Background

Worldwide, there has been a strong drive to promote IT as a career for women and to attract them to IT-related courses. As De Palma (2001) points out, a wealth of available literature speculates about the reasons that so few young women enroll in IT-related courses. Many studies (Myers and Beise, 2001; Cuny and Aspray, 2000) focus on attracting and retaining female students and suggest ways to increase the number of young women preparing for and entering the IT Industry. This groundwork would be futile when these women enter the IT industry and an effort is not made to retain them as part of the workforce.

Carver (2000) hypothesizes that in order to attract more women to IT, the workplace must have flexible hours, part-time career options, the possibility of reduced work-hours, work-from-home possibilities and childcare facilities. These and other issues related to women in IT are investigated in this study.

Data for the study was gathered from women currently in the IT industry. The study aims to separate myth from reality in terms of what women want, their perceptions of the industry and what keeps them there, and to recommend employment strategies and management policies.