Making of a Homogeneous IT Work Environment

2011 ◽  
pp. 870-875
Author(s):  
Andrea H. Tapia
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
It Industry ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
It Workforce ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Education Statistics ◽  
Underrepresentation Of Women

What is the responsibility of the information technology (IT) industry in addressing gender issues? Exploring recruitment and retention issues that exist for women are crucial for increasing the capacity and diversity of the IT profession. An understanding of the underlying causes of gender under representation in the IT profession is needed to develop effective workplace human resource strategies to attract and retain more of this underrepresented group. Unfortunately, while there is a documented need for a deeper understanding of the imbalance in this field, there is a lack of adequate data, methods and theory to provide a basis for explanation and prediction. Despite numerous efforts to recruit and retain women into both educational programs in IT and the IT workforce, these efforts have largely proved unsuccessful. Women remain acutely underrepresented at the higher-paying professional and managerial levels (National Science Foundation, 2000; National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, 2001-2002; Annenberg Public Policy Center, 2001; ITAA, 2003; Geewax, 2000; Spender, 1997). While women now represent a significant proportion of the labor force, they continue to be underrepresented in the IT workforce. Women have made few gains in employment numbers in the sector between 1996 and 2002. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) (2003) reported that the percentage of women in the overall IT workforce actually dropped from 41% to 34.9%. The underrepresentation of women in the IT workforce can be attributed to a “pipeline” issue. Women earn significantly fewer undergraduate degrees in computer science and engineering than their representation in the United States (U.S.) population. (Camp, 1997; Freeman & Aspray, 1999; U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2002).

Gender, Race, Social Class, and Information Technology

2011 ◽  
pp. 705-710
Author(s):  
Myungsook Klassen ◽  
Russell Stockard Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Internet ◽  
It Workforce ◽  
Underrepresentation Of Women ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
The U.S

The issue of the underrepresentation of women in the information technology (IT) workforce has been the subject of a number of studies, and the gender gap was an issue when the digital divide dominated discourse about women’s and minority groups’ use of the Internet. However, a broader view is needed. That perspective would include the relation of women and IT in the communities in which they live as well as the larger society. The information society that has emerged includes the United States (U.S.) and the globalized economy of which it is an integral part. Women and minorities, such as African Americans and Latinos, are underrepresented in computer science (CS) and other IT positions in the U.S. In addition, while they are no longer numerically underrepresented in access to computers and the Internet, as of 2000 (Gorski, 2001), they continue to enjoy fewer benefits available through the medium than white boys and men. The following article explores the diversity within women from the perspectives of race, ethnicity and social class in North America, mainly the U.S. The technology gender and racial gap persists in education and in the IT workforce. A broader and deeper look at women’s positions in relation to the increasingly techno-centric society reveals that women may have reached equality in access, but not in academic study and job opportunities.

scholarly journals Building Automation and the Contextualization of Information Technology: The Journey of a Midwestern Community College in the U.S.

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Neal Grandgenett ◽  
Pam Perry ◽  
Thomas Pensabene ◽  
Karen Wegner ◽  
Robert Nirenberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Community College ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Building Automation ◽  
Technological Education ◽  
It Workforce ◽  
Automation Systems

The buildings in which people work, live, and spend their leisure time are increasingly embedded with sophisticated information technology (IT). This article describes the approach of Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Omaha, Nebraska of the United States to provide an occupational context to some of their IT coursework by organizing IT instruction around the context of building automation systems (BAS). This contextualization allows IT students not only to study IT as a standalone discipline but also to study its integrated use within a specific occupational context. The article also describes MCC’s focused curriculum design efforts funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program. These efforts toward BAS-contextualization of the IT curriculum have become a catalyst for systematic contextualization of IT instruction at MCC and support the institution’s broader efforts to become a national model in IT instruction and interdisciplinary engagement within the United States. The research-based approach, activities, and outcomes of this project are all described here, as well as the lessons learned by one community college seeking to make their IT program increasingly relevant to their students and the IT workforce of today.

Gender, Race, Social Class and Information Technology

2009 ◽  
pp. 1729-1735
Author(s):  
Myungsook Klassen ◽  
Russell Stockard
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Other Information ◽  
Underrepresentation Of Women ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Technology Positions

The issue of the underrepresentation of women in the information technology workforce has been the subject of a number of studies and the gender gap was an issue when the digital divide dominated discourse about women’s and minority groups’ use of the Internet However, a broader view is needed. That perspective would include the relation of women and IT in the communities in which they live as well as the larger society. The information society that has emerged includes the United States and the globalized economy of which it is an integral part. Women and minorities such as African Americans and Latinos are underrepresented in computer science (CS) and other information technology positions in the United States. In addition, while they areno longer numerically underrepresented in access to computers and the Internet – as of 2000, (Gorski, 2001) - they continue to enjoy fewer benefits available through the medium than white boys and men. The following article explores the diversity within women from the perspectives of race, ethnicity and social class in North America, mainly United States. The technology gender and racial gap persists in education and in the IT workforce. A broader and deeper look at women’s position in relation to the increasingly techno-centric society reveals that women may have reached equality in access, but not equity in academic study and job opportunities.

IT Workforce Composition and Characteristics

2011 ◽  
pp. 850-855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua L. Rosenbloom ◽  
Ronald A. Ash ◽  
LeAnne Coder ◽  
Brandon Dupont
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
Women In It ◽  
It Workforce

Women are under represented in the information technology (IT) workforce. In the United States, although women make up about 45% of the overall labor force they make up only about 35% of the IT workforce. (Information Technology Association of America, 2003, p. 11). Within IT, women’s representation declines as one moves up to higher-level occupations. While women are relatively more numerous among data entry keyers and computer operators, they are relatively less likely to be found in high-level occupations like systems analysts and computer programmers. The relatively low representation of women in IT fields parallels a broader pattern of gender differentials in other scientific and technical fields. In all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields combined, women held 25.9% of jobs in 2003. Women’s representation varies widely by sub-fields, however; 65.8% of psychologists and 54.6% of social scientists are women, but only 10.4% of engineers, and 37.4% of natural scientists (Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology, 2004, p. 2). Over the course of the past 100 years, there has been a dramatic change in women’s economic role. In 1900, only one in five adult women worked outside the home, and most of these were young and unmarried (Goldin, 1990). Since then, male and female labor force participation rates have tended to converge. Between 1900 and 1950 there was a gradual expansion of women’s labor force participation. After World War II the pace of change accelerated sharply as more married women entered the labor force. During the 1960s and early 1970s a series of legal changes significantly broadened protection of women’s rights ending essentially all forms of overt discrimination (Fuchs, 1988; Long, 2001, p. 9-10). The removal of these barriers in combination with the availability of cheap and reliable birth control technology greatly facilitated the entry of women into higher education, and technical and professional positions (Goldin & Katz, 2002). Nevertheless, as the figures cited at the outset reveal, women’s participation in IT and other technical fields has not increased as rapidly as it has in less technical fields. And in striking contrast to the general trend toward increasing female participation in most areas of the workforce, women’s share of the IT workforce in the United States has actually declined over the past two decades. Any effort to explain gender differences in IT must begin with an understanding of how the number, characteristics, and pay of women in IT have evolved over time, and across different sub-fields within IT. This chapter provides a foundation for this analysis by documenting recent changes in the number of women employed in IT, their demographic characteristics, and relative pay.

Smoke-free and tobacco-free colleges and universities in the United States

2019 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2018-054829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly D Blake ◽  
Amanda L Klein ◽  
Laura Walpert ◽  
Len Casey ◽  
Cynthia Hallett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Education Data ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Education Statistics

ObjectiveTo describe the number and proportion of accredited, degree-granting institutions with 100% smoke-free and 100% tobacco-free protections across the USA and by state.MethodsData on postsecondary education institutions from the US Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System 2015, and smoke-free and tobacco-free campus protections from the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation’s Smokefree and Tobacco-Free Colleges and Universities List 2017, were integrated to calculate the number and proportion of: (1) smoke-free and tobacco-free accredited, degree-granting institutions and (2) students and staff protected by campus policies and state laws. Campus protections are given a 100% smoke-free designation if smoking is not allowed on campus anywhere, at any time; 100% tobacco-free designations extend smoke-free protections to include non-combustible products such as smokeless tobacco.Results823 accredited, degree-granting institutions (16.7%) representing 1816 individual campuses, sites and schools have either 100% smoke-free or 100% tobacco-free protections. An estimated 14.9 million college students (26.9%) and 8.9 million faculty and staff (25.4%) are protected by campus policies and state laws. Only three states and two territories have 100% smoke-free or 100% tobacco-free protections in over half of their institutions; four states and six territories have no known 100% smoke-free or 100% tobacco-free campus protections.ConclusionsIn 2017, just 16.7% of accredited, degree-granting institutions in the USA had 100% smoke-free or 100% tobacco-free protections. Despite progress, more efforts can ensure that students and staff benefit from comprehensive 100% smoke-free and 100% tobacco-free protections at US colleges and universities.

Observations on Implementing Specializations within an IT Program

2011 ◽  
pp. 2862-2868
Author(s):  
Erick D. Slazinski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Specific Interest ◽  
It Industry ◽  
Specialty Area ◽  
Job Opportunities

With a projected 2.26 million additional jobs to fill in various computer fields by the year 2010, there are and will continue to be ample job opportunities in the computer industry. However, the computer field is far too broad for one individual to be an expert in the entire field. Therefore it may be more useful for students to have the opportunity to concentrate their studies in a specific interest area within a broader Information Technology (IT) degree. IT educators throughout the United States (US) have paid attention to the needs and demands of the IT industry. To address the need for IT graduates with specialized skills, many of the leading universities have created programs which allow undergraduate students to specialize or focus their studies. This chapter will discuss findings on the state of IT programs with regards to their course offerings. One area of specialization, or track, is presented as an example. It will be noted that even within a specialty area, there can be further specializations. In addition to supporting the students pursuing the specialty area, general knowledge courses must also be offered to those pursuing other specialty areas.

Personality Characteristics of Established IT Professionals II

2011 ◽  
pp. 990-998
Author(s):  
Ronald A. Ash ◽  
Joshua L. Rosenbloom ◽  
LeAnne Coder ◽  
Brandon Dupont
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Work Motivation ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Well Being ◽  
It Professionals ◽  
It Workforce ◽  
Personal Style Scales ◽  
Underrepresentation Of Women ◽  
Employment Of Women

Women are underrepresented in the information technology (IT) workforce relative to the overall labor force, comprising about 35% of the IT workforce and 45% of the overall labor force (Information Technology Association of America, 2003). A basic question to be addressed is whether this underrepresentation is a function of barriers to employment of women in this career field or a function of career-related choices that a majority of women make during their lives. The research reported here is part of a series of studies attempting to better understand the reasons underlying this underrepresentation of women in this reasonably lucrative profession. Through a grant provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF 29560) and in partnership with Consulting Psychologists Press, we have been able to design and conduct an extensive survey of professional workers, IT professionals and a comparable set of non-IT professionals. The non-IT professionals included individuals who are similar to the IT sample in terms of education level (but not specific degree fields) and who work in jobs with comparable human attribute demands, including written comprehension, oral comprehension, oral expression, written expression and deductive reasoning. The survey items include measures of occupational personality constructs (RIASEC) and Personal Style Scales (PSS). The purpose of this article is to document similarities and differences between established IT and non-IT professionals and between males and females on these variables, thereby establishing a benchmark for comparisons with future samples of IT professionals. Why is this worth doing? Because in the last decade of the 20th century, a critical mass of knowledge related to personality in work organizations developed. Personality contributes to all that happens during a person’s career, and informs our understanding of things like work motivation, job attitudes, citizenship behavior, leadership, teamwork, well-being, and organizational culture. Increasingly we have realized that personality plays an important role in determining who is hired and fired (cf. Schneider & Smith, 2004), as well as who voluntarily stays in and leaves organizations (cf. Harmon, Hansen, Borgen, & Hammer, 1994; Holland, 1997).

U.S. Science and Engineering Workforce: Underrepresentation of Women and Minorities

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 692-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roli Varma
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Technology Industry ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Underrepresentation Of Women ◽  
Changing Demographics ◽  
Workforce Needs

Increasingly, industrial leaders, governmental officials, and academic scholars have become concerned whether the United States can successfully compete in science and engineering (S&E) fields. This is when employment in S&E jobs has grown faster than employment in all occupations in the United States. It is proposed that the United States has not been able to build its S&E human capital necessary for technological innovations and economic growth. Women and minorities are seen as essential to fill the perceived gap. There is a higher representation of women in S&E education and occupations. Yet overall demographics of S&E fields have remained unchanged. The U.S. technology industry has been progressively employing workers from foreign countries to meet their S&E internal workforce needs. Many have been outsourcing the work to developing countries, namely China and India. This article shows that technology companies that embrace the United States’s changing demographics would gain the economic benefits from a diverse S&E workforce.

scholarly journals The Demographic Transformation of the Teaching Force in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 234
Author(s):  
Richard Ingersoll ◽  
Elizabeth Merrill ◽  
Daniel Stuckey ◽  
Gregory Collins ◽  
Brandon Harrison
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Secondary Teaching ◽  
Education Statistics ◽  
Data Source ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Teaching Force

This article summarizes the results of an exploratory research project that investigated what demographic trends and changes have, or have not, occurred in the elementary and secondary teaching force in the U.S. over the past three decades, from 1987 to 2018. Our main data source was the Schools and Staffing Survey and its successor, the National Teacher Principal Survey, collectively the largest and most comprehensive source of data on teachers available in the U.S. These surveys are conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Education. The results show that the teaching force has been, and is, greatly changing; yet, even the most dramatic trends appear to have been little noticed or understood by researchers, policy makers, and the public. This article summarizes seven of the most prominent trends and changes that we found. The U.S. teaching force is: larger; older; less experienced; more female; more diverse, by race/ethnicity; consistent in academic ability; unstable. For each of the trends, we explore two broad questions: 1. What are the reasons for and sources of the trend? 2. What are the implications and consequences of the trend?

Prolonging the careers of older information technology workers: continuity, exit or retirement transitions?

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
LIBBY BROOKE
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
It Industry ◽  
Information Technology Workers ◽  
Career Trajectories ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
It Workers

ABSTRACTThe article explores the ways in which older workers' career trajectories influenced their exit from or continuity of employment in the Australian information technology (IT) industry. The data were collected through qualitative interviews with 71 employees of 10 small and medium-sized IT firms as part of the cross-country Workforce Ageing in the New Economy project (WANE), which was conducted in Canada, the United States, Australia and several European Union countries (the United Kingdom, Germany and The Netherlands). The analysis revealed that older IT workers' capacity to envisage careers beyond their fifties was constrained by age-based ‘normative’ capability assumptions that resulted in truncated careers, dissuaded the ambition to continue in work, and induced early retirement. The workers' constricted, age-bound perspectives on their careers were reinforced by the rapid pace of technological and company transformations. A structural incompatibility was found between the exceptional dynamism and competitiveness of the IT industry and the conventional age-staged and extended career. The analysis showed that several drivers of occupational career trajectories besides the well-researched health and financial factors predisposed ‘default transitions’ to exit and retirement. The paper concludes with policy and practice recommendations for the prolongation of IT workers' careers and their improved alignment with the contemporary lifecourse.

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