Description:

Conceptual framework. Women are still heavily underrepresented in the IT sector and obtain many obstacles in their professional career development. The basic assumption is that traditional gender roles, as well as gender stereotypes, prevent women from entrenching into IT sector while pursuing their career opportunities. In examination of the IT profession's masculinity/femininity the concept of gender ideology is used. It represents what individuals view as appropriate roles for men and women, which in turn affects their behavior (Bulanda, 2004).

This paper aims to identify the factors that affect perceptions about the profession of Informatics Engineering as masculine/gender-neutral. Research questions: What factors cause the perception of IT profession as masculine? What will assure the empowerment of female university students in Informatics Engineering for their professional career?

Methodology or methods/research instruments or sources used:

Qualitative content analysis (Graneheim, Lundman, 2004; Zydziunaite, 2002; Mayring, 2001, 2000) has been carried out in order to investigate the open - ended questions' data in order to disclose the differences between male and female respondents. Qualitative content analysis is based on the systemic step performance.

Data collection. The data was gathered in November 2005. Sample. The sample consisted of 114 B.A. 2nd year students (Informatics Engineering, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania). The average age of the respondents is 21. The sample distribution by sex is as follows: 32 female and 82 male.

Conclusions or expected outcomes or findings:

As a result of the qualitative content analysis some categories were extracted:

1. seven categories that characterize Informatics Engineering profession as masculine/ gender-neutral and
2. five categories that describe peculiarities of Informatics Engineering profession.

The relation between attitudes on the masculinity/ gender-neutrality of the Informatics Engineering profession and peculiarities of this profession are analyzed from a gender perspective. 2/3 of the male respondents claim that the profession of Informatics Engineering is masculine, identifying specific skills, especially the logical thinking and technical knowledge. Conclusions. The results indicated that there are three main factors that cause the evaluation of IT profession as gender neutral - education, egalitarian attitudes on gender and positive practical experience. Those factors have an empowering impact on female students for their professional career in IT sector. Whereas traditional gender ideology as a result of an opinion determines the low self-esteem of female Informatics Engineering students.

References:

• Alvesson M, Due Billing Y (1997). Understanding Gender and Organizations. London: SAGE Publications.
• Bulanda R E (2004). Paternal Involvement with Children: The Influence of Gender Ideologies. Journal of Marriage and Family 66: 40-45.
• Graneheim U, Lundman B (2004). Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Education Today 24: 105-112.
• Rolin K (2001). Gender and Physics: A Theoretical Analysis. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 7: 1-8.
• Zydziunaite V (2002). Qualitative Diagnostics of Nurses' Competences Development Using Content Analysis. Social Sciences 3(35): 55-67.