Towards a theoretical framework for understanding the motivations of female South African university students to study Information Technology

Abstract

The considerable growth of the global information technology (IT) sector demands a supply of suitable qualified workers. While universities are an important source of IT graduates, the number needs to be increased, especially those of women and underrepresented minorities.

This study investigates the factors that influence the decision of female South African university students to study Information Technology. An explanatory sequential mixed methods approach is followed. It consists of three phases of data collection: a quantitative phase consisting of two surveys (n=1518 and n=3289), a qualitative phase consisting of interviews (n=21) and another quantitative phase consisting of an open-ended questionnaire (n=253). Data collection across all phases is supported by a framework based on the Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT.

We found that female students from the African, Coloured and Asian population groups were twice as likely to choose an IT-related degree than female students from the White population group. This was possible due to the unique interaction of various relevant constructs from the framework. Students of lower socio-economic status availed themselves of government-sponsored bursaries and pursued IT studies fuelled by the opportunities in the IT industry. Tertiary institutions that offered introductory IT courses presented this opportunity to students who have no IT background. Strong female role-models destroyed any prejudices toward women in the IT workplace. IT majors were carefully chosen to exclude the overtly technical degrees such as Computer Science and Computer Engineering and favoured IT qualifications such as Informatics and Publishing.

Using Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory as a lens to interpret the results, this study concludes that Bourdieu’s argument regarding the perpetuation of social status via education does not hold in the case of information technology studies. In the IT field, students are assessed on merit and not on cultural habitus. A qualification in IT is attainable by any interested and suitably talented individual, irrespective of race, gender or socio-economic status. Implications for practice are that IT studies need to be promoted as attainable and promising excellent career prospects.