Reprogramming gender ratios in Malaysia's IT

PIKOM's latest report confirms ICT ranks among the five highest paying industries in the past half-decade and salaries have increased about 8 percent annually.

"Technology will continue evolving, bringing an abundance of opportunities for ICT professionals," Woon says.

"Households are fast embracing digital lifestyles. The women being the homemakers will be an important bridge toward such adoptions."

Taylor's University School of Computing dean Banumathy Devi says: "Males still dominate most high-value and income jobs in the sector."

This is something she believes should change.

"Research conducted for a study in both developed and developing countries found classic cases of vertical gender segregation, with women more strongly represented in lower-level computer science occupations than in higher-status and higher-paid arenas," she says.

"There is definitely a shortage of women pursuing careers in computer science. This is an issue we have tracked within the university for several years."

Only 15 percent of her school's computer science majors are women, but that's an increase from previous years.

"A substantial part of (Taylor's) teaching faculty is women, including the dean," she says.

Much effort has been made to eliminate the "geek" image and to "de-masculinize" the field, Banumathy says.

"Whenever female students generally think of computer scientists, they think of geeks - pocket protectors, isolated cubicles and a lifetime of staring into a screen writing computer code. The geek mythology persists among the younger generation - that to be successful you must eat-sleep-breathe code and nothing else.

"We have organized campaigns for high school students to see programming for what it truly is - a social endeavor that is part programming but also a group collaborative effort to design something amazing."

Computer science has intellectual depth and connections to other disciplines, she says.

"We need more efforts to make the computing field appear more gender neutral and attractive, from introducing role models to showcasing successful women in computer science."