What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?
Women in IT Education
Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Ph.D. Rochester Institute of Technology
What’s the Problem?
• Women are underrepresented in technology education • Women are underrepresented in technology employment
Gender Breakdown for CS Graduates
14000 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 Men Women
Source: CRA Taulbee Survey
Gender Breakdown for IT Workers with College Degrees
67%
71%
72%
74% Men Women
33%
29%
28% 2000
26% 2001
1990
1995
Source: US Bureau of the Census, Population Survey
IT Workforce Statistics (ITAA)
Data Entry 85% 15 %
Computer O perators
60% 40%
Computer Programmers
31% 69% 43% 57%
W omen Men
Operations & Systems Researc hers & Analysts
Computer Systems Analysts & Scientis ts
28% 72%
0%
50%
100%
AAUW “Tech Savvy” Report
• Girls represent 17 percent of the Computer Science "AP" test takers, and less than one in 10 of the higher level Computer Science "AB" test takers. • Women are roughly 20 percent of IT professionals. • Women receive less than 28 percent of the computer science bachelor's degrees, down from a high of 37 percent in 1984. Computer science is the only field in which women’s participation has actually decreased over time. • Women make up just 9 percent of the recipients of engineering-related bachelor’s degrees.
AAUW Report Conclusions
• Girls find programming classes tedious and dull, computer games too boring, redundant, and violent, and computer career options uninspiring. • Girls would prefer games that feature simulation, strategy, and interaction. (These would appeal to a broad range of learners.) • Gender equity is not about use of tools. It’s about proactive use, interpreting the information that technology makes available, understanding design concepts, and being a lifelong learner of technology. • The "drive by" approach to teacher training focuses on the technical properties of hardware; it does not emphasize educational applications or innovative uses of computing for each subject area.
Definitional Problem: What is “IT”?
• Census groups a wide range of technology-related occupations into this category • Industry defines it equally broadly • Academia is narrowing the definition
• Not CS, MIS, SE, or LIS • Hybrid discipline
How is IT Different?
• Increased focus on the “soft skills” • Prioritizes technology as a tool for solving problems • Students manage and integrate existing technologies, rather than inventing new ones • All these things seem to point to a more “female-friendly” environment
RIT’s IT Faculty
• 46 total tenure-track faculty
• 15 women (33%)
• 15 tenured
• 3 women (20%)
• 31 untenured
• 12 women (39%)
• Department chair, associate chair are women
RIT’s IT Students
• Current undergraduates
• 402 of 2155 are women (19%)
• Entering freshmen
• 2000-2001: 34 of 318 (11%) • Fall 2001: 17 of 205 (8%)
• Transfers
• 2000-2001: 38 of 152 (25%)
• Departing freshmen
• 2000-2001: 18 of 120 (15%)
AAUW Recommendations
• Transform pink software
• Incorporate elements and themes that engage both boys and girls.
• Subject rather than tool focus
• Infuse technology concepts and uses into subject areas ranging from music to history to the sciences
• Prepare tech-savvy teachers
• Emphasize more than the use of the computer as a productivity tool.
• Educate girls to be designers, not just users
• Use "tinkering" activities to stimulate deeper interest in technology; provide opportunities for girls to express their technological imaginations.
• Change the public face of computing
• Girls tend to imagine that computer professionals or those who work heavily with information technology live in a solitary, antisocial world. This is an alienating—and incorrect—perception.
NSF Research Programs
• Information Technology Experiences for Students & Teachers (ITEST) • Information Technology Research (ITR) • Information Technology Workforce (ITWF)
ITWF Current Research
• Environment & Culture
• Effect of electronic games & toys • Portrayal of IT/workers in media • Effect of technology “immersion” in HS
• IT Educational Continuum
• Factors related to retention in undergrad CS • Effectiveness of pair programming in CS
• IT Workplace
• Labor market barriers discouraging women from IT careers • Success of LMI programs
Research Gaps
• New “IT” programs and colleges are not being studied--only CS • Graduate programs in IT and CS programs are not being studied • Most research assumes independent variables have been identified
Proposed Research
• Use Dervin’s Sense-Making methodology to elicit independent variables in the IT context • Survey multiple populations
• Women considering RIT/IT (identified through open houses and admissions office) • Women entering IT (freshmen & transfer), both upon entering, and longitudinally • Female alumni of IT
• Extend pilot study to other IT programs (identified through participation in SITE) • Build a model to compare to CS departments (research being done by J. Cohoon)
Contact Information
• • • • Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Ph.D. Information Technology Dept, RIT ell@mail.rit.edu http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/