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 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.