University Park, Pa. -- When it comes down to our basic understanding of the world around us, one may say we think the way we do because we were born that way. Women were born a certain way, men born a certain way. In other words, we’re hardwired.
However, for one researcher the answer does not lie in the biological or psychological part of us; instead, it lies in a theory. Eileen Trauth, Penn State professor of information sciences and technology, women's studies and international affairs, recently studied factors affecting women in the information technology (IT) field as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation.
Trauth based the research on her individual differences theory of gender and IT. This theory has been used to explain women’s participation in the IT field and focuses on the variation in the ways women are exposed to, experience and respond to the gender relations in the IT profession.
The three factors studied were work-life balance, organizational climate and mentoring. Results found all three factors affected women working in IT in some way, the degree varying and depending on the woman -- proving the assumption wrong that women are the same with respect to their values and attitudes about the IT profession.
“People want to jump to easy answers,” she said. “As Americans we like to boil everything down to sound bites. But not all women are the same.”
Trauth said the results proved there is no “silver bullet” to the generalization of women as a whole in the IT workforce.
“As a group, we’re exposed to (stereotypes). But there’s huge variation as to how you would respond and how I would respond, and that’s the part that’s new and groundbreaking,” she said. “It’s trying to suggest the solution isn’t one size fits all -- the solution is that we have to tailor it.”
A total of 92 women from across the U.S. were interviewed for the study. Trauth’s paper, “Retaining Women in the U.S. IT Workforce: Theorizing the Influence of Organizational Factors,” was published in European Journal of Information Systems. Co-authors were Jeria Queensberry, assistant teaching professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and Haiyan Huang, visiting assistant professor at Purdue University Calumet.