How Can Universities Best Encourage Women to Major in Information Systems?

Anderson, Lisa; Edberg, Dana; Reed, Adama; Simkin, Mark G.; Stiver, Debra

doi:10.17705/1cais.04129

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…While most efforts discussed in this paper reported some positive impact, some researchers report some ineffective interventions. These include, for instance, open days that did not provide a clear return on investment [85], women only labs that were not attractive to female students [12] and an introductory computing course for business students that did not create a desired outcome [10]. There were also costly efforts to redefine the image computer science to be perceived as feminine which were not successful [12].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Addressing the "Leaky Pipeline": A Review and Categorisation of Actions to Recruit and Retain Women in Computing Education

Berry,

McKeever,

Murphy

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Gender imbalance in computing education is a well-known issue around the world. For example, in the UK and Ireland, less than 20% of the student population in computer science, ICT and related disciplines are women. Similar figures are seen in the labour force in the field across the EU. The term "leaky pipeline" is often used to describe the lack of retention of women before they progress to senior roles. Numerous initiatives have targeted the problem of the leaky pipeline in recent decades.This paper provides a comprehensive review of initiatives related to techniques used to boost recruitment and improve retention among women in undergraduate computer science and computing courses in higher educational institutions. The review covers 350 publications from both academic sources and grey literature sources including governmental guidance, white papers and non-academic reports. It also includes sources in languages other than English.The primary aim was to identify interventions or initiatives (which we have called "actions") that have shown some effectiveness. A secondary objective was to structure our findings as a categorisation, in order to enable future action discussion, comparison and planning.A particular challenge faced in a significant portion of the work reviewed was the lack of evaluation: i.e. the assessment of the direct relationship between the initiatives undertaken and the outcomes on retention or recruitment. There are only a limited number of studies that include a control group and these tend to focus on one particular intervention or action. In addition often the work presents a number of actions that were implemented and it is difficult to determine which action produced most impact. Considering these challenges, actions were identified that had some level of evaluation with positive impact, including where the evaluation was by measuring feedback.The actions were categorised into four groups: Policy, Pedagogy, Influence & Support and Promotion & Engagement. Policy actions require support and potentially structural change and resources at organisation level. This can be at a department or school level within a higher level institution, and not necessarily just at the higher institution level. Pedagogy related actions are initiatives that are related to the teaching of computer science and technology in terms of curriculum, module delivery and assessment practice. The Influence and Support category includes actions associated with ways to influence women to choose computing at third level and once enrolled to support and encourage them to stay in the field. Finally, Promotion and Engagement actions are initiatives to promote computer science and technology based courses and involve engagement and outreach with external stakeholders such as industry, communities and schools.We present our categorisation, identifying the literature related to actions under each category and subcategory. We discuss the challenges with evaluating the direct impact of actions and outline how this work leads toward...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anderson et al [10] discuss that these reasons are not universal and do not provide a solid foundation for extensive replicable initiatives for recruitment and retention of women in computer science. Nonetheless, there has been a large number of success stories reported in different parts of the world [11,7,12,13,14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing the "Leaky Pipeline": A Review and Categorisation of Actions to Recruit and Retain Women in Computing Education

Berry,

McKeever,

Murphy

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Age also plays a role as younger adolescents make more stereotypical choices (Rommes, 2010). Therefore, interventions need to take place early on, before biases and inaccurate impressions start to impact decisions (Anderson et al, 2017;Zarrett and Malanchuk, 2005).…”

Section: Influence Of Historical Body In Education and Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We can show how they can make a difference in people's lives, instead of developing technology just for the sake of it. Early interventions may prevent misperceptions about IT (Anderson et al, 2017;Zarrett and Malanchuk, 2005). Yet, high school is the last stage of education in many countries to influence girls before they make their choice.…”

Section: Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Girls in IT: intentionally self-excluded or products of high school as a site of exclusion?

Vainionpää

Kinnula

Iivari

et al. 2020

INTR

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PurposeThe low number of women in the information technology (IT) field is a concern. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors behind the exclusion of girls from the IT field.Design/methodology/approachThe present work includes a narrative literature review and an exploratory interview study with ten girls and six study guidance counsellors (GCs) from Finnish senior high schools. Using the nexus analysis as a theoretical lens, the authors examined the exclusion of girls from IT.FindingsEarlier literature directed attention to the cultural norms, assumptions and stereotypes still prevalent in society and the lack of role models and positive media as factors contributing to girls excluding themselves from the IT field. In this research study’s data, the authors not only found evidence of the unintentional exclusion of girls from IT by others but also by the girls themselves. Findings of this research study illustrate the various discourses, actors and their interactions, their background and history-related factors affecting girls' career choices. The novelty of this study is in approaching high school as a site of exclusion, where problematic discourses, interactions and histories come together, reproducing exclusion of girls from the IT field.Originality/valueThe authors contribute with a literature review of the research study on gender and IT and the inclusion/exclusion dynamics around IT. Using the nexus analysis, the authors identify the exclusion dynamics in this complex social issue. Several decades of research have shown that the inclusion of women remains low in IT disciplines. In this study, high schools are viewed as sites of exclusion, engendering a prevalent lack of information and education on the field. The authors offer novel insights into the role of curriculum, GCs and online information excluding girls from the IT field.

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“…Another challenge the IS profession faces is the proportion of females and other underrepresented students studying in computing-related fields and entering the profession remains low (Anderson et al, 2017;Baer & DeOrio, 2020;Barr, 2017;Frieze & Quesenberry, 2019;Harmon & Walden, 2021;Kiely et al, 2019;Lunn, Zahedi, Ross, & Ohland, 2021;NCWIT, 2016;Sauter, 2012;Serenko & Turel, 2021;Shein, 2018). Whereas women accounted for 52% of the workforce employed in management and professional occupations in the United States in 2018, the percentage of females in computing careers was estimated at only 25.6% (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of career panels on student perceptions, attitudes, and intentions toward the information systems profession

Merhout

Benamati

Rajkumar

2021

Decision Sci J Innov Edu

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Exposure to role models has been recommended as a way to attract and retain students in Information Systems (IS) programs. One way to accomplish this exposure in IS classrooms is with career panels of alumni professionals who offer a realistic perspective of various IS‐related roles and can frankly answer questions from students. For this study, we developed a comprehensive survey instrument based on published literature in order to examine the perceptions and attitudes of business students pre‐ and post‐ exposure to career panels and to validate that career panels indeed positively influence student perceptions and attitudes about IS. Female role models have also been espoused as a way to mitigate negative stereotypes, such as the IS field being a masculine domain or that a desirable work‐life balance is difficult to achieve. Our experimental design varied the gender mix of professionals between all‐male, all‐female, and mixed panels. We found that perceptions affect attitudes, and attitudes, in turn, influence intention to study IS. We also found that these role models positively influence perceptions of IS and that mixed panels influence perceptions more than all‐female and all‐male panels. In addition, we found that female students do not respond differently than male students to all‐female panels.

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How Can Universities Best Encourage Women to Major in Information Systems?

Cited by 6 publications

References 51 publications

Addressing the "Leaky Pipeline": A Review and Categorisation of Actions to Recruit and Retain Women in Computing Education

Addressing the "Leaky Pipeline": A Review and Categorisation of Actions to Recruit and Retain Women in Computing Education

Girls in IT: intentionally self-excluded or products of high school as a site of exclusion?

The influence of career panels on student perceptions, attitudes, and intentions toward the information systems profession

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