Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering

ISSN for PRINT: 1072-8325

For Online Access

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2005, Volume11

Issue 4

93 pages

DOI: 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v11.i4

Issue price - $42.00

Sharon G. Levin
Department of Economics, 408 SSB, University of Missouri-St. Louis, One University Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63121

Paula E. Stephan
Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, P. O. Box 3992, Atlanta, GA 30302

This study examines the composition of the information technology (IT) workforce and focuses on recruitment and retention and how they differ by gender and minority status. Data are from SESTAT, the largest nationally representative sample of college-educated scientists and engineers living in the United States. The data indicate that only about one in three individuals in the IT workforce in 1999 actually had a formal degree in an IT discipline; thus, recruitment from non-IT disciplines plays an important role in determining the size of the IT workforce. Similarly, retention, especially for women and underrepresented minorities, is very important. Indeed, the 1999 IT workforce would have been larger and even more balanced in terms of gender and minority status if women and underrepresented minorities had retention rates similar to that of their white male counterparts. Furthermore, women and underrepresented minorities have different recruitment and retention patterns than do men and whites. These differences persist even after controlling for variables such as family structure, age, citizenship status and field of training, gender, and race/ethnicity.

DOI: 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v11.i4.30 Download article, 345-364 pages

Article price - $35.00

<< Previous article   Next article >>