There is growing evidence of another impending skills shortage of IT professionals, with a significant contributor being the underrepresentation of women and minorities in the IT workforce (Office of Technology Policy, 1999; Freeman & Aspray, 1999). There are claims that if minorities and women were included in the IT workforce at rates close to their representation in the general population, this shortage could be ameliorated or resolved entirely. Moreover, achieving a greater representation of women and minority employees in the IT workforce may enhance creativity, performance and product markets (Panteli et al., 2001). Women and minorities are underrepresented in the IT fields, and as employers struggle to recruit an adequate number of IT skilled workers, large pools of potential talent remain untapped (ITAA, 2000). According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce, women represent 46% of the total workforce, but under 30% of the IT workforce. African- and Hispanic-American employees hold only 5% of IT workforce jobs, yet comprise over 12% of the US population (NSF, 2000). There are two related problems – attracting women and minorities to IT-related
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Published as part of the proceedings of the conference, 2006 ACM SIGMIS CPR conference on computer personnel research, 2006: 44-45. DOI.