Women and Information Technology

by Cohoon, J. Mcgrath; Aspray, William

• ISBN13: 9780262533072
• ISBN10: 0262533073
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-30
• 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	p. vii
Introduction	p. ix
Diverging Interests
The State of Research on Girls and IT	p. 3
Examining the Gender Gap in IT by Race: Young Adults'
Decisions to Pursue an IT Career	p. 55
Lost in Translation: Gender and High School Computer Science	p. 89
Recruiting Middle School Girls into IT: Data on Girls'
Perceptions and Experiences from a Mixed-Demographic Group	p. 115
A Critical Review of the Research on Women's Participation in Postsecondary Computing Education	p. 137
Postsecondary Education
A Matter of Degrees: Female Underrepresentation in Computer Science Programs Cross-Nationally	p. 183
Just Get Over It or Just Get on with It: Retaining Women in Undergraduate Computing	p. 205
The Poverty of the Pipeline Metaphor: The AAAS/CPST Study of Nontraditional Pathways into IT/CS Education and the Workforce	p. 239
Gender Differences among Students in Computer Science and Applied Information Technology	p. 279
Confronting the "Socialization" Barrier: Cross-Ethnic Differences in Undergraduate Women's Preference for IT Education	p. 301
Women in Computer Science or Management Information Systems Courses: A Comparative Analysis	p. 323
Traversing the Undergraduate Curriculum in Computer Science: Where Do Students Stumble?	p. 351
Pathways into the Workforce
The Transition of Women from the Academic World to the IT Workplace: A Review of the Relevant Research	p. 377
Gender and Professional Commitment among IT Professionals: The Special Case of Female Newcomers to Organizations	p. 421
Foot in the Door, Mouse in Hand: Low-Income Women, Short-Term Job Training Programs, and IT Careers	p. 439
Conclusion	p. 471
Contributors	p. 475
Index	p. 483
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