GIRLS ARE AS CURIOUS AS BOYS

Interview with Evelyn Riha, Distinguished Senior Systems Engineer, NTS Innsbruck

Evelyn Riha has never found herself in traditional gender roles. No matter if she was the first girl at school in the handicraft class for boys or later, when she was one of the first women that passed her final apprenticeship examination to become an IT technician. The Tyrolean, who works today as a Distinguished Senior Systems Engineer at NTS at the Innsbruck location, tells us in an interview about how she oriented herself in the IT industry and how you can inspire young women to follow suit.

NTS: How did you end up in IT?

Evelyn Riha: Actually, I was always interested in computers. What I enjoy about IT is that the problems are clear and that you can solve them just like riddles. Of course, I was a little bit skeptical at the beginning as IT was introduced to us at school as a male profession. Unfortunately, you still encounter few women in technology, though there are already more today than back then. However, my initial doubts about not being taken seriously because I am a woman or that my expertise would be questioned because of that, has actually never been confirmed.

What advice would you like to give young women that plan to go into IT?

I would definitely encourage them. The IT in dustry is so diverse. People underestimate how important the social component is in this job. You do not just sit behind a PC, you also have to interact a lot with people. So, my advice to all girls who are wondering how to approach the whole issue: go to all kinds of meetings and conferences, network with people in the in dustry and exchange ideas. And the most im portant thing: be courageous, dare to do some thing and have the nerve to brave the gaps, because naturally, you cannot always know everything.

What has to be done that more women opt for a job in IT?

This starts with education and then again during the job orientation. Here, both are very often interpreted in a very traditional way. They told me at that time: “You are a woman, so you will for sure have a social streak and you should go into the care sector, for example.” Other proposals were to become a florist or a hairdresser. But all that never interested me. Girls are as curious as boys, even when we talk about technical things. This simply needs to be better communicated at school and during later education.

You have to take away girls’ fear of this unknown. In reality, IT is not as scary as some may believe. It would be important to give them the opportunity to gain insight into the field and to explain what really is relevant. And that is definitely not gender.

In what way do IT businesses profit from a higher proportion of women?

I think that women have different approaches to challenges and to solve problems and they offer different prospects. The IT industry is becoming more and more diverse, just like the  products that result from it. The more different views exist, the more robust the solutions become. At the end of the day, you get more from technology and you can better make use of the possibilities.