Women And Information Technology

by Cohoon, J. Mcgrath; Aspray, William

• ISBN13: 9780262033459
• ISBN10: 0262033453
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-10
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

Computing remains a heavily male-dominated field even after twenty-five years of extensive efforts to promote female participation. The contributors to Women and Information Technologylook at reasons for the persistent gender imbalance in computing and explore some strategies intended to reverse the downward trend. The studies included are rigorous social science investigations; they rely on empirical evidence--not rhetoric, hunches, folk wisdom, or off-the-cuff speculation about supposed innate differences between men and women. Taking advantage of the recent surge in research in this area, the editors present the latest findings of both qualitative and quantitative studies. Each section begins with an overview of the literature on current research in the field, followed by individual studies. The first section investigates the relationship between gender and information technology among preteens and adolescents, with each study considering what could lead girls' interest in computing to diverge from boys'; the second section, on higher education, includes a nationwide study of computing programs and a cross-national comparison of computing education; the final section, on pathways into the IT workforce, considers both traditional and nontraditional paths to computing careers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	ix
I Diverging Interests
The State of Research on Girls and IT	3	(52)
Lecia J. Barker
William Aspray
Examining the Gender Gap in IT by Race: Young Adults' Decisions to Pursue an IT Career	55	(34)
Nicole Zarrett
Oksana Malanchuk
Pamela E. Davis-Kean
Jacquelynne Eccles
Lost in Translation: Gender and High School Computer Science	89	(26)
Joanna Goode
Rachel Estrella
Jane Margolis
Recruiting Middle School Girls into IT: Data on Girls' Perceptions and Experiences from a Mixed-Demographic Group	115	(22)
Lecia J. Barker
Eric Snow
Kathy Garvin-Doxas
Tim Weston
A Critical Review of the Research on Women's Participation in Postsecondary Computing Education	137	(46)
J. McGrath Cohoon
William Aspray
II Postsecondary Education
A Matter of Degrees: Female Underrepresentation in Computer Science Programs Cross-Nationally	183	(22)
Maria Charles
Karen Bradley
Just Get Over It or Just Get On with It: Retaining Women in Undergraduate Computing	205	(34)
J. McGrath Cohoon
The Poverty of the Pipeline Metaphor: The AAAS/CPST Study of Nontraditional Pathways into IT/CS Education and the Workforce	239	(40)
Jolene Kay Jesse
Gender Differences among Students in Computer Science and Applied Information Technology	279	(22)
Christine Ogan
Jean C. Robinson
Manju Ahuja
Susan C. Herring
Confronting the ``Socialization'' Barrier: Cross-Ethnic Differences in Undergraduate Women's Preference for IT Education	301	(22)
Roli Varma
Amit Prasad
Deepak Kapur
Women in Computer Science or Management Information Systems Courses: A Comparative Analysis	323	(28)
Sylvia Beyer
Michelle DeKeuster
Traversing the Undergraduate Curriculum in Computer Science: Where Do Students Stumble?	351	(26)
Sandra Katz
John Aronis
Christine Wilson
David Allbritton
Mary Lou Soffa
III Pathways into the Workforce
The Transition of Women from the Academic World to the IT Workplace: A Review of the Relevant Research	377	(44)
Kathryn M. Bartol
William Aspray
Gender and Professional Commitment among IT Professionals: The Special Case of Female Newcomers to Organizations	421	(18)
Kathryn M. Bartol
Ian O. Williamson
Gosia A. Langa
Foot in the Door, Mouse in Hand: Low-Income Women, Short-Term Job Training Programs, and IT Careers	439	(32)
Karen Chapple
Conclusion	471	(4)
Contributors	475	(8)
Index	483