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The Influence of Gender, and Race/Ethnicity on Advancement In Information Technology (IT)

With increased attention paid to the lack of diversity in U.S. technology firms, little attention is paid to women already in the technology workforce who aspire to senior leadership roles. This research study focused on understanding the experiences of African American/black, Asian American, European American/white, and Hispanic American/Latina women who advanced from technical/operational IT roles to senior IT executive (SITE) roles in corporate America. Previous research solely focused on gender, race, or ethnicity provided an insufficient and limited description of women's advancement journey. Rather than treat gender and race/ethnicity as mutually exclusive categories of experience and analysis, this study approached the topic from a gender intersectionality perspective and used the individual differences theory of gender and IT as an analytical lens. Specifically, the study examined women’s career progression in a more nuanced manner—observing gender within race or ethnic group—which provided greater insight into the participants’ advancement journey. The intent of this study was to understand how individual and organizational factors influenced each participant’s career progression and what role, if any, gender and race/ethnicity played in the journey. As a result of the analysis, six themes emerged: Pathways to the SITE Role; Informal Networks; Bias; Credibility and Legitimacy; Support; and Technical Skills. Issues of gender and race/ethnicity permeated most of the factors and influenced whether the factors helped or hindered. Although some findings support existing research on women's career barriers, the intent was not to generalize the findings to all women. Rather, the study’s results demonstrate that racial and ethnic variations among the women in addition to a variety of other factors contribute to different career progression experiences.