ITWF: A Field Study of Individual Differences in the Social Shaping of Gender and IT

崔思，艾琳·M.宾夕法尼亚州立大学，题目：性别和信息技术社会塑造中的个体差异。女性在信息技术（IT）领域的代表性不足是美国IT技能危机的一个重要因素。不幸的是，缺乏足够的理论来解释和预测这种性别失衡。本研究的目的是调查美国女性IT专业人士受到性别认同和IT的社会塑造的影响和反应的特定方式。有三个具体目标是为了实现这一总目标。第一个目标是完善关于女性参与IT行业的个体差异的新兴理论。第二个目标是阐明个人和环境因素是如何影响美国女性作为IT专业人员的职业发展和目前的工作生活的。第三个目标是为公共决策者、雇主和教育工作者提出积极应对的建议。这项研究建立在由首席研究员开发并在澳大利亚、新西兰和爱尔兰应用的新兴理论和方法的基础上，并将其扩展到美国的背景下。该研究的参与者是在IT领域工作的女性，她们既是实践者，也是学者。对美国选定地理区域的IT部门女性进行深入访谈，捕捉到该国不同地理区域的社会文化因素的影响。从之前的研究中得出的关于环境影响的四个主题被用来构建面试时间表：文化（通过社会和工作场所的影响来表达），教育机构，家庭和政府政策。个体差异的新兴理论被用来将数据分析的重点放在这些受访者——作为个体的女性——对社会文化影响的反应方式上。访谈数据由参与观察数据和关于参与研究地区的性别和信息技术部门的文献数据补充。从以前的研究中出现的三个主题被用来集中分析数据：受访者的个人特征，受访者经历的个人影响，以及个人对环境影响的反应。

EIA-0204246Trauth, Eileen M. Pennsylvania State UniversityTitle: A Field Study of Individual Differences in the Social Shaping of Gender and IT.The under-representation of women in the information technology (IT) field is a significant factor in the American IT skills crisis. Unfortunately, there is a lack of sufficient theory to provide a basis for explanation and prediction about this gender imbalance. The goal of this research is to investigate the particular ways that women IT professionals in America are influenced by and react to the social shaping of both gender identity and IT. Three specific objectives are directed at the achievement of this overall goal. The first objective is to refine an emergent theory of individual differences about women's participation in the IT sector. The second objective is to articulate the ways in which individual and environmental factors are influencing American women in their professional development and current working lives as IT professionals. The third objective is to develop recommendations for proactive responses by public policy makers, employers and educators.This research builds upon and extends into the American context the emergent theory and methodology that were developed by the Principal Investigator and applied in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. Participants in the study are women who work in the IT field both as practitioners and as academics. In-depth interviews with women in the IT sector in selected geographic regions of the U.S. capture the influence of socio-cultural factors in different geographic regions of the country. Four themes about environmental influences that emerged from previous research are used to structure the interview schedule: culture (expressed through societal and workplace influences), educational institutions, family, and government policy. The emergent theory of individual differences is used to focus the data analysis on the ways in which these respondents - as individual women - are responding to socio-cultural influences. Interview data is supplemented by participant observation data and by documentary data about gender and the IT sector in the regions involved in the study. Three themes that emerged from previous research are used to focus the analysis of the data: personal characteristics of the respondent, individual influences experienced by the respondent, and individual responses to environmental influences.