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Paper (refereed) Women and Minorities in Computing

Recommended Citation: Nicolai, B J. The Invisible Society of Women in Technology: Young Women's Reluctance to Enter the Technology Field. In The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2001, v 18 (Cincinnati): §06c.

The Invisible Society of Women in Technology: Young Women's Reluctance to Enter the Technology Field

Refereed

Barbara J. Nicolai    [a1] [a2]
Information Systems & Computer Programming
Purdue University Calumet    [u1] [u2]
Hammond, Indiana, USA    [c1] [c2]

In April of 2000 the American Association of University Women (AAUW) published a startling report about how our young women are not only falling through the cracks of the information superhighway, but are not even interested in the technology field. The worry has been that our girls are computer-phobic. What the Commission on Technology, Gender, and Teacher Education discovered is that girls are computer reticent. The Executive Summary of TECH-SAVVY-Educating Girls in the New Computer Age focused on key themes to investigate and offered suggestions for creating mentorship programs and educational curricula that would address these issues. With the creation of programs that offer different strategies to attract more females to the technology field, the issue of our young women falling through the cracks of the information superhighway will at least be addressed. We need cooperation between academic institutions, middle, high school and university, and our corporate world. Mentorship programs, leadership workshops, and committed leaders need to take action now to stop the trend that's not only lowering the glass ceiling, but also once again creating an invisible society of women.

Keywords: women, technology, computing, computer reticent, mentorship programs, glass ceiling

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