Abstract
Gender gap in the workplace has always been a challenging topic of discussion.
There are a handful of reasons as to why this is a challenging topic especially in the
technology field. One of the main reasons is that this field is mainly a male dominated
field. The gender pay difference began in the 1980’s and have persisted in both the lower
and higher-level positions. The higher positions have typically been reserved for males to
be in those roles. This study will examine the gender gap in the technology field through
interviews with a handful of individuals who are in the current technology field.

Britney Galik
Major: Computer Information Systems, Minor: Business
Advisor - Dr. Pratibha Menon
Second Reader – Dr. Lisa Kovalchick
HAB Member - Dr. Laura Tuennerman
Librarian - Monica Ruane Rogers
Keywords: gender gap, women, men, technology, technology field

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Gender gap in the workplace has always been a challenging topic of discussion.
The technology field is a male dominated field, and they hold a lot of the higher
positions. There is also the gender pay differences between male and female workers. I
have also conducted interviews with several individuals, both male and female, who are
currently in the technology field. By the end of this research, I hope to have given better
light on the gender gap in the technology industry and that more females go into the field
and stay in the field.
I have looked through many academic journals, periodicals, eBooks, and articles.
Also answers from an interview conducted by me, asking questions about their schooling,
jobs, and gender pay. There will be charts, graphs, and statistical data throughout this
paper. The information that I have looked through has reasons why females are not going
into the technology industry and reasons why females are not staying exceptionally long
in the technology industry.
There are many reasons that I have chosen this topic. I am currently a female
student in Computer Information Systems. In my graduating class, there are only three
girls out of the fifteen students. This is just for the face-to-face class; I do not know how
many are in the global online class. This shows that few females even now are studying
to be in the technology field. I also chose this topic because my mother is in the
technology industry and in her department, she is one of the two females in the
department. So, I take this topic very seriously because it is personal to me.
The gender gap issue all starts with young girls, who are deciding what they want
to do for their careers, this is starting in even elementary school all the way to high
school. The number of girls going into the technology field for their major in college is

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low, it is still very much a male dominated major. The reasons that girls are not going
into the technology field is family influences and expectations, communities, role models,
peer influences, media and popular culture, K-12 experiences, gender socialization,
values, and perceptions, and influences of marketing.
Family influences and expectations, communities, and role models are one of the
reasons that girls do not go into the tech field. Family influences and expectations can be
a big influence on a girl because she can see what her parents do for a living and decide
based on that, or if the family is expecting the girl to go into a certain field from a young
age. An early exposure to computers and computing at home but the kind of the
computing experience is the key factor. The role of a larger community has a significant
impact on early exposure to the computing activities and role models that girls need.
Peer influences are always going to be a factor in when girls are choosing what
they want to go to school for and what kind of jobs they want. There can be negative and
positive effects of peer influences. Some positive effects can be recruiting groups of girls
who already know each other in computing classes and young girls can consider there
peers as guides if they do not have a role model or adult mentor. If other girls are
producing an interest in computing, then other girls will get into computing. Some
negative effects can be that girls find themselves in an all-male or mostly male
environment and they have discomfort and stereotyping. Also, girls are not going to want
to be in computing classes if they are the only girl.
The media and popular culture, I think are the biggest influence on girls. Roles in
the technology field are being portrayed as masculine and “geeky.” The media
representations are still very much stereotyping but there has been some progress in other

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occupations with representing without so much stereotyping. There are few movies and
television shows that portray a strong female lead in a computing role. There are two
women that are portrayed in television, and they are Penelope Garcia from Criminal
Minds, and Abby Sciuto form NCIS. Penelope is quirky, loves video games and works in
a dark office and Abby has a similar style as well. These two characters having similar
characteristics is stereotyping and could be the reason girls do not want to pursue
computing.
The K-12 experience is important because that is what leads us to what we want
as careers. Many schools lack computer courses, and this is affecting girls wanting to
pursue a technology major. They do not want to be taking computer classes for the first
time in college, especially in a male dominated class. The early exposure to computers
can help overall because it can peak the interest of girls before college, and they may
want to pursue a technology major once they get into college because they were able to
take computer courses in high school or lower.
Gender socialization, values, and perceptions are another reason girls are not
choosing to go into the technology field. Girls have limited knowledge or an inaccurate
perception about what computing careers involve. They perceive the career as having
little to no interaction with other people and being obsessed with computers. Most girls
do not even know what Computer Science majors learn or a low percent of them actually
knew what Computer Science entailed. The technology field is still perceived as a
masculine field. Also, the interest to go into computing varies among girls of different
ethnicities and who are already interested in science.

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One of my last reasons why girls do not choose to go into the technology field is
the influence of marketing. Marketing is big, if you want someone to buy your product
you are going to market towards that demographic. Personal computers are marketed
towards men, and this could be shifting a girls view of the computers because they see it
as men only in the ads or commercials. This needs to change to market towards both men
and women because all genders can be in the technology fields.
There are many reasons why women are not staying in the technology industry.
There is ‘bro culture’ in the companies, and the women are not included in groups, and
they are uncomfortable by it and ‘bro culture’ is where male employees are seen as the
default and female as an aberration, which leads to misogynistic and discriminatory
behavior against those that are not recognized as the same (Ayling, 2021). Because the
technology industry is male dominated companies have this ‘bro culture’ and this is one
of the reasons women are leaving the technology fields.
In the lower levels it is still mostly males, with technical staff women represent
10% of the employees. Women also are underrepresented in leadership roles and/or on
the board of directors for the company. There is research that only 37% of technology
companies have at least one woman on their board of directors. Women need to have
more education than their male counterparts to even be in the running for higher
positions. So, if you are applying for a programmer position and most likely the man is
going to get offered the job for a higher pay rate than if you were offered the job, no
matter your schooling or experience.
52% percent of the women in the tech industry say that they receive a lower pay
than their male counterparts for the same job. Sadly, over half the women surveyed, felt

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that the biggest challenge for them in the tech industry was being taken seriously due to
gender perceptions. Other challenges women in tech endure include the gender pay gap,
the glass ceiling, the lack of female role models, and the list goes on (Sava, 2022).
In 2019, women were offered 4.4% less salary than their male counterparts, but in
2020, it was 2.5% less salary. Even though the percentage went down from 2019 to 2020
there is still very much a gender pay gap. Even with this gap being smaller, women are
still earning around $8,000 less than their male counterparts. When a woman is being
offered the same job title the men were offered higher salaries than women at the same
company 59% of the time. A study led by Accenture and Girls Who Code, showed that
50% of women leave their technology careers by the age of 35. Women are also leaving
their tech jobs at a 45% higher rate than men. So, by the time I am 35 there is a chance
that I may be leaving the technology field because of the reasons I have stated above, I
hope that this does not happen to me. Women suffered more from the job loss during the
COVID-19 Pandemic. Mothers that are in the tech industry are also opting out or scaling
back their careers because of childcare and in person education, this was during the
COVID-19 Pandemic.
I conducted interviews with individuals who are currently in the technology field.
There were three men and three women interviewed. I asked five questions and they are:
1. What degree(s) do you have? For each degree, is it an associate, bachelors, masters,
doctorate? 2. When you were in school for your degree(s), what is your estimate of the
ratio of men to women in your classes? 3. How long have you been in industry? What
is/was your job title(s)? 4. Please estimate the ratio of men to women in your department.
5. Do you think there is a significant pay gap between you and your colleagues?

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I am going to start with the men’s answers. The order of the questions are Kurt
Johnson, Joseph Evanchak, and George Dukic. Here are Kurt’s answers: 1. Computer
Engineering, B.S. (Incomplete) 2. ~90% Male, ~10% Female 3. 17 years. PC
Technician/Department Manager, IT Site Technician, Help Desk Technician, IT
Consultant, Systems Administrator. 4. 40% Female / 60% Male 5. Unknown.
Here are Joseph’s answers: 1. Associates In Computer Science 2. Honestly cannot
remember. 3. About 30 years. Currently Service Desk Technician II. Previously: Systems
Administrator, Microsoft Systems Engineer, Systems Engineer II, Senior IT Systems
Administrator, Senior Infrastructure Consultant, Information Technology Consultant,
Information Systems Technician, Network/Telecommunications Technician. 4.
Immediate Department: eleven men three women, Total Company: nineteen women
sixty-seven men 5. I do not believe so. I feel that my colleagues are paid a fair wage for
the role they are in, and for their experience they have.
The last of the men’s answers are George’s answers: 1. I have an AS, Computer
Science and a BS in Computer Science 2. My AS class ratio to male/female students
would have been 90% male and 10% female. My BS was online but seems to be 75%
male 25% female class ratio. 3. I started in high school with AutoCAD mapping for a
nondestructive testing company in 1988. Later in 1995 I graduated with my AS and my
first job was Systems Manager for AJ Silberman Wholesale Company for 2.5 years. I
then resigned to take a new position at Mon Yough Community Services as System
Analyst developing CMCH system and IT dept. I later competed for the IT Directors
position when my boss the IT Director resigned at age 27. I worked at MYCS for 7 years.
I resigned MYCS to work at CRCSI as Director of IT for the past 18 years. 4. We have

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three men and three women currently. 5. I would think each level of responsibility who
have a different pay scale for the position to compare. I think in today's world, women
are making 85% of men statistically which is an improvement from the past years. I
would think in the near future women will earn equal pay and then surpass men in
professional careers. The technical industry overall is split. I know working in nonprofit
sector, as I do. Nonprofit careers earn 25% less than what Director of IT pay scale is in
for-profit business.
Now here are the women’s answers. The order of the questions are Carol Kirsch,
Christina Moser, and Dr. Gina Boff. Here are Carol’s answers: 1. B.S. in Business
Administration 2. Not sure, that was a long time ago 3. 22 years- Currently,
Administrative Services Manager, Previously, I’ve been Service Desk Manager,
Customer Service Representative (Help Desk Technician), Operations Coordinator,
Student Accounting 4. The department I am in currently covers all areas of company
operations – 5 people, 60% women, Overall, in our company, there are seventy-four
technical staff and eleven are women (15%) 5. No.
Here are Christina’s answers: 1. Bachelor of Science Computer Science Minor
Information Technology 2. 10:3 3. 10 years – Systems Analyst, 9 years – Sr. Systems
Analyst/EHR Administrator 4. 4:3 5. I do not think there is much difference in pay
between myself and my colleagues. I actually think being a female in this department I
make more than all my colleagues due to my seniority in the department. The only other
person that would make more than me would be my male supervisor.
The last of the women’s answers are Gina’s answers: 1. Bachelor of Science –
Business Administration with a Concentration in Business Information Systems, Master

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of Science – Communications and Computer Information Systems, Doctor of Science –
Communications and Computer Information Systems 2. Undergrad: 50% women (this is
right before the time when women started to emerge in STEM areas, so I experienced a
good deal of females in my courses. And the majority of my courses were business and
accounting.), Grad School: 30% women, Doctorate: 20% women 3. I was in industry for
16 years. Too many titles to list or remember… Various levels of Operations Technician
then Programmer-Analyst positions. My last three positions were Project Manager,
Applications Data Base Analyst, Senior Business Analyst. I have been in academia for 20
years. My titles have been Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, and now Professor.
4. In the new Penn West department, there are five women in a department of eighteen. 5.
Yes; But it is not gender based. It is due to increasing deterioration of contracts.
Before I conducted this interview, I though majority of the women were going to
say yes there is a gender pay gap, they all said that is it not necessarily based on gender, it
is more so on rankings. Everyone that I interviewed has a different position within their
companies, so I was not interviewing people from all of the same level. I learned that the
gender pay gap is based on the company and how they pay their employees. A lot of the
people that I interviewed also said that their classes in school were mostly male, and I
was not surprised by that answer. All of the interviewees went to school at a different
time, so technology majors are going to always be male dominated.
In conclusion, There needs to be representation for younger girls to want to go
into the technology field. Women should be paid the same as men, without having to
have extra schooling. Mothers should be able to have paid leave without having to worry

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about their jobs. When hiring women, they need to be offered a fair salary compared to
their male counterparts no matter the position or level of education.

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