Reconfiguring the Firewall: Recruiting Women to Information Technology across Cultures and Continents

Citation

Quesenberry, J.L. (2008), "Reconfiguring the Firewall: Recruiting Women to Information Technology across Cultures and Continents", Information Technology & People, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 415-416. https://doi.org/10.1108/09593840810919707

Despite the shortage of information technology (IT) professionals and the benefits of diversity in the global economy, women are largely under represented in IT educational programs and careers. Prior research on gender stratification demonstrates that this under representation is a reflection of cultural and social structures rather than gender stereotypes or biological differences. Consequently, researchers have called for additional investigations of the characteristics of the IT field, and in particular, the opportunities and constraints that influence career choice and retention of female IT professionals. In Reconfiguring the Firewall: Recruiting Women to Information Technology across Cultures and Continents Carol J. Burger, Elizabeth G. Creamer and Peggy S. Meszaros have responded to this call with a compilation of edited chapters that focus on the factors that influence and support IT career choices among women.

A key contribution of Reconfiguring the Firewall is the global focus and interdisciplinary perspective of the book. The chapters explore gender and IT issues specific to various regional, national and international contexts. Consequently, much of the analysis is directed at advancing the understanding of sociopolitical, environmental and cultural factors that play a significant role in females' decision to pursue IT careers. In addition, the book contains chapters from over 25 leading international researchers such as: Lenore Blum, Carol Frieze, William Aspray, J. McGrath Cohoon, Lesley Parker, and Mladen Vouk. The book contributors also comprise an interdisciplinary team stemming from a variety academic backgrounds including: anthropology, informatics, management information systems, computer science, sociology, psychology and educational policy. Further, the book showcases a diversity of research methods including quantitative, qualitative and mixed‐method approaches.

Another key contribution of Reconfiguring the Firewall is the synthesis of theoretical foundations and research findings that span a variety of layers of the IT field. The book is divided into three sections about women's interest and persistence in secondary schools, post‐secondary schools and professional settings in the IT field. The secondary school section of the book focuses on several themes particularly perceptions of a hostile “geek” culture, the relational interests of female students in pursuing careers, and accessibility and support issues in high school. For example, Berenson et al. examine time as a factor in young girls' career decisions and argue that independence and flexibility are of extreme importance. The post‐secondary section of the book focuses on the appropriateness of gender‐centered activities, programs and interventions in college programs. Namely, Blum et al. refute the notion that focusing on gender differences will improve female participation rates in educational programs. Rather they argue that a constructive approach that focuses on culture is more appropriate. The IT careers section of the book focuses on issues of job satisfaction, career development, skills, mentoring, networking and the usefulness of the IT pipeline metaphor. For instance, Leventman explains how labor market instability and increased outsourcing of IT work jeopardizes the recruitment of women in IT careers.

A third key contribution of Reconfiguring the Firewall is the identification of critical areas for research and interventions that are necessary in order to improve the participation rates of women in IT. In the last chapter of the book, the editors identify specific recommendations for parents, high school teachers, college faculty, college advisors and IT professionals to improve recruitment and retention of women in the field. In addition, the editors suggest several possible future directions of the domain including broad challenges, potential funding priorities and critical research agendas.

In summary, Reconfiguring the Firewall: Recruiting Women to Information Technology across Cultures and Continents is a single source for state‐of‐the‐art research on the topic of women in IT. The book provides an expansive analysis of diverse intellectual discourses, theoretical foundations, methodological approaches, and recommendations to attract and retain more women in IT. The analysis also makes a nice addition to existing gender and IT works such as: Unlocking the Clubhouse by Margolis and Fisher (2002), Encyclopedia of Gender and Information Technology by Trauth (2006) (Ed.) and Women and Information Technology by McGrath Cohoon and Aspray (2006) (Eds). Most definitely Reconfiguring the Firewall is a “must have” for researchers, educators, practitioners, policy makers or anyone concerned about gender stratification in IT educational programs and professions.