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4 Reasons Why Big Data Needs More Women

September 8, 2016 No Comments

Featured article by Jeremy Sutter, Independent Technology Writer

Every day, the people of the world create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. That’s 2500 followed by another 15 zeros.

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This incredible flow of data – and the tools and techniques used to store, extract, transform, and determine patterns in it – are together what’s called “big data.” Big data keeps getting bigger — by 2.5 quintillion bytes every 24 hours, in fact. It’s rapidly changing the world for all of us.

Big Data is About Everything and Everyone

This data is largely the record of human lives. It’s the record of purchases, car trips, airline flights, and credit card payments. It’s the record of web searches, survey responses, criminal background checks, and insurance claims. It’s medical records, taxation, payroll, and vital statistics. This data is being collected on humans of every description. Half of these humans happen to be female.

Big data is enabling a new world based on trends once invisible which have become apparent through the collection and observation of this vast store of data. Ideas and stories are emerging that were undreamt-of only a few years ago. Potential applications of big data are limitless.

But to effectively extract meaning from this data, it would be best to have equal representation of women in all the career fields associated with Big Data. This is because Big Data isn’t only about men: It’s about everybody.

A Good Start, but Not There Yet

Fortunately, the percentage of database administrators who are female currently stands at 39%. Database administration has the greatest representation of women of all the IT fields. Unfortunately, females don’t constitute anything close to half – nor even 39% – of the technicians and leaders working in big data in its entirety. Outside of the realm of direct database administration, the percentage of women in the fields of data modeling and analysis, as well as business intelligence, is markedly lower.

Statistics from the National Center for Women in Technology paint a fuller picture of the real distribution throughout the fields that comprise big data:

– Though women account for 51% of all employed professionals in the US, they account for only 26% of employees in computing-related occupations

– Women comprise only 10% of software developers

– Only 7% of tech company founders are women

– Women hold only 11% of tech exec roles at privately-funded startups

– Successful startups have twice as many women in leadership roles than similar companies that fail.

More Representation from Women is Needed

To best utilize the constantly-growing collection of data for decision support and business intelligence, big data needs more women. Big Data needs women in the positions of analysts using business intelligence tools. It needs more women designing queries and modeling databases, deciding which fields are relevant, and how best to design a database to provide the greatest value and the soundest decisions. Women are often best able to discern patterns relevant in marketing to female customers, and to provide value to them as clients.

An Array of Growing, Lucrative Occupations

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the field of database administration is expected to grow 11% over the next eight years. That’s faster than the average for all other occupations. Median pay for database administration is currently over $39 per hour. Specialists in business intelligence and software development can earn far more, and their fields will grow at rates similar to those for DBA’s.

Now is the time for women to join this rapidly growing field – not only for their own career prospects, but for validity of big data. Those 2.5 quadrillion bytes are about all humankind: not just about men. It’s important for women to have equal reputation in the phenomenon that’s dramatically reshaping our world.

 

 

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