Parental Support for Female IT Career Interest and Choice

Although adolescents become progressively independent from their parents in the high-school years, they continue to depend heavily on parents in the area of career development (Peterson, Stivers, & Peters, 1986; Sebald, 1989). The role of parental support in children’s career choice has been demonstrated empirically in the career-development literature (Altman, 1997; Fisher & Griggs, 1994; Ketterson & Blustein, 1997; Kracke, 1997; Way & Rossman, 1996). Researchers have found that parents impact career choice more than counselors, teachers, friends, other relatives, or people working in the field of interest (Kotrlik & Harrison, 1989), but are not adequately informed about how to help (Young, Friesen, & Borycki, 1994). Although parents hold a powerful role in the career advising of both their male and female children, most of the reported studies use a male model and focus. Researchers are beginning to develop a knowledge base for the career development of girls and the unique issues they face in deciding on a career. Greater understanding of these issues is urgent, especially as females are recruited into nontraditional fields like information technology. This article will review research on parental support for female career choice, including the research findings from the Women and Information Technology (WIT, 2002-2005) project funded by the National Science Foundation.