Special Projects (CNS): National Center for Women and Information Technology

激励和使更多的女性选择信息技术是国家的一个引人注目的解决方案-S创新、全球竞争力和劳动力可持续发展。然而，实现妇女的贡献取决于克服长期的社会和文化进程的复杂性，这些复杂的社会和文化进程限制了妇女参与计算。供应方面的因素影响着对学习计算机或从事IT事业感兴趣的女孩和妇女的数量。需求方面的因素降低了组织吸引和留住妇女的努力的有效性。此外，关于性别和技术的文化刻板印象的广泛影响向女性和那些影响她们的人表明，她们比男性更不可能有创造计算机技术的天赋或兴趣。这些刻板印象导致女孩、父母、辅导员和教育工作者忽视或拒绝将计算机作为一种职业，并忽视了加剧这一问题的教育系统。国家妇女与信息技术中心(NCWIT)成立于三年前，旨在以创新和系统的方式解决这些问题。在最初的三年里，NCWIT建立了一个以联盟为基础的基础设施，目标是团结所有当前的努力，加快它们的进步，扩大它们的覆盖范围。NCWIT现在正在寻求延期资金，以推动这一国家基础设施的利用。NCWIT由100多家知名企业、学术机构、政府机构和非营利性组织组成，合作增加妇女在信息技术(IT)领域的参与。有四个联盟致力于整个教育和职业管道的IT改革，包括K-12教育、大学层面的拓展和课程改革、企业招聘和保留以及创业项目。联盟成员分享他们的改革努力，学习和试点最佳实践，回收有效的和不有效的，影响政策，参与IT形象和改革活动，并充当当地的变革推动者。NCWIT全国研讨会每年两次，主题包括创新、多样性、K-12教育，以及专注于在IT领域招聘、留住和提升女性的有前途的实践。一流的材料和资源为人们提供了在其组织内提高认识、接触目标人群、实施和评估改革以及分享其成果的工具。NCWIT还积极与其他几个知名组织合作，通过研究驱动的营销活动来改善计算的公众形象。广泛的、持续的内部和外部评估改进了NCWIT的方法和努力，并形成了一种自省和自我分析的文化。该项目独特地成功地克服了阻碍女性参与计算的复杂和挥之不去的条件？S。NCWIT的基础设施已经到位，联盟正在发展，联盟成员渴望在其当地组织中实施干预措施，并与全国社区分享成果。NCWIT建立了一项强有力的、备受尊敬的努力，让广泛的计算社区参与进来，形成了一种基于循证实践的文化。NCWIT是唯一一个致力于整个IT教育渠道以及IT组织文化改革的全国性能力建设基础设施的组织。提高女性对IT的参与度？S对全国产生了深远的影响。信息和计算技术不仅以前所未有的方式渗透到我们日常生活的方方面面，而且所有的工程和科学发现和创新现在都依赖于计算科学。不断增加的合格计算专业人员队伍支持国家倡议(如纳米技术、网络基础设施倡议)的目标，我们的经济、安全、国防和医疗保健系统都是以计算为中心的。增加妇女的参与不仅有助于实现国家目标，而且通过整合不同的思想来改进计算机系统、应用程序和产品的开发和设计，同时帮助克服妇女的经济差距。

Inspiring and enabling more women to choose careers in information technology is a compelling solution for the nation?s innovation, global competitiveness, and workforce sustainability. Yet realizing the contributions of women depends on overcoming the complex of enduring social and cultural processes that limit their participation in computing. Supply-side factors affect the number of girls and women interested in learning about computing or pursuing an IT career. Demand-side factors reduce the effectiveness of organizational efforts to attract and retain women. In addition, the broad influence of cultural stereotypes about gender and technology suggest to women and those who influence them that they are less likely than men to have talent or interest in creating computing technology. These stereotypes lead girls, parents, counselors, and educators to overlook or reject computing as a career and to ignore the educational system that reinforces the problem. The National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) was formed three years ago to address these issues in an innovative and systematic way.In its first three years, NCWIT has established an alliance-based infrastructure with the goal of uniting all current efforts, accelerating their progress, and extending their reach. NCWIT now seeks extension funding to drive the utilization of this national infrastructure. NCWIT comprises more than 100 prominent corporations, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations cooperating to increase women's participation in information technology (IT). Four alliances address IT reform along the entire educational and career pipeline, with programs in K-12 education, college-level outreach and curriculum reform, corporate recruitment and retention, and entrepreneurial ventures. Alliance members share their reform efforts, learn about and pilot best practices, recycle what works and discard what does not, influence policy, participate in IT image and reform campaigns, and serve as local change agents.National, bi-annual NCWIT workshops address topics such as innovation, diversity, K-12 education, and promising practices focused on recruiting, retaining, and advancing women in IT. Top-notch materials and resources give people the tools to raise awareness within their organizations, reach out to targeted populations, implement and evaluate reforms, and share their results. NCWIT is also actively collaborating with several other high-profile organizations to improve the public image of computing using a research-driven marketing campaign. Extensive, ongoing internal and external evaluation results in refinement of NCWIT methods and efforts and has resulted in a culture of introspection and self-analysis.This project is uniquely situated for successfully overcoming the complex and lingering conditions that hinder women?s participation in computing. The NCWIT infrastructure is in place, alliances are growing, and alliance members are eager to implement interventions in their local organizations and share results with the national community. NCWIT has built a robust and highly-respected effort that has engaged the broad computing community, forming a culture based on evidence-based practices. NCWIT is the only organization creating a national, capacity-building infrastructure focused on reform of the entire IT educational pipeline, as well as the culture of IT organizations.Increasing women?s participation in IT has far-reaching national consequences. Not only do information and computing technologies pervade all aspects of our everyday lives in an unprecedented way, but all engineering and science discovery and innovation are now dependent on computational science. Increasing the pool of qualified computing professionals supports the goals of national initiatives (e.g., nanotechnology, the Cyberinfrastructure Initiative) and our economic, security, defense, and health care systems are computing-centered. Increasing the participation of women not only supports national goals, but improves the development and design of computing systems, applications, and products through the integration of diverse ideas while helping to overcome economic disparities for women.