Examining the masculinity and femininity of critical attributes necessary to succeed in IT

ABSTRACT

Some research findings show that women are even more likely than men to leave the information technology (IT) field and gender segregation in the types of jobs held within the broad field of IT is marked, with women especially rare in the higher paid job categories. Therefore, this study examines whether the gender segregation and turnover of women in IT, in part, shaped by the perception that the desired characteristics of IT workers that are necessary to be successful in IT occupations fit men more so than women. Research is being conducted at two organizations: a large international consulting firm and a Fortune 500 information technology company, limited to IT employees and stakeholders in the Northwest. This study is being conducted in two phases. The first phase activities involve focus group sessions and interviews at the participating organizations. In the second phase, a web-based company-specific survey will be developed and administered to a large sample of employees and stakeholders in each organization.

REFERENCES

• 1: Auster, C. J., & Ohm, S. C. (2000). Masculinity and femininity in contemporary American society: A re-evaluation using the Bem Sex-Role Inventory. Sex Roles, 43, 499--528.
• 2: Janet L. Bailey , Greg Stefaniak, Industry perceptions of the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by computer programmers, Proceedings of the 2001 ACM SIGCPR conference on Computer personnel research, p.93-99, April 2001, San Diego, California, United States [doi>10.1145/371209.371221]
• 3: Bem, S. (1981). Bem sex-role inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
• 4: Bowen, C. C., Swim, J. K., & Jacobs, R. R. (2000). Evaluating gender biases on actual job performance of real people: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30, 2194--2215.
• 5: Cappelli, P. (2000). Is there a shortage of Information Technology workers? "War for Technical Talent Project." Available: www.programmersguild.org/wharton.doc
• 6: Cejka, M. A., & Eagly, A. (1999). Gender-stereotypic images of occupations correspond to the sex segregation of employment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 413--423.
• 7: Costa, P. T., Terracciano, A., & McCrae, R. (2001). Gender differences in personality traits across cultures: Robust and surprising findings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 322--331.
• 8: Council of Economic Advisers (2000). Opportunities and gender pay equity in new economy occupations. Available: www.whitehouse.gov/cea
• 9: Davison, H. K., & Burke, M. J. (2000). Sex discrimination in simulated employment contexts: A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56, 225--248.
• 10: Diekman, A. B., & Eagly, A. H. (2000). Stereotypes as dynamic constructs: Women and men of the past, present, and future. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1171--1188.
• 11: Green, G. I. (1989). Perceived importance of systems analysts. job skills, roles, and non-salary incentives. MIS Quarterly, 13, 115--133.
• 12: Igbaria, M., Parasuraman, S., & Greenhaus, J. H. (1997). Status report on women and men in the IT workplace. Information Systems Management, 14, 44--53.
• 13: Jagacinski, C. M. (1987). Androgyny in a male-dominated field: The relationship of sex-typed traits to performance and satisfaction in engineering. Sex Roles, 17, 529--547.
• 14: Kirchmeyer, C., & Bullin, C. (1997). Gender roles in a traditionally female occupation: A study of emergency, operating, intensive care, and psychiatric nurses. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 50, 78--95.
• 15: Denis M. S. Lee , Eileen M. Trauth , Douglas Farwell, Critical skills and knowledge requirements of IS professionals: a joint academic/industry investigation, MIS Quarterly, v.19 n.3, p.313-340, Sept. 1995 [doi>10.2307/249598]
• 16: Lenney, E, (1991) Sex Roles: The Measurement of Masculinity, Femininity, and Androgyny, Measures of personality and social Psychological Attitudes.
• 17: Lenton, A. P., Blair, I. V., & Hastie, R. (2001). Illusions of gender: Stereotypes evoke false memories. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 3--14.
• 18: Martell, R. F. (1991). Sex bias at work: The effects of attentional and memory demands on performance ratings of mean and women. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21, 1939-1960.
• 19: Maurer, T. J., & Taylor, M. A. (1994). Is sex by itself enough? An exploration of gender bias issues in performance appraisal. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 60, 231--251.
• 20: Pulakos, E. D., White, L.A., Oppler, S. H., & Borman, W. C. (1989). Examination of race and sex effects on performance ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 770--780.
• 21: Stephan, P. E., & Levin, S. G. (2001). Retention and recruitment of women and minorities in the IT workforce. ITWF conference report, Boulder CO, October 2001.
• 22: Tharenou, P. (2001). Going up? Do traits and informal social processes predict advancing in management? Academy of Management Journal, 44, 1005--1017.
• 23: Woehr, D. J, & Roch, S. G. (1996). Context effects in performance evaluation: the impact of ratee sex and performance level on performance ratings and behavioral recall. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 66, 31--41.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.7 THE COMPUTING PROFESSION
      K.7.1 Occupations

Keywords:
IT professionals, critical attributes, feminine, masculine, skills