Vietnam women in software development

Vietnam software development skills are already having a major impact in the European and US markets. With real government focus on growing and supporting the Vietnamese ICT industry the number of graduates available to this burgeoning market is increasing year on year. Any one who has experienced the quality of the dedicated workforce will understand just why they are head and shoulders above other countries in the region. What is staggering is the way the Vietnamese have mobilized their female workforce.

What sparked my interest was a speech given by Cherie Blair on workforce diversity and women in business in emerging countries.I started to look at our team of 2500 developers in Vietnam to find that over 56% of our workforce are women! This rate proves to be consistent throughout IT across the country. I then took a look at our management team: guess what? 60% of our senior managers are women! Now I would love to say this is a deliberate policy. We have simple always selected the best candidates for the job and of course at interview we have a pretty even split of male and female candidates.

In the UK just 11.8% of the IT workforce are women with few making it through the glass ceiling to run IT departments or even IT businesses. Maybe it is a Y generation dynamic in Vietnam where women feel empowered and there are no preconceived ideas. More likely is the government policy of promoting science and mathematics in education early in primary schools and the fact that parents see science and mathematics as a great career for their children.