Female Information Technology and Engineering Faculty Members from the State-Wide We Are IT! Consortium in Ohio Public Community Colleges: Strategies for Success and Overcoming Barriers

This qualitative study utilized focus groups that investigated career paths, life experiences, and factors that influenced academic career success for female faculty in information technology (IT) and engineering related disciplines at public community colleges. This study examined their experiences and ways that these female faculty members persisted in their disciplines, made the decision to teach in a community college and overcame barriers to their success. More studies need to be conducted on the experiences of successful women to discover their strategies for becoming and staying successful and overcoming barriers, especially in male-dominated fields like IT and engineering. The purpose of this study was to explore characteristics and behaviors of female community college IT and engineering faculty in the belief that insight into persistence, success, and strategies that these women have used to overcome barriers may in turn help us nurture younger women and facilitate their pursuit of IT and engineering careers. Female community college faculty members serve as role models to young women pursuing careers in IT and engineering. Increasing the number of women pursuing careers in these fields will increase the number of IT and engineering professionals that the United States needs to improve the economy and drive innovation and product development which could improve the United States economy. It is important to explore how community colleges may contribute to developing IT and engineering talent so that we have the advantage of more female IT and engineering graduates in the workplace.