Operations and information management are currently male dominated fields, with women accounting for 29.8% of general and operations managers, and only 20% of software developers, applications and systems software positions (Boston Globe, 2017). As we make strides to close this 20% to 30% gender gap, it is important to recognize the experiences that can make closing the gap difficult. One challenge Operations Management and Information Systems(OM&IS) departments must face regularly particularly interests the researcher and begs this question; How do university OM&IS departments prepare women for careers in a male dominated fields? The researcher aims to learn the answer to this question by completing this independent study.
The first part of the study will be to conduct literature research on the operations and information management field to understand how they became male dominated industries, and to evaluate the current situation on a societal level. This research will attempt to analyze the psychological reasons that cause women to feel uncomfortable and leave male dominated fields. After completing literature research, a survey will be sent out to junior and senior students in a midwestern public research university’s OM&IS department.
The survey will provide all students with the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, a scale used to measure the endorsement of ambivalent sexism in individuals. The students will be asked to indicate their level of agreement on 22 statements. If the student identified as a gender other than “male” in the demographic questions, they will be routed into another set of questions that relate to their experiences in operations and information management classes. This will include questions to determine their confidence in their OM&IS classes, and their opinions on efforts to improve the experiences of women in OM&IS classes. Also included is a scale used in “Hostile and Benevolent Sexism and College Women’s STEM Outcomes” that identifies how often they are subject to sexism in the classroom.
During the time that the survey is live, interviews will be conducted with female alumni at various stages of their careers. The alumni will help identify some of the struggles women in male dominated fields face and provide input on possible solutions.
After the data is collected and analyzed, it will be evaluated and aid in providing the midwestern public research university’s OM&IS department with recommendations on how to better prepare women for their careers.
This information is incredibly important to make sure the university is providing female students with the experiences they need to be successful in operations and information management. By performing this evaluation, the researcher hopes to identify trends that positively and negatively affect students and provide answers on how to improve as a department and a college as a whole.