Diversity in information and communication technologies: The cost of lost opportunities

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry develops products that are used by many people regardless of gender, age, social status, ethnicity, or religion. Technology has had a significant impact on the way that information is produced, stored and communicated, especially in the fields that have traditionally been heavy producers of information such as libraries and education institutions. Though all types of people use technology, not all types of people are involved in the design and development of technology. Women represent just twenty percent of Australian ICT professionals. They often receive less pay than their male colleagues and are greatly under-represented in management and executive level positions. The rate of participation of women in ICT has declined steadily since it peaked in the mid eighties, while at the same time, the participation of women in other previously male-dominated fields such as mathematics and physics has continued to climb. Minority and ethnic groups such as Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, and Australian Aboriginals are also underrepresented in ICT, both in tertiary studies and in industry. This under-representation of women and minorities in ICT results in a lack of diversity in the creative teams who design and develop this technology. Apart from the issue of equity or fairness, a lack of diversity means that technology is being produced from a very narrow viewpoint which may affect its quality. There is also a hidden or ‘opportunity cost’ in technology that is never designed and is not produced because of a lack of diversity in creative teams. This concept paper will address the potential impacts that a lack of diversity in the teams creating technology might have on the way that libraries operate, and the way that information is produced, stored and communicated

APPROACHING GENDER PARITY: WOMEN IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AT AFGHANISTAN'S KABUL UNIVERSITY

This study explores the representation of women in computer science at the tertiary level through data collected about undergraduate computer science education at Kabul University in Afghanistan. Previous studies have theorized reasons for underrepresentation of women in computer science, and while many of these reasons are indeed present in Afghanistan, they appear to hinder advancement to degree to a lesser extent. Women comprise at least 36% of each graduating class from KU's Computer Science Department; however, in 2007 women were 25% of the university population. In the US, women comprise over 50% of university populations while only graduating on average 25% women in undergraduate computer science programs. Representation of women in computer science in the US is 50% below the university rate, but at KU, it is 50% above the university rate. This mixed methods study of KU was conducted in the following three stages: setting up focus groups with women computer science students, distributing surveys to all students in the CS department, and conducting a series of 22 individual interviews with fourth year CS students. The analysis of the data collected and its comparison to literature on university/department retention in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics gender representation and on women's education in underdeveloped Islamic countries illuminates KU's uncharacteristic representation of women in its Computer Science Department. The retention of women in STEM through the education pipeline has several characteristics in Afghanistan that differ from countries often studied in available literature. Few Afghan students have computers in their home and few have training beyond secretarial applications before considering studying CS at university. University students in Afghanistan are selected based on placement exams and are then assigned to an area of study, and financially supported throughout their academic career, resulting in a low attrition rate from the program. Gender and STEM literature identifies parental encouragement, stereotypes and employment perceptions as influential characteristics. Afghan women in computer science received significant parental encouragement even from parents with no computer background. They do not seem to be influenced by any negative "geek" stereotypes, but they do perceive limitations when considering employment after graduation

Seminal Barriers to Female High School Students’ Choice of Information Technology as a Career Alternative

The under-representation of women in the IT profession is a well-known Information Systems phenomenon. Unlike the other sciences and mathematics, where the percentage of women receiving bachelor’s degrees has increased over the past two decades, the percentage of women obtaining degrees in technology has decreased. Information Technology started strong in 1984 with 37.06% women receiving bachelor’s degrees; however, 2004 brought a decrease to a low of 25.05%, near the level of three decades earlier. The consequences of this under-representation include non-diverse IT solutions, a predicted IT workforce shortage, and the United States losing its ability to participate as a fervent technological contributor in a global arena. Despite the importance of this issue, previous research has yielded isolated and often conflicting results. Past researchers have concentrated on small subsets rather than examining the complete breadth of barriers to the recruitment and retention of women in the IT field. This research consisted of seven major activities. First, a four-staged IT Career Lifecycle model was developed which advances the work of prior research. Second, it was determined that the specific scope and focus of this research would consist of Stage I of the IT Career Lifecycle model at a point where high school girls are considering college majors. Third, a literature review was conducted to establish a comprehensive list of Stage I barriers that have been identified by previous researchers. Fourth, a second new model was established that identifies and classifies all of the Stage I barriers identified by the literature. As part of this model’s development process, fourteen barriers were analyzed, summarized, and categorized into three sources: the girls, the IT community, and the societal influencers. Fifth, fourteen hypotheses were developed to validate the Stage I Barriers Model. Sixth, a survey was conducted to validate the Stage I model, determine the most prevalent barriers, identify new barriers, and capture the attitudes and perceptions of high school girls regarding the IT profession and its workers. The survey was administered to 417 female junior and senior girls in four high schools in the Chicago metropolitan area. Seventh, the Stage I model was reconstructed to incorporate the knowledge gained from the survey. Thus, through the process of this research, the reconstructed Barrier Model was grounded in research literature and validated through the “real world” view of high school girls’ attitudes, perceptions, and interests in computers and IT careers. Although the goal of the survey was to examine barriers to high school girls’ entry into the Information Technology field of study, findings went beyond that, falling into three main categories: barriers, enablers, and predictors. As expected, some of the findings identified significant barriers that were incorporated into a reconstructed Barrier Model. However, some results uncovered factors that were clearly, not identified as barriers by the participants. Consequently, some originally proposed barriers were reclassified as enablers and others as predictors of IT majors. Still other factors were recognized as having the potential to be classified in more than one way, barriers, enablers, or predictors. Since the original scope of the research incorporated barriers only, a framework did not exist to capture significant findings on enablers or predictors. Therefore, two additional models were developed, the IT Career Enabler and the IT Career Predictor. Additionally, this research created a new Pre-College IT Career framework to contain the three models, embracing factors that may influence high school girls in their potential pursuit of IT careers