Gender and information technology: implications of definitions

In this paper, we examine implications of definitions of information technology to women's participation in the industry and in academe. This paper is exploratory only, based on a review of selected government and industry reports and data related to IT education and the profession. However, we argue that there is evidence to suggest that the discourse related to information technology has the effect of excluding women and multi-disciplinary perspectives. On the one hand, we argue that there is considerable evidence that the IT industry and skills it demands are multi-disciplinary and that many people working in the industry, particularly women, come from a variety of disciplines. On the other hand, despite the evidence of the multi-dimensional nature of IT, the impact of convergence, the importance of matching IT solutions to user needs and so on, a very narrow definition of IT dominates the discourse. This definition equates IT and IT professionals with computer science and eng...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: SIGCSE
• Authors: Wendy L. Cukier, Denise Shortt, Irene Devine
• Keywords: Education, Industry, Information Technology, Narrow Definition, SIGCSE 2002