Why Women Need a Bigger Role in Federal IT Leadership

[Commentary] How good is a jury composed of only one type of person? No matter how nice and intelligent the people are, they probably won’t come to the best decision, says Monica Eaton-Cardone, the chief information officer of Global Risk Technologies. The same is true when it comes to IT decision-making, says Eaton-Cardone, who’s part of the exclusive club -- just 11 percent -- of the country's female CIOs “The thing is, they are coming to assess the situation and make a decision from very similar schools of thoughts,” Eaton-Cardone said.

Across the broader IT industry, the share of women in IT fields has been in decline since 1989. And the same general trend holds true for government. In 1992, almost 40 percent of full-time employees working in IT in executive branch agencies were women, according to an August 2014 OPM report on pay equality in the federal government. That fell to less than one-third by the end of 2012 -- and even less for women in upper-level and management positions, according to the OPM statistics.