Career staging for girls moving toward (away) from computing careers

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we examine career lifecycle models and recommend the (re)construction of an IT Career Lifecycle model to explore why the IT profession continues to struggle with the employment of under-represented groups, in general, and school-age young girls, in particular. The major contribution of this research is a holistic model developed to uncover pre-college, formative norms and perceptions of high school girls towards IT careers and the demands associated with thriving in the field. The ultimate objective is to use Stage 1 of an IT Career Lifecycle model (to develop information technology career recruitment and retention strategies to attract girls and minorities to the IT profession) while they are enrolled in primary education. By focusing on Stage 1 of the model, we present propositions regarding the perceptions of the IT field and provide future direction for model testing based on our initial findings using a convenient sample of 411 girls aged fourteen to seventeen. Lastly, while IS literature primarily focuses on career experiences of working professionals, our work shifts the discourse to lend itself to the investigation of the more influential years associated with K-12.

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INDEX TERMS

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

General Terms:
Human Factors, Management, Theory

Keywords:
IT workforce, STEM, career stages, computing careers, girls