Will Computer Engineer Barbie® Impact Young Women's Career Choices?

Controversy and fanfare accompanied the announcement in 2010 by Mattel, Inc. of the Barbie® doll's 126th career--computer engineer. Even though women have been and still are in a minority in the information technology (IT) and computer science (CS) fields, enough women voted for the computer en...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inInformation systems education journal Vol. 10; no. 6; pp. 4 - 14
Main Authors Martincic, Cynthia J, Bhatnagar, Neelima
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals 01.12.2012
Subjects
Career Choice
College Students
Computer Science
Computer Science Education
Disproportionate Representation
Engineering Education
Enrollment
Females
Information Technology
Online Surveys
Role Models
Stereotypes
Student Attitudes
Student Recruitment
Toys
Pennsylvania
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Controversy and fanfare accompanied the announcement in 2010 by Mattel, Inc. of the Barbie® doll's 126th career--computer engineer. Even though women have been and still are in a minority in the information technology (IT) and computer science (CS) fields, enough women voted for the computer engineer as the next career for Barbie® on Mattel's website that it won the overall vote, while the winning choice voted for by young girls was news anchorwoman. The discrepancy resulted in Mattel producing Barbie® dolls in both careers. This paper reports the results of a survey completed by women in the IT and CS fields regarding their attitudes about and purchases of Computer Engineer Barbie®.
ISSN:1545-679X
1545-679X