ABSTRACT

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.