Encyclopedia of Gender and Information Technology

Citation

Quesenberry, J.L. (2007), "Encyclopedia of Gender and Information Technology", Information Technology & People, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 89-90. https://doi.org/10.1108/09593840710730581

The information age has created an increasing dependence on information technology (IT) as it becomes a primary component of the national and global economy. As a result, researching the composition and predicting the direction of those affected by IT has become an important matter for discussion. In an attempt to understand this phenomenon it is also imperative to investigate how gender shapes and is shaped by the current and future demands of the information age.

In the Encyclopedia of Gender and Information Technology Eileen Trauth has complied an edited collection of articles about the role of gender in human interaction with IT. The Encyclopedia is a two volume reference with over 200 entries on a variety of gender and IT topic related to computing history, global IT, IT education, IT careers, the human side of IT, research methods, theory and philosophy. In addition to these topics, the Encyclopedia has a particular focus on the contributions, challenges, issues and experiences of women in the IT field.

One of the greatest strengths of the Encyclopedia is its interdisciplinary perspective. The Encyclopedia contains articles from hundreds of leading international experts from a variety of disciplines including information science, management information systems, computer science, education, sociology, psychology, philosophy, gender studies, and women's studies. Interdisciplinary knowledge can be difficult to understand if readers are unfamiliar with key concepts and researchers of a specific domain. Yet, each article in the Encyclopedia paints a research landscape with the inclusion of key references, terms and definitions. Taken collectively the Encyclopedia contains over 4,700 references and more than 1,450 key terms and their definitions.

Another strength of the Encyclopedia is its global focus. An international advisory board introduces the collection with overviews of research programs in their home countries to set the stage of geographical breadth. The advisory board includes Alison Adam, and Helen Richardson from the University of Salford in the UK, Jane Margolis from the University of California Los Angeles in the USA, and Liisa von Hellens from Griffith University in Australia. In addition, hundreds of other leading researchers from around the world have contributed to the Encyclopedia. Several articles also explore gender and IT issues specific to various regional, international and national contexts.

Understanding the ways gender and IT impact each other is a complex, partially due to the necessary integration of concepts from a wide variety of disciplines and contexts. In response to this challenge, the Encyclopedia of Gender and Information Technology provides an expansive analysis of diverse intellectual discourses, approaches, and theoretical foundations in a single collection. This is a must‐have resource for academics, practitioners, libraries, and policy makers alike.