The influence of environmental context on women in the IT workforce

In an effort to better understand the under representation of women in the IT field, the focus of research has been on the collection and analysis of empirical data. However, there is also a need for appropriate theory to understand and explain that data. Toward this end, Trauth has engaged in a program of research directed at the articulation of an empirically-grounded theory to explain and predict the under representation of women in the IT field. Called The Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT, this theory argues that the under representation of women in IT is better accounted for by understanding the variation across women than by focusing on ascribed differences between men and women in stereotype. To this end, a set of constructs has been identified, including: personal data, shaping and influencing factors and environmental context. This set of constructs is being used as the interpretive vehicle in a multi-year study of the life histories of women IT professionals. The results, to date, have addressed the personal data, and shaping and influencing factors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the construct: environmental context. The results suggest that economic factors such as size of the information economy, household income and cost of living, and cultural factors such as attitudes and values regarding women, women working and women working in IT do exert an influence on the experience of women in the IT workforce. Thus, the data analysis presented in this paper serves to further supports this emerging theory of individual differences of gender and IT and its constructs.