Women, it's not endearing to say you're 'hopeless' at technology It is 2013; computers have been a fact of office life for over two decades, and email has been blighting/blessing our lives (strike out, depending on mood) for at least 10 years, for most people. But I am shocked - shocked! - at the number of women I meet who still maintain that they're "terrible with technology," or that "my brain can't handle this stuff." I have one colleague who even resolutely refuses to learn keystroke commands and still labours away with a mouse every time she wants to print, open a new document, cross a word out, etc. "I'm such a Luddite" is the new "I don't know how to change a plug'. Sure, it's a generational thing: this isn't something I hear from thrusting twentysomething young women, but from fortysomethings-plus. Now, I am absolutely anything but sexist - but I don't hear many men coming over all hopeless when asked to create an Excel spreadsheet, or load a document to Dropbox, or "clear their cache." But it's something I literally hear all the time from some female colleagues, who seem somehow to think it's kind of endearing not to have their fingers on the pulse of all this manly technology stuff. Yet anyone who wants to get ahead today really needs befriend technology - because hardware, software and the cloud all offer such fantastic opportunities to make business easier, faster, more efficient. Where would I be without Skype? On a lot more trains heading for meetings. What would I do without Google.docs - which enables me and my business partner, who's based in the south of France, to share everything in real-time - and saves endless scrolling through emails to find a relevant document. (Oh, and don't get me started on the renaming of those. Am I the only person who's diligent about making sure every email subject reflects its contents, so that my recipient doesn't have to open 23 emails, all identically titled "Lunch on 23rd January 2012?" - or even worse, "Hello from me!" - to find the one with the attachment that's urgently needed...?) So should we really be surprised that this "poor-little-technologically-inept-me" attitude is also reflected in the technology workspace? According to the most recent government report, only 17pc of jobs in the technology sector are held by women. Although on the plus side, we do have Joanna Shields as CEO of Tech City, London's would-be rival to Silicon Valley, at Old Street roundabout, and former ad exec Nicola Mendelsohn is the new Vice-President for Facebook in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Of course some people are going to be hard-wired to get their head around technology more easily - just as some have a more naturally artistic bent. But not only are there myriad actual courses to help grasp different aspects of working with computers, it's all on YouTube! Just input "How to use Photoshop," "how to install a firewall," "how to use Microsoft Word" (or any other programme, come to that), and it's all there. Instantly. As video tutorials that you can follow step-by-step, until you get it right. You don't have to be a complete geek to get your head around this stuff; you simply have to take a few deep breaths, if it's scary - then feel the fear and do it anyway. The only woman I can truly forgive for not getting her head around technology was my Auntie Florrie. Aged 98, she told me she was so fed up with hearing "dot this, dot that," that she asked if I could spend an afternoon showing her how computers worked. She nodded sagely throughout, as I demo-ed web pages where her great-nieces and nephews featured, and walked her through Facebook, before she declared: "You're all going to go blind." She was probably at least partly right, meanwhile: I've only needed reading glasses since I began squinting at my iPhone. We never did make a silver surfer of her - but I do know quite a few eightysomething women who've made the decision to embrace technology - and are putting younger women of my acquaintance to shame. Technology isn't something we can "opt out of" - unless we want to join the Amish. It is the way of the 21st century. But you don't have to be ace at science or maths to put a computer to work for you, your life and your business. It doesn't even require physical strength, unlike (say) changing a car tyre. So I say to women who claim they'll never be tech-savvy: get with the (computer) programme.