This presentation to the 2012 annual EDUCAUSE conference describes the state of women's participation in higher education technology occupations, and what can be done to increase and advance women in university and college IT careers.

1. Too Few Women in IT:
Now What?!
EDUCAUSE 2012 :: Friday, November 9"
Lucy Sanders: CEO, National Center for Women & Information
Technology (NCWIT)!
Deborah Keyek-Franssen: Director of Academic Technology,
University of Colorado at Boulder; Co-director, Colorado
Coalition for Gender and IT (CCGIT)!

2. Women in IT: Why Do They Matter?"
Women’s participation …"
"
» Reflects the user base"
» Enhances innovation, creativity"
» Expands the qualified talent pool "
» Benefits the bottom line"

3. Women Reflect the User Base"
» Women compose +50%
of college students!
!
» Women compose +50%
of higher ed faculty and
staff!
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data, 2011. NCES: Employees in degree-
granting institutions, by sex, employment status, control and level of institution, and primary occupation: Selected years, fall 1989
through fall 2009.
!

4. Women Enhance Innovation"
“There’s little correlation
between a group’s
collective intelligence and
the IQs of its individual
members. But if a group
includes more women, its
collective intelligence
rises.”!
Source: “Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups,” Science October 2010, Anita
Williams Woolley, Christopher F. Chabris, Alex Pentland, Nada Hashmi and Thomas W. Malone !

5. Women Expand the Talent Pool"
"We simply cannot afford to
alienate large chunks of the
workforce. It is a widely
understood truth that the
single biggest challenge is
attracting the right people …"
"
to literally handicap yourself
by 50 percent is insanity.”"
"
- Dan Shapiro, Google!

6. Women Benefit the Bottom Line"
Gender diversity yields:!
!
» Better, faster problem-
solving!
» More experimental,
more efficient teams!
» Higher return on
investment
Sources: Workplace Diversity Pays, American Sociological Review (2009), Capitalizing on Thought Diversity, Research-
Technology Management (2009), The Difference, Scott Page (2007), Innovative Potential, London Business School
(2007), The Bottom Line, Catalyst (2004)!

7. Women in Higher Ed IT: The Numbers"
Percent of higher education “Technology
37" Leader” positions held by women"
Percent of higher education CIOs who are
23" women"
Sources: Brown, Wayne: “Study of the Higher Education Chief Information Officer Roles and Effectiveness,” Center for Higher
Education Chief Information Officer Studies, Inc. (CHECS), 2011; Bureau of Labor Current Population Survey, 2011;
Bloomberg Businessweek, October 2012. !

8. University of Colorado: The Numbers"
Percent of women in the central IT shop"
22"
Percent of women in Help Desk, TCOM, AT"
9"
9" Percent of women in PMO, Ops, Tier 2/3"
4" Percent of women in non-technical
support positions"

9. Women in Higher Ed IT Are Declining"
Percent of female CIOs aged 41-45
20" who plan to retire in next decade"
Percent of male CIOs aged 41-45 who
7" plan to retire in next decade"
Source: Brown, Wayne: “Study of the Higher Education Chief Information Officer Roles and Effectiveness,” Center for Higher
Education Chief Information Officer Studies, Inc. (CHECS), 2011. !

10. Women Who Could Lead … Don’t"
Percent of female Technology Leaders
48" who aspire to be CIO"
Percent of male Technology Leaders
68" who aspire to be CIO"
Source: Brown, Wayne: “Study of the Higher Education Chief Information Officer Roles and Effectiveness,” Center for Higher
Education Chief Information Officer Studies, Inc. (CHECS), 2011. !

11. The Double Challenge for Women"
“As higher education institutions continue to
be dominated by male leadership and male
hegemonies, women pursuing careers in
academic leadership roles find themselves
disadvantaged.”"
"
“Women similarly find themselves
disadvantaged as they pursue technical or
leadership roles in IT organizations.”
Source: “Women Technology Leaders: Gender Issues in Higher Education Information Technology,” NASPA Journal About Women in
Higher Education, 2011.
!

12. The Lack of Women Matters More
Now Because IT Matters More Now"
» Schools increasingly look to IT to provide
competitive services, reduce costs, solve
problems!
» Technology occupations are growing faster
than the norm!
» The talent pipeline for IT jobs is falling short!
» Women are a mostly untapped talent pool!

13. So: Why So Few Women?"
è Unconscious bias"
è Lack of mentors and professional development"
è Supervisory relationships"
è Bias in performance reviews and promotion"
è Lack of support for competing life responsibilities"
Source: “Women Technology Leaders: Gender Issues in Higher Education Information Technology,” NASPA Journal About Women in
Higher Education, 2011.
!

14. Unconscious Bias Starts in Society"

15. Unconscious Bias: What Is It?"
“Schemas” help us make
sense of the world, but
they also cause us to
misinterpret, leading to
bias. !

16. What Do You See In This Picture?"
"
"

17. Unconscious Bias Salient in Orgs
Dominated by a Single Group"
Society Organizational Culture
Subtle Institutional
Schemas/
Unconscious Dynamics Barriers
Biases
Employees

18. Subtle Dynamics: What Are They?"
Ex 1: Stereotype Threat
Fear of confirming a
negative stereotype
Ex 2: Micro-inequities
Being singled out,
ignored, or discounted
based on race or gender

19. Bias: Stereotype Threat"
Example: White male
engineering students
score lower when told in
advance that Asians
typically score higher
on math tests
Source: Aronson, et al., 1999; Steele & Aronson, 1998!

20. How Stereotype Threat Can Impact
Women"
» Don’t speak up in
meetings!
» Reluctant to take
leadership positions !
» Discount their
performance!

21. Bias: Micro-inequities"
» Slights!
» Unacknowledged
accomplishments!
» Isolation and lack of
networks!
» Exclusion!

22. Institutional Barriers: What Are They?
Hiring
Selecting people “like me”
Task Assignment
Women in “low status” jobs
Performance Appraisal
Men – effort, individual & technical skill
Women – luck, strength of team, collaboration, easy
assignments
Promotion
Criteria modeled implicitly on existing senior male leaders

23. Bias in Performance Appraisal"
John
Both male and female Doe Jane
scientists gave the male
Doe
candidate better
assessments, said they
would be more likely to
hire the male candidate,
and offered the male
candidate a higher
salary. !
"
Moss-Racusin, Dovidio, Brescoll, Graham, and Handelsman: "Science faculty’s subtle gender biases
" favor male students," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012. 109: 16474-16479.!

24. Bias in Hiring"
When orchestras began “blind”
auditions with musicians behind a
curtain (and asked candidates to
remove their shoes), it increased by
50 percent the probability that
women would advance out of
preliminary rounds.!
Hires of female musicians
increased by 25-46 percent. !
!
Goldin & Rouse (2000) The American Economic Review, 90(4),
715-741.!

25. Organizations Influence and
Reinforce Bias"
Organizational biases
reflect external and
internal culture"
"
We perpetuate the
status quo when
nothing in the situation
forces us to question
our assumptions"

26. So: How Do We Fix This?"

27. Concrete Steps to Increase Women’s
Participation"
➔ Establish accountability metrics!
➔ Train supervisors!
➔ Remove bias from performance appraisal processes!
➔ Model personal engagement, sponsorship
➔ Foster inclusive team meetings and culture!
➔ Provide recognition, credit, encouragement!

28. What to Do When You Get Home"
» Examine task assignment and performance
reviews for bias"
» *Sponsor* underrepresented groups on the
technical career path (note that this is not the
same as mentoring)"
» Examine your actions for self-limiting
behaviors or beliefs"
» Provide encouragement"

29. NCWIT Can Help"

30. NCWIT Research-backed Resources"
è Supervisory Program-in-a-Box
Series!
è Mentoring Technical Women
Program-in-a-Box!
è Top Ten Ways to Be a Male
Advocate for Technical Women!
è Top 10 Ways Managers Can
Increase the Visibility of Technical
Women!

31. More Free NCWIT Resources"
Practices" Boxes" Talking Points Workbooks
" " Top Ten" Reports"

32. "At a university, people learn from each other.
!
“Diverse groups of people bring to organizations
more and different ways of seeing a problem and,
thus, faster/better ways of solving it.!
!
“I'm not making political statements …These are
mathematical results.”!
!
- Scott E. Page!

33. What Are YOU Going to Do
When You Get Home?"