Anna Frazzetto, Senior Vice President of Technology Solutions, Harvey Nash USA said that “There’s an overall skill set shortage in U.S., across men and women, as far as the IT space” in addition she also said that this has become even more evident and pronounced among women, creating a growing underrepresentation problem for women in technology.

But this does not mean that women haven’t made it to the top or haven’t reached senior levels at several top tech companies- Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg is one such good example but it is quite ironical that Facebook still has no women on its executive board.

So what is the reason for the dearth of women in technology?

According to a White House report there are two factors responsible for this

1.  Women are comparatively lesser in number when it comes to studying STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields in college.

2.  Moreover, many women who go ahead and graduate in STEM filed do not pursue career in the same filed as compared to men

3. The very fact that women are currently absent from the top positions at IT departments makes it harder to attract women to these roles thereby perpetuating the lack of female representation.

4.  The “preconceived notion” of having priorities such as starting a family, inflexible work hour timings is a big plague among women.

“Less and less women are attracted into that space so you wind up creating a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Anna Frazetto, senior vice president of international technology solutions at Harvey Nash USA, told Reuters. “It’s not a very welcoming arena to be in.”