Now I know what ICT can do for me!

The under‐representation of women entering into information and communication technology (ICT) programmes is a long‐standing problem. While ICT continues to be increasingly accepted and integrated into everyday life, gender stereotypes prevail in ICT turning female students away from ICT as an occupation. Based on existing literature on factors influencing girls' career choices and on an empirical qualitative study in three schools in Australia, a conceptualisation of the influence of middle‐school experiences on girls' ICT study and career choices is presented. This conceptualisation is used as a guide to evaluate a recent intervention programme aimed at promoting ICT study and work opportunities to middle‐school girls. A number of recommendations for future programmes are provided, highlighting the need to study how subcultures that support ICT career choices develop and are supported in Australian schools.

[1]  Larry L. Constantine,et al.  Back to the future , 2001, CACM.

[2]  J. Henslin,et al.  Sociology: A Down-To-Earth Approach , 1996 .

[3]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  Retaining women in the U.S. IT workforce: theorizing the influence of organizational factors , 2009, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[4]  Sandra Downes.  Into the New Millennium: Why do Students Decide to Study IT? , 2002 .

[5]  T. Downes.  Children's and Families' Use of Computers in Australian Homes , 2002 .

[6]  Georgina Tsolidis.  Australian Multicultural Education: Revisiting and Resuscitating , 2008 .

[7]  William Aspray,et al.  The State of Research on Girls and IT , 2008 .

[8]  Jenine Beekhuyzen,et al.  Mentoring Australian Girls in ICT , 2006 .

[9]  Susan H. Nielsen,et al.  Australian women in IT0 , 2001, CACM.

[10]  Kate M. Kaiser,et al.  Factors Influencing Girls' Choice of Information Technology Careers , 2006 .

[11]  Allan Fisher,et al.  Unlocking the Clubhouse : Women in Computing by Allan Fisher , 2015 .

[12]  Alan Durndell,et al.  Gender, IT, and Educational Choice in East and West Europe , 2006 .

[13]  Judy McKay,et al.  Australian IT enrollment trends and model of contributing factors , 2006 .

[14]  Annemieke Craig.  Attracting Women to Computing: A Framework for Evaluating Intervention Programmes , 2010 .

[15]  Susan Hilary Nielsen,et al.  Australian Women in IT , 2001 .

[16]  Kaylene Clayton.  The Influence of Metropolitan Brisbane Middle-School ICT Experience on Girls' ICT Study and Career Choices , 2009 .

[17]  G. Denise,et al.  Investigating the Incredible Shrinking Pipeline for Women in Computer Science , 2003 .

[18]  Kate M. Kaiser,et al.  Early determinants of women in the IT workforce: a model of girls' career choices , 2005, Inf. Technol. People.

[19]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  Closing the digital divide: understanding racial, ethnic, social class, gender and geographic disparities in Internet use among school age children in the United States , 2005, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[20]  Maximino Plata,et al.  Effects of Gender, Socioeconomic Status, and Early Academic Performance on Postsecondary Educational Choice , 2000 .

[21]  Susan H. Nielsen,et al.  Gender stereotypes prevail in ICT: a research review , 2009, SIGMIS CPR '09.

[22]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  Odd girl out: an individual differences perspective on women in the IT profession , 2002, Inf. Technol. People.

[23]  P. N. Raja Junankar,et al.  Occupational Choice: Personality Matters , 2009, Social Science Research Network.

[24]  Margaret Ann Wilkinson,et al.  Situating gender: students' perceptions of information work , 2004, Inf. Technol. People.

[25]  H. Dryler,et al.  Parental role models, gender and educational choice. , 1998, The British journal of sociology.

[26]  Elizabeth Johnson,et al.  Still a stranger here: attitudes among secondary school students towards computer science , 2003 .

[27]  G. Tsolidis,et al.  Strategic encounters: choosing school subcultures that facilitate imagined futures , 2006 .

[28]  Vivian Anette Lagesen,et al.  The Woman Problem in Computer Science , 2006 .

[29]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  Women talking about IT work: duality or dualism? , 2003, SIGMIS CPR '03.

[30]  Manju K. Ahuja.  Women in the information technology profession: a literature review, synthesis and research agenda , 2002, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[31]  Jacquelynne S. Eccles,et al.  Linking gender to educational, occupational, and recreational choices: Applying the Eccles et al. model of achievement-related choices. , 1999 .

[32]  Pat Byrne,et al.  The effect of student attributes on success in programming , 2001, ITiCSE '01.

[33]  Jacquelynne S. Eccles,et al.  Understanding Women's Educational And Occupational Choices: Applying the Eccles et al. Model of Achievement-Related Choices , 1994 .

[34]  R. Cavanagh,et al.  Secondary school culture and improvement : teacher , student and parent perspectives , 2013 .

[35]  Diana G. Oblinger,et al.  Educating the Net Generation , 2005 .

[36]  Pat Byrne,et al.  The effect of student attributes on success in programming , 2001 .

[37]  M. Adya,et al.  Women at work: Differences in IT career experiences and perceptions between South Asian and American women , 2008 .

[39]  Reena Pau,et al.  Computer geek versus computer chic: IT career and IT education , 2005 .

[40]  Tracy Camp,et al.  The incredible shrinking pipeline , 2002, SGCS.

[41]  E. Newmarch,et al.  Women in IT-what are the barriers , 2000 .

[42]  Joanna Goode,et al.  Lost in Translation: Gender and High School Computer Science , 2006 .

[43]  Guofang Wan,et al.  The education of diverse student populations : a global perspective , 2008 .