No abstract

Among the research challenges in studying the under representation of women in the IT field is that of developing appropriate theory to provide a basis for understanding and explanation about this gender imbalance. At present, there are two dominant theories in the gender literature that are used to explain the participation of women in the IT profession. The essentialist perspective dichotomizes gender based upon the presumption of significant inherent differences between women and men. This view finds the causes of gender under representation in biology. The social construction perspective focuses on the social construction of IT as a male domain, which is interpreted as incompatible with the social construction of female identity. This view finds the causes of gender under representation in the IT sector. The research discussed in this paper is directed at the development of a new theory that focuses on individual differences among women as they relate to the needs and characteristics of IT work and the IT workplace. This view finds the causes of gender under representation in the socio-cultural environment that shapes each woman's gender identity and her professional development, and her individual responses to these influences.

This article presents an analysis of cultural/actors influencing the career choices of women in the IT workforce. We employ the individual differences theory ofgender and IT as a theoretical lens to analyze a qualitative data set ofinterviews with 200 women in/our different countries. The themes that emerged from this analysis speak to the influence ofcultural attitudes about maternity, childcare, parental care and working outside the home on a woman schoice ofan ITcareer. In addition, several additional socio-cultural factors served to addfurther variation to gendered cultural influences: gendered career norms, social class; economic opportunity, and gender stereotypes about aptitude. These results lendfurther empirical support to the emergent individual differences theory ofgender and IT that endeavors to theorize within-gender variation with respect to issues related to gender and IT They also point to areas where educational and workplace interventions can be enacted.

This paper reports on an investigation of career anchors of women in the information technology (IT) workforce that was directed at enhancing within‐gender theorising about career motivations of women in the IT profession. Our theoretical lens, the individual differences theory of gender and IT, enabled us to look more critically at how the effects of interventions are embedded in the range of women's career anchors that takes within‐gender variation into account. The analysis demonstrates that organisational interventions must be flexible enough to account for the diversity and variation among women. Further, the analysis shows that it is necessary to move away from ‘one size fits all’ organisational interventions that often reflect stereotypes about women in the IT workforce.

Carnegie Mellon University's successful efforts enrolling, sustaining, and graduating women in computer science challenge the belief in a gender divide in CS education.