Spring 2001

Volume 3 Number 2
A publication of Macon State College

Women Get Into IT

While underrepresented nationally in most technology related academic majors, women are enrolling in droves in MSC's Bachelor of Science in Information Technology degree program. That's good news for an industry trying to deal with professional worker shortages.

By Sheron Smith

Nikki Hatcher enrolled at Macon State College a couple of years ago because she was attracted to the bachelor of science degree in information technology. But before she formally declared IT as her major, she decided to do a little research into the career possibilities.
What she learned troubled her.

"I saw all these headlines that said things like, 'IT Field Not Popular With Women,' " said Hatcher, 31, an administrative assistant at the Macon-based Office of Personnel Management, which provides technology related services to federal agencies with branches in the region. "I decided to go ahead with the IT program, but I'll be honest with you: I felt slightly intimidated."

While class instructor Tina Ashford (arms folded) looks on, students in her Computer Hardware and Sofware Concepts class study the design of computer hardware. The course is an in-depth exploration of the functions and architecture of computer hardware and operating systems software.

Now a senior in the program's multimedia track, Hatcher is feeling much more confident about her choice of major, in part because she has plenty of female company.

While the majority of Macon State's IT majors are male, women make up a substantial portion of the program's enrollment at 45 percent. The presence of female role models on the IT faculty also eased Hatcher's concerns.

"There are some women at my job, too, who are doing very well as programmers and are getting into management," Hatcher said. "I felt that if they could do it, so could I."

The popularity of Macon State's IT degree program among women -- who on a national scale tend to be underrepresented in technology related academic majors -- is a positive sign for a male-dominated industry facing shortages of qualified professionals to fill the jobs.

Despite the rapid growth of professional IT jobs in the U.S., women held only 28 percent of all such positions in 1999, according to the Information Technology Association of America. The American Association of University Women reported recently that only about 25 percent of all computer-science degrees awarded in the U.S. in 2000 went to women, even though well over half of the nation's college students are female. Computer science is more theory based than IT, but the numbers still illustrate the challenges of attracting women to technology related academic majors.

If IT is one of the hottest professions of the new century, generally offering good career and income potential, why would many women hesitate to take the plunge?

Various studies and anecdotal evidence point to several explanations. One is a longstanding notion that girls are less encouraged than boys to pursue careers related to math, science or technology. Other reasons include a shortage of female role models in information technology; unappealing, stereotyped images of computer geeks; and the notion that IT jobs are lonely and boring and require long hours that make it difficult for women with children.

Another reason experts suggest is the tendency of some IT program instructors to focus less on the creative aspects of information technology and more on the so-called macho world of computer gadgets and hardware.
Whatever the reasons, Macon State College seems to be transcending them.

The college launched one of Georgia's first bachelor of science degrees in IT in 1997, and much of program's rapid growth - from an initial enrollment of 57 to nearly 700 today - is due to female students. In addition, many female Macon State students who are not IT majors are taking multiple information technology courses as part of other bachelor of science degree programs, such as business, communications and health information management.

New Surge

Macon State's success in attracting females to IT could be reflecting a recent surge, yet to reveal itself in any formal studies or surveys, in the number of women showing interest in professional information technology careers. Besides traditional college-age females, many mid-career women are catching on to the myriad opportunities an IT degree will open to them.

"I've been working with computers in some shape or fashion since 1976, but I was always the grunt pushing the keys," said Julia Owen, 43, a multimedia major and one-time secretary. "I once had a boss who presented as his own a spreadsheet program that I had done because he didn't know how to do it - and he was the one making the big bucks. "I thought to myself, 'What's wrong with this picture?' I decided it was my turn to be the manager."

Dr. Bill Elieson, Macon State's IT division chair, agrees that more women are discovering that "information technology is a profession in which they can find an interesting niche, and in which they can do well. So it is less daunting than it used to seem.

"I think we're going to begin seeing more women in the professional IT workforce," he added, "but it will take time to fill the pipeline. If 100 percent of all IT students were women, it would still take years for their percentage in the professional workforce to reach 50 percent."

As president of Women In Technology, one of eight societies of the Atlanta-based Technology Association of Georgia, Marci McCarthy also notes that female interest in IT careers is growing along with a general awareness of what the profession offers as far as creativity and interacting with others.

"The days of the guy locked in a closet by himself writing code are over," said McCarthy, director of product management for SecureWorks, an Atlanta-based Internet security company.

"Most IT careers today require the ability to work in a team-oriented environment, and more people are beginning to realize that. I've had more fun in the IT world, and have gotten more opportunities to meet interesting, intellectual people, than with anything else I've done."

Role Models

Macon State hasn't specifically targeted women in IT program marketing, but a couple of factors seem to be helping to draw them in.

Sandra Driver, seated, is a Macon State IT major and a network administrator with Advanced Testing Technologies Inc. in Warner Robins. Here she visits with ATT's program manager, Dave Shiplett.

One, as Hatcher discovered, is the presence of female role models on the IT faculty. Seven of the 23 full- and part-time faculty are women, a significant number considering how male-dominated the IT industry is as a whole.

Elizabeth Riley, who joined the Macon State IT faculty last fall after 16 years in the private sector, said female role models are important for both women and men.

"Having more women has helped the profession overall," said Riley, former systems development manager for The Bibb Company. "There is more understanding now about people needing to deal with sick children or handle family crises. Women need to see that you can manage an IT department and go home and be a wife and mom."

Tina Ashford, an assistant professor in the IT division, has informally tracked female interest in information technology throughout her career. When she began teaching 10 years ago at a women's school, William Woods University in Fulton, Mo., only six students were majoring in computer information systems (CIS), the program in which Ashford taught.

"It was challenging to get women to consider a CIS major," Ashford said. "Even at a women's university we had to overcome that image of CIS being a major for the stereotypical male computer geek."

Ashford said her academic department introduced some courses in computer basics to generate interest and, by working extra hard at recruiting, managed to boost the number of information systems majors to 80 in a couple of years.

A decade later, Ashford can't help but find a little irony in the fact that some of her male students at Macon State enrolled in the IT program at the encouragement of their wives or girlfriends who were already pursuing the degree.

"A lot of our success in attracting both men and women is due to word-of-mouth promotion from our current students," Ashford said.
Riley noted that IT is less math-based than it used to be, so some women - and men, for that matter - who might otherwise have been intimidated are diving right in.

"You don't have to take four calculus courses these days to get an IT degree," she said. "You can design networks, put together PCs, build websites and program in a huge number of languages without needing to know a lot of math."

The RAFB Factor

Another factor working in Macon State's favor is the proximity of Robins Air Force Base, where female military and civilian personnel were well represented in computer-related jobs at a time when it was rare to find women in similar private sector positions.

Debra K. Walker, civilian director of the Technology and Industrial Support Directorate at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center at RAFB, began her IT career as a systems analyst in 1980. She said that at the time, at least half of the other civilian WRALC workers in information systems career tracks were women.

"I came along at a time when the federal government was looking to move more women into professional tracks," said Walker, a Macon State alumna and board member of the newly formed Central Georgia Technology Alliance.

"A lot of women who worked at the base realized that an information systems training track had more advancement potential, so there was never a problem recruiting women," Walker said. "But I did notice when dealing with the private contractors we did business with that there would never be any women working for them."

Macon State's IT degree program, she said, has given female RAFB employees who learned how to do technology-related work through their jobs the chance to earn bachelor's degrees to enhance their professional skills.

Elizabeth Riley, an assistant professor in MSC's IT division, looks over the work of two students in a recent class

One of those women is Jackie Leach, a master sergeant with HQ Air Force Reserve Command Security Forces and a networking major at Macon State. Leach, who works in information management at RAFB troubleshooting computer problems, questions the very notion that the IT field is not as popular with women.

"Most of my female friends in college right now are pursuing degrees in IT," Leach said. "I think women want the chance to make a good salary as much as men do, and IT is where the money's at right now."

The IT environment in private contracting has also gotten friendlier for women. While she is the only female among the six IT professionals at her worksite, Macon State programming major Sandra Driver said her gender has never been an issue.
"IT may have been intimidating for some women in the past, but I think more and more are comfortable working with computers," said Driver, a network administrator for Advanced Testing Technologies, a government contractor in Warner Robins. "I think there is a bright future for women in the information technology field."

Riley said that because IT is a relatively young field, salaries are more equal between men and women than in traditional professions "where men have been in charge forever.

"Women see the good income they can earn and that there are lots of IT jobs out there," she said. "I think these days, women are as equally attracted to IT as men."

Hatcher, the multimedia major who refused to let media headlines scare her away from an IT career, plans to graduate in spring 2002. Her goal is to pursue a career in web development.

She hopes to be a role model for anybody, male or female, who still thinks an IT career means "typing on a computer all day."
"Information technology is so much more than that," Hatcher said. "I'm very excited to be a part of it."