About the Project:

Women in Information Technology: Pivotal Transitions from School to Careers

The "Women in Information Technology: Pivotal Transitions from School to Careers" project will provide primary research data for K-12 and university educators, policy makers, and administrators about those pivotal transition points in girls’ lives that result in their positive or negative view of information technology as a viable career choice. By combining standard interview and survey techniques within the theoretical framework of self-authorship, we will gather new information about how the total environment – both inside and outside the school - helps shape girls’ perceptions of technology as friendly or unfriendly to them.

The goal of this project is to increase the numbers of women who choose to enter and remain in information technology careers. We will study the factors that influence and support information technology (IT) career choices by girls and women at the high school, community college, and university levels.

During this three year project, we will document longitudinally the impact of family, peers, school, and community on girls’ perceptions of IT careers; examine the key transition points in girls’ experiences with technology; determine how the choice of a nontraditional career is associated with the development of self-authorship; and disseminate the information we gather to parents, schools, universities, and corporations about those strategies that can promote women’s choice of IT careers.
The activities of the project include a pre- and post-survey; individual interviews; small group interviews; a videotape documentary and case studies of the longitudinal development of girls’ career transitions and choices; group activities using computer programs to stimulate girls’ interest in and understanding of IT careers; creation of a information rich internet site; and the development of career planning workshops for students, parents, counselors, teachers, and administrators to talk with women who have successful IT careers.

"Women in Information Technology: Pivotal Transitions from School to Careers" is an interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty with expertise in the areas of gender and science, quantitative and qualitative research methods in the social sciences, and information technology impacts on children, youth, and families. Dr. Marcia Baxter Magolda, leading expert in the study of how college students’ and young adults’ self authorship affects their learning capacity, will act as an advisor for this project. The other advisors include a former school principal and superintendent, evaluation and data analysis expert, educational technology expert, state technology workforce director, and a communications researcher.