Women are under-represented in the information technology professions. A sufficient understanding of thernunderlying causes of gender under-representation in the information technology (IT) profession is needed inrnorder to develop effective educational policies and workplace human resource strategies to attract and retainrnmore women. Unfortunately, the relationship between women and information technology has drawn littlernattention in previous IS research. What limited research exists is quantitatively grounded in predominantrncognitions that technology is masculine, and masculinity is defined in terms of technical competence. Inrncontrast, the theoretical model proposed in this paper, the Women Coping with IT model (WCIT), identifiesrnlinkages between two fairly unrelated bodies of research, perceived gender differences in technology adoptionrnand diffusion, and women’s engagement within a male dominated majority culture. The integration of theserntwo areas of research substantiates the core of the model, a coping responses framework, which is based uponrnan analyzation of in-depth interviews conducted with 31 women knowledge workers in the field (Kase andrnTrauth 2003). By aggregating and realigning coping theories from other disciplines, the coping responsesrnframework establishes the underlying concepts framing commonalities and patterns of women’s copingrnstrategies in the information technology professions. This paper offers an alternative perspective on women’srnunder-representation in IT by revealing inadequacies in technology adoption and diffusion theories and byrnexamining the interrelations of women’s identity, and social and occupational coping behaviors.
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