Special Projects (CNS): National Center for Women and Information Technology

特别项目（CNS）：国家妇女和信息技术中心

• 批准号: 0813956
• 负责人: Lucinda Sanders
• 金额: $ 584.36万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-07-01 至 2014-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0813956&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Special; Projects; CNS; National; Center

Inspiring and enabling more women to choose careers in information technology is a compelling solution for the nation?s innovation, global competitiveness, and workforce sustainability. Yet realizing the contributions of women depends on overcoming the complex of enduring social and cultural processes that limit their participation in computing. Supply-side factors affect the number of girls and women interested in learning about computing or pursuing an IT career. Demand-side factors reduce the effectiveness of organizational efforts to attract and retain women. In addition, the broad influence of cultural stereotypes about gender and technology suggest to women and those who influence them that they are less likely than men to have talent or interest in creating computing technology. These stereotypes lead girls, parents, counselors, and educators to overlook or reject computing as a career and to ignore the educational system that reinforces the problem. The National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) was formed three years ago to address these issues in an innovative and systematic way.In its first three years, NCWIT has established an alliance-based infrastructure with the goal of uniting all current efforts, accelerating their progress, and extending their reach. NCWIT now seeks extension funding to drive the utilization of this national infrastructure. NCWIT comprises more than 100 prominent corporations, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations cooperating to increase women's participation in information technology (IT). Four alliances address IT reform along the entire educational and career pipeline, with programs in K-12 education, college-level outreach and curriculum reform, corporate recruitment and retention, and entrepreneurial ventures. Alliance members share their reform efforts, learn about and pilot best practices, recycle what works and discard what does not, influence policy, participate in IT image and reform campaigns, and serve as local change agents.National, bi-annual NCWIT workshops address topics such as innovation, diversity, K-12 education, and promising practices focused on recruiting, retaining, and advancing women in IT. Top-notch materials and resources give people the tools to raise awareness within their organizations, reach out to targeted populations, implement and evaluate reforms, and share their results. NCWIT is also actively collaborating with several other high-profile organizations to improve the public image of computing using a research-driven marketing campaign. Extensive, ongoing internal and external evaluation results in refinement of NCWIT methods and efforts and has resulted in a culture of introspection and self-analysis.This project is uniquely situated for successfully overcoming the complex and lingering conditions that hinder women?s participation in computing. The NCWIT infrastructure is in place, alliances are growing, and alliance members are eager to implement interventions in their local organizations and share results with the national community. NCWIT has built a robust and highly-respected effort that has engaged the broad computing community, forming a culture based on evidence-based practices. NCWIT is the only organization creating a national, capacity-building infrastructure focused on reform of the entire IT educational pipeline, as well as the culture of IT organizations.Increasing women?s participation in IT has far-reaching national consequences. Not only do information and computing technologies pervade all aspects of our everyday lives in an unprecedented way, but all engineering and science discovery and innovation are now dependent on computational science. Increasing the pool of qualified computing professionals supports the goals of national initiatives (e.g., nanotechnology, the Cyberinfrastructure Initiative) and our economic, security, defense, and health care systems are computing-centered. Increasing the participation of women not only supports national goals, but improves the development and design of computing systems, applications, and products through the integration of diverse ideas while helping to overcome economic disparities for women.

激励并帮助更多女性选择信息技术职业是国家创新、全球竞争力和劳动力可持续性的一个引人注目的解决方案。然而，实现女性的贡献取决于克服限制她们参与计算的长期社会和文化进程的复杂性。供应方因素影响有兴趣学习计算机或从事 IT 职业的女孩和妇女的数量。需求方因素降低了组织吸引和留住女性的努力的有效性。此外，关于性别和技术的文化刻板印象的广泛影响向女性和那些影响她们的人表明，她们不像男性那样有创造计算机技术的天赋或兴趣。这些刻板印象导致女孩、家长、辅导员和教育工作者忽视或拒绝将计算机作为职业，并忽视加剧这一问题的教育体系。国家妇女和信息技术中心 (NCWIT) 成立于三年前，旨在以创新和系统的方式解决这些问题。在成立的头三年，NCWIT 建立了一个基于联盟的基础设施，目标是将当前的所有努力结合起来，加速他们的进步，扩大他们的影响范围。 NCWIT 现在正在寻求延期资金，以推动这一国家基础设施的利用。 NCWIT 由 100 多家知名企业、学术机构、政府机构和非营利组织组成，共同致力于提高女性对信息技术 (IT) 的参与。四个联盟致力于整个教育和职业渠道的 IT 改革，包括 K-12 教育、大学水平的推广和课程改革、企业招聘和保留以及创业投资等项目。联盟成员分享他们的改革努力，了解和试点最佳实践，回收有效的方法并丢弃无效的方法，影响政策，参与 IT 形象和改革活动，并充当当地变革推动者。每两年一次的全国 NCWIT 研讨会讨论主题例如创新、多元化、K-12 教育以及专注于招聘、留住和提升 IT 领域女性的有前途的实践。一流的材料和资源为人们提供了提高组织内部认识、接触目标人群、实施和评估改革以及分享结果的工具。 NCWIT 还积极与其他几个知名组织合作，通过研究驱动的营销活动来改善计算机的公众形象。广泛、持续的内部和外部评估完善了 NCWIT 的方法和工作，并形成了一种内省和自我分析的文化。该项目具有独特的优势，能够成功克服阻碍女性参与计算机领域的复杂而挥之不去的条件。 NCWIT 基础设施已经到位，联盟不断壮大，联盟成员渴望在当地组织中实施干预措施并与全国社区分享成果。 NCWIT 建立了强大且备受尊敬的努力，吸引了广泛的计算社区，形成了一种基于循证实践的文化。 NCWIT 是唯一一个创建国家能力建设基础设施的组织，重点关注整个 IT 教育渠道以及 IT 组织文化改革。提高妇女对 IT 的参与会对国家产生深远的影响。信息和计算技术不仅以前所未有的方式渗透到我们日常生活的各个方面，而且所有工程和科学的发现和创新现在都依赖于计算科学。增加合格的计算专业人员队伍可以支持国家计划（例如纳米技术、网络基础设施计划）的目标，并且我们的经济、安全、国防和医疗保健系统都是以计算为中心的。增加女性的参与不仅支持国家目标，而且通过整合不同的想法来改进计算系统、应用程序和产品的开发和设计，同时帮助克服女性的经济差距。