Page 7 - BusinessWest January 10, 2022

after school or at home, where it’s boys gaming and building robots. Girls don’t get to experience that as much.”
That reality has no doubt contributed to a wide gender dis- parity in the IT world. According to data from the National Cen- ter for Women & Information Technology, women make up 47% of all employed adults in the U.S., but hold only 25% of com- puting roles. It’s more dire for minority women; of the 25% of women working in technology, Asian women make up just 5% of that number, while black and Hispanic women account for 3% and 1%, respectively.
Beryl Hoffman says one key to closing the gender gap in IT is introducing girls to computers at much earlier ages.
“It’s mostly societal expectations and stereotypes,” Hoff- man said. “I do believe we need to start introducing people, especially young girls, to computer science and technology when they’re young. That’s happening more and more — I’m seeing more computer science even in elementary schools. It will change; it’s just slow. But I have been seeing slight improve- ments every year.”
“It’s always been this predominantly male industry, and it’s something that’s taken women a little while to get into. There’s almost a stigma around it, that it’s this geeky industry, it’s the gamers that get into it, but people aren’t seeing there’s so much more to it.”
Hilary LeBrun didn’t start out in computer science, and she certainly never thought she’d eventually be COO of Paragus IT when she was working in the hotel industry.
“I was up for a change — I wanted to work in a more family- friendly industry, and the hotel industry isn’t family-friendly. I also wanted to work for a growing company with a good cul- ture that was doing something important. And I found it in Paragus.”
She started as an assistant to CEO Delcie Bean and was
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