Paper Info
Title
Is the information systems profession gendered?: characterization of IS professionals and IS career
Abstract
In spite of a more "feminine" nature of the information systems (IS) discipline due to its greater perceived social component, stereotypes and educational prejudices that are prevalent in the computer science discipline are assumed to exist in the information systems field. The objective of this study is to test the validity of this assumption by uncovering the perceptions of college students toward IS professionals and the IS profession. Our study reveals that stereotypes found to be associated with computer science also seem to permeate the IS field. However, after students are exposed to IS careers, they appear to grasp the unique nature of IS. In other words, while describing an IS professional and the IS profession, men and women were cognizant that the IS profession is a blend of technical, systems, social, and managerial components. This study also sheds some light on the question - Is the IS profession perceived to be gendered? Based on the study's results, we conclude that the students' perceptions of IS careers are to some extent gendered with a greater emphasis on masculine than feminine or gender neutral traits and abilities.
Year
DOI
Venue
2006
10.1145/1185335.1185343
Special Interest Group on Computer Personnel Research Annual Conference
Keywords
Field
DocType
college student,computer science discipline,information systems profession,it education,greater emphasis,computer science,educational prejudice,unique nature,stereotypes,managerial component,information system,gender,information systems field,is image,social component,it personnel
Information system,Social psychology,It education,Psychology,Prejudice,Perception,Spite
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISBN
37
4
1-58113-666-8
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
30
1.76
17
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
K. D. Joshi173959.01
Nancy L. Schmidt2301.76
Kristine M. Kuhn3836.17