Findings from the Ohio University study of 275 women ages 22 to 64 who work in IT fields suggest that programs designed to educate females about information technology careers should not be limited to computer science or engineering courses, and that girls should be given opportunities to work with computers and technology at an early age.
Information technology is a fast-growing field with a need for skilled workers, but currently, women hold only 20 percent of the jobs. In an effort to understand what attracts females to these careers, researchers asked women employed in such jobs as software engineer, network administrator, programmer and Web developer to name what influenced or motivated them to pursue work in the information technology industry.
"A love of problem solving, a love of the challenge really came across," said Sandra Turner, a professor of educational studies at Ohio University and lead author of the study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New Orleans earlier this month.
While the IT industry often is billed as a high-paying field that offers many job opportunities, few women in the survey mentioned the wide availability of IT jobs or the big paychecks as major motivators, added Phyllis Bernt, professor of communication systems management, who conducted the study with Turner and Norma Pecora, associate professor of telecommunications.
"If you want to get more women involved in this field, talking about the money is not going to do it," she said. Women also don't need traditional degrees in computer science and engineering – or formal technical training – to take advantage of those job opportunities, despite what some career studies indicate, Turner said. About half of those surveyed held bachelor's degrees in nontechnical disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Some entered the information technology field by earning graduate degrees in computer science or information systems, while others landed positions through on-the-job experiences and training.
In addition to the desire for a challenging career, many women said support from men – fathers, husbands, teachers, friends or male co-workers – influenced their decision to enter the IT field. Almost two-thirds of the women surveyed cited encouragement by male figures in their lives as a major factor in their career selection. That finding isn't a complete surprise, the researchers said, given that men are more likely than women to be employed in the information technology field.
The researchers found, however, that a father's career choice could play a role. The fathers of 27 percent of the women in the study held technical jobs in science, math or engineering, a proportion that far exceeds the number of people engaged in these jobs nationally, which is about 5 percent.
High school teachers and college professors, including male mentors, also proved to be highly influential in women's choices to pursue information technology careers – mainly as a positive factor, according to the study.
"Young people expect support from their parents," Turner said. "But kids know that teachers know a lot more about their capabilities. So when teachers encourage, it means more to a young person – it gives more confidence to their abilities."
The researchers are continuing their analysis of survey data to learn more about the actual career paths of women in information technology careers. A related study involving Turner, Bernt and Ohio University Professor of Journalism Joseph Bernt also is examining gender and the IT industry. The project, supported by the National Science Foundation, is exploring whether messages in the media influence middle-school students' interest in technology careers. For more information on that project, point your browser to http://www.ohiou.edu/researchnews/science/itstudy.htm.
Written by Andrea Gibson.
Attention Editors, Reporters: A copy of the conference paper on which this news release is based is available by e-mail or fax. Contact Andrea Gibson at (740) 597-2166; gibsona@ohio.edu, or Becky Gill at (740) 593-0946; gillr@ohio.edu.
Contacts: Sandra Turner, (740) 593-9826, turners@ohio.edu; Phyllis Bernt, (740) 593-0020, bernt@ohio.edu; Norma Pecora, (740) 593-4864, pecora@ohio.edu.