Constructing the information society: women, information technology, and design

Technology in Society 22 (2000) 45–62
www.elsevier.com/locate/techsoc
Constructing the information society: women,
information technology, and design
Jane E. Fountain *
Harvard University, John F. Kennedy Sch of Government, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge,
MA 02138, USA
Abstract
For the first time in history, women have the opportunity to play a major and visible role
in a social transformation of potentially monumental proportions. The extensive reach and
penetration of information technology into virtually every area of society creates enormous
opportunities for women. But women’s lack of representation in IT design roles may prevent
them from capitalizing on these opportunities. Most current discussion and analysis focuses
on the increasing numbers of women as users of information technology with great emphasis
on their use of the Internet and World Wide Web. Comparatively little attention has been
given to the potential role women might play as designers in an information-based society.
As the data in this paper clearly indicate, women are poorly represented in the sector that
constitutes the growth engine of the U.S. economy and that bears primary responsibility for
the scientific and technological development of an Information Society. The human capital
requirements of the Information Society demonstrate the need for women to strengthen their
participation as experts, owners and designers of information technologies. This paper argues
that stronger representation by women in technical roles not only would help to redress a
troubling human capital deficit, but is highly likely to modify and expand the range of techno-
logical applications, products, standards and practices to benefit all of society. On the impor-
tance of women as scientific and technical experts, see [1,2].
To develop this argument, the paper surveys across several policy areas to identify a central
challenge that does not neatly fit into established policy categories. The first section of this
paper distinguishes between the types of contributions that may be made by users of infor-
mation technology versus its designers. The second section surveys current participation rates
of women in IT-related fields within education and industry in order to gauge the near-term
supply of women designers and experts. The third section argues, by analogy to the fields of
medicine and psychology, that the degree of participation by women is likely to have a notable
* Tel.: +1-617-495-2823; fax: +1-617-496-5960.
E-mail address: jane fountain@harvard.edu (J.E. Fountain).
0160-791X/00/$ - see front matter  2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 0 - 7 9 1 X ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 3 6 - 6

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J.E. Fountain / Technology in Society 22 (2000) 45–62
effect on professional practice and technological developments within the fields that constitute
information technology.
The current economy presents a stellar opportunity for women to assume leadership roles
in research and development of information technologies and applications. According to the
U.S. Department of Commerce, use of the Internet, World Wide Web and other digital techno-
logies continues to proliferate. The U.S. economy and its labor needs have shifted radically
producing a serious deficit of IT workers. The U.S. Department of Commerce [3, p. 4] uses the
following definitions and categories to denote information technology and related occupations:
computer scientists, computer engineers, systems analysts and computer programmers. The
classification is based on categories used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Demand for work-
ers able to develop, apply and use these technologies extends beyond the computer and
software industries into service industries, including health care, manufacturing, transportation,
government and education. Information technology accounted for more than a third of the
nation’s real economic growth from 1995 to 1997 [3, p. 5]. If not addressed, labor market
shortages in information technology related occupations are estimated to diminish national
productivity, the development of new products and services, economic growth, and national
competitiveness [4].
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that approximately 137 800 new jobs in information
technology occupations have been and will be produced each year from 1996 to 2006.1 The
U.S. educational system awarded only 24 098 bachelor’s degrees and 9658 associate’s degrees
in computer and information sciences in 1995 and 1996 [5, Tables 248 and 253, pp. 280,
286]. Immigration policy has recently been modified, with passage of the American Competi-
tiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998, to meet the current shortfall of IT workers
[6]. Firms seek to employ skilled workers from abroad, notably from India, Russia, Eastern
Europe, Southeast Asia and South Africa. But while the U.S. government has temporarily
raised the quota of skilled non-immigrant visas to accommodate increased demand, the legis-
lation includes a sunset provision that mandates lowering the cap by 2002. Even if immigration
levels are not reduced, evidence of a global deficit of information technology workers (see
[7] for one example) is likely to constrain the ability of firms to use immigration policy and
global outsourcing of IT activities [4, p. 2]. The U.S. political economy requires modernization
of domestic employment and education policies to sustain growth in the information society.
 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Information technology; Public policy; Women and science; Women and technology
1. Women, technology use, and design
The enabling characteristics and effects of the Internet and the World Wide Web,
as currently designed, create scope for women to become sophisticated and innov-
ative technology users. In the Information Age, in contrast to the Industrial Age,
physical power has become less important to economic competitiveness. Human,
social, and information capital have largely replaced physical capital in importance
within industrial economies [8,9].
1 This figure includes both newly created jobs and the replacement of workers who are leaving the
field. See U.S. Department of Commerce, June 1999 [3, p. 25].

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J.E. Fountain / Technology in Society 22 (2000) 45–62
47
Implementation of information technologies within and across organizations has
eroded the importance of hierarchy and command-and-control authority systems that
structured power within them. Increased use of multidimensional networks of organi-
zations as vehicles for economic and political decision-making requires a distinct set
of organizational, communication, and managerial skills, at which women tend to
be proficient (see [10] for one example. Note that the sample size for executive
women is small at n=25, 26, and 31 for the three assessments reported. Nevertheless
the findings are statistically significant at the p <0.05 level. Moreover, these findings
are supported by a wide array of observational and anecdotal evidence in the manage-
ment literature). The creation of social capital, a key to innovation in network struc-
tures, demands openness to uncertainty and ambiguity; to dynamic management pro-
cesses; to multiple, partially overlapping rule regimes; and to collaboration as well
as competition [11–13]. Women have traditionally managed well under these con-
ditions.
The economics and architecture of the Internet and World Wide Web enable dis-
intermediation, allowing women in many cases to bypass traditional gatekeepers and
power brokers. The Internet and World Wide Web provide an exceptional medium
within which to expand and strengthen interconnections, linkages, and networks inde-
pendent of distance rendering the coordination costs of organization by geographi-
cally dispersed women less burdensome. Finally, the capacity of information techno-
logies to enable more flexible, family-friendly work arrangements may assist women
to combine work and family in ways that offer new possibilities for professional
career and social development.
Women are the predominant users of information technology in the workplace.
In 1997, 56.5% of women and 44.1% of men used computers at work [5, Table 424,
p. 481]. Women’s role as user allows for influence of plastic functions of new media
and technologies. Customization of screen displays, modification of electronic com-
merce experiences, use of agents and filters allow users to shape their applications.
Software developments enable users to undertake functions that until recently were
the preserve of programmers. Moreover, users will shape future design indirectly
through political and economic influence. In sum, the value to women of information
technology use is undeniably substantial.
But the influence of users, though important and far-reaching, is limited. Designers
fashion technology more deeply, pervasively and fundamentally. The socio-technical
perspective invites consideration of technology as “a system of human beings coop-
erating in quite complex ways, creating a new or improved capacity which others
may use to alter their lives” [14–17]. This perspective suggests inquiry into the
question “Who is technology?” as well as “What is technology”? [18].
Social possibilities offered by information technologies are in large part products
of “deep” design, characteristics and properties not readily, or not at all, open to
modification by users. Designers exercise influence by defining the technological
needs of users and those affected by technology. They develop structures and pro-
cesses, design construction codes, build the rule systems that constrain Web navi-
gation, formulate protocols for communication and conduct in cyberspace, and

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J.E. Fountain / Technology in Society 22 (2000) 45–62
choose the extent to and ease with which tools may be customized by users. Design-
ers affect society through technology in ways that users cannot.
Women are poorly represented as information technology designers and experts.
Women comprised 28.2% of computer scientists in the U.S. labor force in 1995 [19].
The Office of Technology Policy uses Census figures to estimate that women rep-
resent 26.9% of computer systems analysts and 28.5% of computer programmers [3,
p. 94]. They comprise less than 30% of computer professionals. The importance of
design and its critical role in the construction of an information society underlies
the argument for a more powerful role for women.
2. Fifty/fifty by 2020? Participation, gender and computing
Any analysis of women’s participation in the fields that support information tech-
nology must begin with child development. Science and education policies designed
to reduce gender inequity in post-secondary and graduate study miss critical periods
during childhood and adolescence that later constrain education and career decisions.
In other words, attitudes that relate identity, gender and technology are acquired
early in life. Children choose toys according to their perceptions of gender appropri-
ateness by the age of one [20, p. 35].
Until recently, the consumer software industry took for granted that no market
existed for computer games designed for girls [21]. In November 1996, Mattel
Media, a division of Mattel, Inc. (the only Fortune 500 company at that time led by
a female Chief Executive Officer) introduced the computer software, Barbie Fashion
Designer. It became a stunning commercial success selling more than 500 000
copies during the first two months after its introduction. This clear signal from the
market led to a stream of software designed for girls by Mattel and other firms. It
is well documented in empirical research prior to 1997 that fewer girls than boys
play computer games [22–24]. But the empirical phenomenon is changing, possibly
as a result of the development of girl-friendly games. Beginning in 1997, data indi-
cate that girls and boys play games with similar frequency beginning in the pre-
primary years to the 8th grade, and that girls’ use of computer games decreases
beginning in grade 9 [5, Table 427, p. 483].
Evidence suggests that the Internet and Web also are drawing girls to computers.
The proportion of elementary and middle school boys and girls using the Internet
and Web was almost identical in 1997 [5]. New media allow girls to exercise creativ-
ity and communication skills. Growth of chat rooms, interactive Web sites for girls
and other forms of on-line community mean that computer use need no longer be
solitary or restricted to game playing. Particularly during adolescence, Internet and
Web use may promote a sense of identity and independence, while simultaneously
building confidence in computing, see [25] for one example. Recent developments
invite reexamination of assumed intransigent gender differences in attitudes
toward computing.

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J.E. Fountain / Technology in Society 22 (2000) 45–62
49
2.1. Trends in secondary education
Among high school students, the percentages of men and women using computers
are similar. Of students in grades 9 to 12 in 1997, 71.3% of men and 69.6% of
women report using computers at school; 49.3% of men and 48.1% of women report
using computers at home [5, Table 428, p. 484]. Predominant use of computers at
school and home is restricted to word-processing, game playing and the completion
of homework assignments in non-technical fields [5, Table 427, p. 483].
High school science and math course taking should be a strong predictor of entry
into technical fields. Students who graduated from high school in the 1990s, whether
men or women, are more likely to have taken advanced science courses — such as
physics, chemistry and biology — than they were in the 1980s or previously. Women
have made substantial gains in science course participation during the past decade.
Female high school graduates remain less likely to have taken physics, but are now
slightly more likely to have taken biology and chemistry courses. Women’s partici-
pation in physics courses has been increasing since 1982, narrowing but not yet
closing the gender gap in physics [19]. Women have achieved even greater gains in
mathematics coursework. They are more likely than men to have taken courses in
geometry and algebra II and nearly equally likely to have taken calculus. Women
remain under-represented in many math and science advanced placement subjects.
In 1997, they comprised between 35 and 45% of those taking advanced placement
calculus and chemistry, less than 35% of those taking the advanced placement phys-
ics exam and just 17% of those studying advanced placement computer science [26].
Overall, these data indicate substantial gains in course taking for young women.
Results of standardized examinations indicate lower levels of technological confi-
dence or competence of young women than implied by courses taken. The results of
the science component of the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP)
examination indicate no statistical difference between genders in science proficiency
at age nine. But young men outperform young women by a small, diminishing, yet
statistically significant margin at ages 13 and 17 (see Fig. 1) [19, Based on data
from Appendix Table 1-3, p. A-11].
Average performance of young women on the National Assessment of Educational
Progress mathematics examination is similar to, but generally below, that of young
men (see Fig. 2) [19, Based on data from Appendix Table 1-10, p. A-18].
Results of the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) are troubling (see Fig. 3) [5,
Based on data from Table 132, p. 146]. Since at least 1972, women have scored,
on average, 39 points below men on the mathematics portion of the SAT. (Note that
the range of scores is 200 to 800.) This gap has remained constant. Only 14% of
women achieved mathematics scores in the top range (600 to 800) in 1994, whereas
24% of men scored in this range [27]. The persistent gender gap in math performance
on the SAT requires explanation considering the exam’s importance as an admissions
criterion for post-secondary institutions and major fields of study. Given increased
course taking in math and science by young women in high school during the 1990s
and statistically similar grade point averages in those courses, the results present
a puzzle.

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J.E. Fountain / Technology in Society 22 (2000) 45–62
Fig. 1.
National assessment of educational progress science scores, by age and gender, 1977–96.
Fig. 2.
National assessment of educational progress mathematics scores, by age and gender, 1978–96.
Fig. 3.
Scholastic aptitude test (SAT) mathematics and verbal score averages for college-bound high
school seniors, by gender, 1972–98.

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J.E. Fountain / Technology in Society 22 (2000) 45–62
51
Persistence of the gap in SAT mathematics scores is difficult to interpret. It may
be that young women exhibit greater lack of confidence, fear of success, or sub-
optimal test taking preparation and strategies. Gender bias may exist in the construc-
tion of this standardized test. Administrators of the SAT discount the likelihood of
bias. But a recent small amendment to the Preliminary SAT exam in mathematics,
involving the introduction of a writing component, reduced the gender gap by 40%.2
Women score below men even in the verbal section of the SAT in spite of higher
levels of course taking and stronger grade point averages. Throughout the 1980s,
the gender difference in verbal scores was approximately 11 points. Beginning in
1990, this gap began to close. By the mid-1990s women scored approximately four
points below men, on average, but this stretched to seven points in 1998 [5, Table
132, p. 146].3
It appears that young women have strengthened course taking in science and math-
ematics, modestly since the early 1980s and dramatically since the late 1980s. Based
on these indicators, we might expect women who graduated from high school from
the early 1990s onward to enter information technology related fields in greater num-
bers. However, a survey of intended majors reported by high school students who
take the SAT and plan to attend college found that unusually large numbers of
women are dissuaded from some fields, particularly from engineering, before arriving
at college (see Table 1).
Table 1
Intended undergraduate major of college-bound seniors taking the SAT, 1994a
Intended major
Male
Female
Science and engineering
40%
28%
Agriculture
2%
1%
Biology
5%
6%
Computing
4%
2%
Engineering
17%
3%
Mathematics
1%
1%
Physical sciences
2%
1%
Social sciences/history
9%
15%
Non-science and –engineering
60%
72%
Business and commerce
15%
13%
Education
4%
11%
Health and allied services
13%
24%
Other
28%
24%
a Based on data from NSF, Women Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineer-
ing: 1996, Appendix table 2-30, p.140.
2 See the discussion of this issue in [28, p. 149]. For an alternative perspective, see FairTest, press
release, http://www.fairtest.org/pr/psatgap.htm.
3 Note that women perform better than men, on average, on the English component of the American
College Testing (ACT) exam, the other main college entrance exam: [5, Table 135, p. 149].

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2.2. Undergraduate education
Women comprise 51% of the U.S. population and earn more than 50% of all
bachelor’s degrees [4, p. 25]. During the past twenty years, the number and share
of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women in the natural sciences and engineering has
increased markedly.4 While this trend suggests that women have made strides in
attaining educational equality overall, women hold only one out of six bachelor’s
degrees in engineering, considered the entry level degree to many technical careers.
Moreover, women earn only about 25% of computer and information sciences bach-
elor’s degrees.
Women’s participation has increased in most fields. In 1975, they earned only 2%
of engineering degrees and approximately 25% of natural sciences degrees. By con-
trast, women earned 47% of natural science degrees, 35% of mathematics and com-
puter science degrees and 17% of engineering degrees in 1995 [19, pp. 2–19].
Indicators of proportional increases must be interpreted carefully. In each year
since 1983, more women than men have earned bachelor’s degrees, and the numbers
of women in every field of science and engineering (except for mathematics) have
increased in absolute terms during the past twenty years [19, Appendix Table 2-20,
p. A-64]. The number of men earning bachelor’s degrees in the natural sciences and
mathematics has decreased and markedly so in some fields. Measurements of the
proportion of women in various fields neglect the decreasing proportion of men in
undergraduate education overall, and the steep decline in male enrollment in the
natural sciences. Whereas the share of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women in
mathematics and engineering increased slightly from 1985 to 1995, the actual number
of degrees awarded to women in these disciplines dropped.5
The trend in computer sciences shows that women’s participation has been steadily
declining as a proportion of bachelor’s level graduates. The percentage of computer
science degrees earned by women peaked in 1984 at 37.2. The absolute number of
computer science degrees awarded to women peaked in 1986 at 15 126 [19, Appen-
dix Table 2-20, p. A-64]. From 1986 to 1995, both the number and proportion of
degrees awarded to women dropped sharply. In 1995, women earned 7063 (28.5%
of) bachelor’s degrees in computer science [19]. More recent data do not indicate a
change in the trend. Men are three times more likely than women to select computer
science as a field of study [3, p. 95]. The recent explosive growth in computer science
enrollments has been accompanied by a slight decrease in the proportion of female
graduates [29].6
4 The NSF classification of natural sciences includes “the physical, chemical, biological, agricultural,
earth, atmospheric, and oceanographic sciences, as well as mathematics and the computer sciences” [19,
p. 2-4, n.1].
5 A sharp decline in male enrollment in computer science occurred in the early 1990s, but has increased
dramatically since 1995 [29].
6 A sharp increase in bachelor’s degree awards suggests that results are beginning to be produced. In
1998, 15% of the graduating class was female, as against 16% in both 1996 and 1997, and 18% in 1995.
However, these figures should be treated with some caution. They are based on a survey of Ph.D.-granting
computer science and computer engineering departments only. The response rates for 1997 and 1998
were 80 and 77%, respectively.

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J.E. Fountain / Technology in Society 22 (2000) 45–62
53
It is intriguing that women whose adolescence preceded the personal computer
revolution were more likely to study computer science than female high school
graduates of the past decade. Possibly, lack of easy access to computer technology
(specifically, computer games) in the 1960s and 1970s created a more level playing
field on which women did not perceive themselves to be at a disadvantage to men
in pursuing computing [30]. It would be ironic if home computing widened the
gender gap in information technology.
2.3. Graduate education
In 1997 and 1998, 16% of assistant professors, 12% of associate professors and
8% of full professors in U.S. and Canadian Ph.D.-granting computer science and
computer engineering departments were female [29, 1997–98].7 1992 data indicate
that 20% of full time instructional faculty and staff in U.S. computer science higher
education were women [5, Table 229]. These positions include non-ladder appoint-
ments such as lectureships and instructorships. In 1995, women earned 41% of mas-
ter’s degrees in natural sciences but only 16.2% of master’s level engineering
degrees. Women’s participation at the doctoral level declines further (see Fig. 4)
[19, Based on data from Appendix Table 2–30, p. A79]. At this level, women earned
31.2% of all science and engineering degrees, 20.6% of degrees in mathematics and
computer sciences, less than 12% of all engineering degrees, and slightly less than
10% of electrical engineering degrees in 1995 [19, Appendix Table 2-30, p. A-79].
Fig. 4.
Percentage of doctoral degrees awarded to women, by science and engineering field, 1995.
7 The comparable figures in the 1994-95 Taulbee survey indicated that at that time 20% of assistant
professors, 10% of associate professors and 5% of full professors were women [29, 1994–95].

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J.E. Fountain / Technology in Society 22 (2000) 45–62
These figures forecast low female representation in computer science and engineering
faculty during the next 20 years, a critical time period for the construction of infor-
mation infrastructure and the development of a range of information-based products
and services.
Cultural norms clearly function as barriers to entry and retention in engineering
and computer science [31, pp. 37-42; 32, pp. 243–65; 33]. In a study of college
students, 38% of the women, but only 20% of men, who transferred out of science
and engineering majors reported doing so primarily because of concerns regarding
career lifestyle [32, pp. 232–233]. The culture and norms of these fields include a
range of assumptions, practices and behaviors hostile or alienating to women [34].
Specifically, women tend to be seriously demoralized by courses designed to weed
out weaker students, by a lack of positive feedback relative to their experience in
secondary school and by a near absence of external social support, for example [35].
Perceptions of science and technology careers as socially isolated, all consuming,
intensely competitive and incompatible with healthy families encourage women to
avoid them.
2.4. The information technology industry
The Office of Technology Policy estimates that women currently represent 26.9%
of computer systems analysts and 28.5% of computer programmers [3, p. 94]. Female
computer scientists typically are employed at the lower end of the corporate hier-
archy. Only 7% of the nation’s 500 highest IT-using companies in 1996 employed
women in their top-ranking IT position [36]. Reports estimate that 2% of executives
in high technology firms are women [37]. Women accounted for 6% of software
and engineering board members in 1997 [38].
Impediments women encounter during their education are replicated in the work-
place as professionals, socialized in their higher education institutions, continue to
think and act in ways that tend to disadvantage women.8 Women are more likely to
interrupt their careers, to work part time, and under short-term contracts, patterns
that shunt women out of high potential career tracks. The pace and time constraints
of work in high technology firms make it nearly impossible to balance work and
family obligations. For these reasons and others, women are choosing not to pursue
or remain in information technology occupations.
One might argue that women in high tech fields share challenges similar to those
of other professional women. One might further argue that, over time, gender equality
will increase in information technology just as it has in other fields. But compelling
and distinctive features of IT-related fields require particular attention. The history
of computing varies from that of other professions with respect to representation by
women. While the proportion of women in professions such as law, medicine and
8 Female scientists and engineers at a 1994 conference sponsored by the Committee on Women in
Science and Engineering complained of paternalism, sexual harassment and allegations of discrimination
[39]. See also [40, pp. 76–118; 41].

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