Gender imbalance affects many industries in the world and more so in this part of the world. The IT field is a male dominant field worldwide. Well-developed countries invest hugely in measuring and fighting back gender imbalance in various fields, especially the field of IT. Such initiatives are globally backed up by governments, professional associations, institutions, civic society organizations, and research centers. This phenomenon, however, has never been studied in this country. We lack all sorts of information and knowledge on the gender balance of the IT workforce. This is where “women in IT” comes in as an initiative of CIDA, Center for Informatics and Data Analytics at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS).
Research and studies around the world have identified various reasons for this gender imbalance. These reasons include, but are not limited to, clear problems with gender diversity in the educational pipeline, recruiting and hiring, paying and promoting, and job retention or leaving their job in the first year because the workplace policies are not suited to women.