Women’s Chronological Pathways to IT Education

Abstract

What are the key factors and driving forces that make women enter the fields of information technology (IT), despite the many gendered barriers revisited in Chap. 2? This chapter analyses the narratives of 24 women’s chronological pathways from childhood to entering a university degree in IT. The chapter illustrates six different pathways that led the women to pursue a degree in IT, each analysed in terms of the positive drivers, including interest in IT, recruitment measures, an accidental choice, finding a safe platform in other disciplines, and a detour before discovering IT. Only one pathway identified the image of IT as suitable for women as a driving force. This, however, was shared by women from other countries, highlighting the specific cultural construction of the Norwegian women’s narratives.