving candidates in future articles. Phone us, write to us anytime here, or hit that message board below.