Men outnumber women in IT by 4:1 and it is a growing problem. Currently women account for just 23 percent of the IT workforce.

However, despite Government investment in this area, there is still a growing skills shortage in IT and fewer and fewer women are choosing to study ICT past GCSE level. A report by the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee (BIS) has called on the Government to do more to tackle female under-representation in certain sectors of the economy.

Commenting on the report, Bill Walker, security analyst and technical director from QA said: “The report by BIS shows a worryingly low number of women in certain sectors of the economy, namely science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The data reflects the troublingly low number of women in the cyber security profession that we saw during 2012, with just 6.2 percent of the 2,500 people trained by QA in cyber security in being women. This figure is a third of the overall proportion of British women working in IT & Telecoms. “It’s unclear why women are so under-represented in such an important and fast-growing part of Britain’s IT economy. Various theories abound – from gender stereotyping to teaching the wrong kind of technology, such as office IT instead of more relevant computer science skills. “There are strong messages in the BIS report requiring the Government to take action. The shortage of women in the highlighted sectors of the economy must be tackled. It needs to be easier, more affordable and more appealing to women, in order for them to enter these vital segments of the economy.”