More women may be making their way into small businesses in IT after a shift in attitudes has shown the sector to be a more desirable choice.

Jennifer Hewitt, the chairman of the British Computer Society's Young Professionals Group (BCS YPG), explained that many people may see IT careers in a similar way to how it can be portrayed in the media, such as programmes like The IT Crowd and The Big Bang Thoery.

However, she asserted that many women know that IT "isn't about sitting in a room, being a bit of a geek and coding all day, it's about inventing all these really cool things that everybody uses on a daily basis now and have sort of revolutionised how we live".

Ms Hewitt largely attributed this to the perceptions of the internet and how it is intrinsically linked to everything, from shopping to work.

The BCS YPG concerns itself with all members of the organisation under the age of 35 and aims to network them with older and more experienced professionals in the trade for the good of their future.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent).