Sophie Sweeney
Maddie Kahl
ENC 2135-0077
6 February 2018
Annotated Bibliography
Source 1
Wejnert, Barbara, et al. Empowerment of Women through Science and Technology Interventions. Regency Publications, 2010. EBSCOhost, http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzY2OTI4NF9fQU41?sid=58c0b496-a026-4e28-95df-81268f2b9744@sessionmgr4006&vid=1&format=EB&lpid=lp_149&rid=0
Barbara Wejnert is the former chair of Department of Global Gender Studies at the University of Buffalo, and former faculty and a director of academic programs at Cornell University. Her purpose in writing, “Empowerment of Women Through Science and Technology Interventions” was to advocate for more women to become involved within information fields, like information technology. Wejnert believes, “The involvement and engagement of women in the present-day Information Society on an equal footing with men would directly contribute to improving the livelihood of people, making it more sustainable and thereby promoting the social and economic advancement of societies.”.
Wejnert also discusses the adversity that women face globally, due to unequal opportunities and lack of resources, amongst other trials. Women pursuing careers in IT and ICT would not only contribute to the need for people in the field, but it would also assist in bridging the gap between the equality of men and women, especially in developing nations.
Empowerment of Women through Science and Technology Interventions discusses the importance of having women within this field because they offer a viewpoint that is unique to only and would relate to females who use technology. The recognition of the value of having women in IT is similar to the Lee Paul and Duncan Stewarts, from Deloitte’s, stance. I think they would all agree that having more women working in IT would help the industry because there would be a greater appeal to female technology users.
The reason this source is powerful is because Wejnert includes comparisons and statistics that contribute to the books reliability. She shares that, “The low ratios of girls in science and technology courses also reinforce the negative dynamics that limit women’s access to decision-making positions in the fields of science and technology.” FSU’s organization WISE is on campus to educate women in technology, so they can pursue careers, similar to how Wejnert encourages women to do the same.
Source 2
Dockterman, Eliana. “Cracking The Girl Code.” Time, vol. 184, no. 6, 18 Aug. 2014, pp 44-46. EBSCOhost,
“Cracking The Girl Code” references several different organizations that advertise the need and benefits of having more female programmers in the Information Technology field. This article by Eliana Dockterman, established culture writer for Times Magazine and graduate from Yale University, also mentions the recent effort technology firms are making to increase the number of women working for their firms.
Dockterman’s article is focused around a group of high school girls who are a part of a non-profit organization called Girls Who Called. One of the girls named, Riya Satara, admits that she was, “too scared to take a computer- science class where I would have been the only girl in a room of 19 guys.”. This article stresses the need for more workers in the technology field and why women should be included within this group. Women are valuable in the technology industry because many users of technology are women, so having women contribute to the production of products being consumed by women would benefit the industry.
“Cracking The Girl Code”, advocates for more girls to be exposed to this field at a young age so their interests can flourish throughout the fundamental years of their education. Similarly, Wejnert, author of Empowerment of Women through Science and Technology Interventions, also discusses the need for women in the technology industry. Although, Dockterman seems to be focusing more on the need for girls in Information Technology from a business perspective and Wejnert seems to be fixed on this topic from a female empowerment and equality mindset. I think all would agree with me that both of these perspectives are very important and valid viewpoints.
Source 3
Smith, Dimitra Jackson, et al. "Recruiting and Retaining Women in Information Technology Programs: Practices and Challenges in Iowa Community Colleges." New Directions for Community Colleges, no. 178, 2017, p. 79. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/cc.20255. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cc.20255/full
This peer-reviewed article by Dimitra Jackson Smith, professor of higher education at Texas Tech University examines, “exemplary practices and challenges of recruiting and retaining women in information technology programs in an Iowa community college context.” While this article does focus specifically on a community college in Iowa, it includes a lot of information pertaining to women in IT as a whole, outside of Iowa. It discusses the large growth in occupations in computing fields. Women are not equally represented in the technology fields but, with the large amount of jobs currently becoming available, that will continue to become available, women are encouraged to involve themselves in the technology industry.
This article talks about why women are important in Information Technology, why they are underrepresented, factors that affect women’s future career choices, recruiting and retaining women in the industry, and specific information pertaining to the community college in Iowa. This source discusses that women would not only improve the field but are mandatory for its growth! According to Smith, women in Information Technology are important because, “The gap between the job market needs and gender imbalance should be filled by increasing the enrollment of female students in computer science and IT majors and eventually increasing the number of women in IT occupations.”.
I think that Smith and Wejnert, author of Empowerment of Women through Science and Technology Interventions, would be able to relate and engage in interesting conversation because they are both familiar with the college campus and have experience in higher level education. These sources are similar in the way that they both address the lack of women in this industry.
One thing that sets this source apart from others is the amount of statistics and facts included. This quantitative data increases the validity of the article and makes for a great resource.
Source 4
Lee, Paul, and Duncan Stewart. “Women in IT Jobs: It Is about Education, but Also About More than Just Education | Technology, Media, and Telecommunications.” Deloitte, TMT Predictions 2016, 7 Mar. 2016, www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/tmt-pred16-tech-women-in-it-jobs.html#full-report.
Paul Lee, a partner and Global Head of Research for the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) industry at Deloitte and Duncan Stewart, Director of Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Research for Deloitte Canada collaborated together to report and discuss the issue that is, the lack of women in IT positions within the work force. Both of these men, who are well educated and well submerged within their fields, shed light onto the fact that there is a gender imbalance in IT, especially within developed countries, and although one way assume that this issue is being corrected by conscience efforts overtime, the opposite is happening, and the gap between the amount of men and women within this workforce is only growing larger.
Deloitte is one of larger corporations that prioritizes having women work within their company. This article states that the imbalance of women in IT positions has been recognized since 2005 but no recognizable efforts have been made in order to correct this and the factors that contribute to this fault are, the education pipeline, unconscious gender biases that occur during the recruiting and hiring stages, the differences between men and women in pay and promotions, the difficulty companies have with retaining female employees due to the culture within the IT workforce, “Issues that may be contributing to this lack of retention include pay and promotion. A hostile or sexist ‘bro-grammer’ culture can also be an issue: in one study, 27 percent of women cited discomfort with their work environment, either overt or implicit discrimination, as a factor in why they left their IT job.”
I think that Lee and Stewart discuss this issue in a very insightful and consciousness way, although they are both men and both in positions of leadership they recognize, address, and offer their thoughts on the topic. This article mainly discusses the lack of women in IT within the developed world, and while there is evidence for this and everyone would agree, there is similar evidence for such in the developing world. So, I think these men and Barbara Wejnert would be able to engage in intelligent conversation with one another, they would agree that there is a lack of women in IT, not only in the US but also abroad, and the harsh conditions females are faced with in the US are also noticeable for women in developing countries. I think all three of these people would agree that similar efforts must be made for women around the world in order to decrease the large gender gap within the IT occupation.
Source 5
Scheid, Lisa. "The challenges and rewards for women in information technology." Reading Eagle [Reading, PA], 25 Oct. 2016. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A467678740/ITOF?u=tall85761&sid=ITOF&xid=6b029309. Accessed 4 Feb. 2018.
Lisa Scheid, business reporter at the Reading Eagle and author of, “The challenges and rewards for women in information technology” shares the personal experiences of a few women within the information technology field through this piece. Scheid speaks with and gains understanding from a couple of women who lead the way for other women hoping to pursue careers in information technology.
This source agrees with the fact that women are lacking in the information technology fields but on a lighter note, Scheid shares some very empowering and motivational stories of women’s accomplishments despite the roadblocks they were faced with. "Sometimes you sit in a meeting with 15, 20 people, and I'm only woman there is." Modi, one of the women that Scheid worked with, shared some of her experiences of being a woman in a field with predominantly men, but, she follows up this statement with the words, “no problem.” Modi is an empowered female, excited to be in the position she is in, which is, Manager of Data Platforms. Although it is obvious that she is one of few women in her position, she realizes that her help and insight into the work is useful, unique, and needed.
An earlier source, “Cracking the Girl Code”, discusses the fact that because from a young age, girls are less exposed and encouraged to use and be interested in technology games, activities, and classes, they grow up to be less likely to pursue careers in related fields. “Cracking the Girl Code”, encourages young girls to become more involved in tech related fields, and in this article by Scheid, one of the women she talks to, Modi says, “Exposing young girls to programming and other technologies in the early ages can help as well. Combining arts, math and social media could give a positive perception of the IT field through class groupings such as STEM, or science, technology, engineering and math… Encouraging young women to innovate different ideas and implement them using technology such as app development, or YouTube video development, can reach the masses very easily." Scheid and Modi have very similar opinions, and both recognize the importance of exposing girls to technology at a younger age to encourage a broader range of career choices, aside from the traditional female occupations in the future.