Eileen Trauth couldn't accept the notion that women weren't interested in the field of information technology.

While on sabbatical in 2000, the Penn State information sciences and technology (IST) professor said she read several published works claiming women were either not interested in or unsuccessful in the field.

"What I saw was that the people who were publishing work were making a lot of gender stereotypes that were very damaging," she said, "so I wanted to make things different and open up the dialogue a little more."

That initiative was what led Trauth and doctoral student Jeria Quesenberry to write the paper "What Do Women Want?: An Investigation of Career Anchors among Women in the IT Workforce."

"I used to work at a consulting firm where there was an even distribution of men and women," Quesenberry said. "Over time, people progressed into management and a lot of women were beginning to leave. I was intrigued and motivated as a woman in the technology field to find out the implications of this behavior."

According to the National Center for Women and Information Technology, the number of computer science degrees held by women as compared to men dropped from 37 percent to 21 percent between 1985 and 2006.

Joseph Lambert, senior associate dean of the College of IST, said the number of students who declare their major in the college is deeply gender stratified.

"In general, the number of women in the program is 10 to 12 percent, and there's very little attrition," he said.

These numbers have almost single-handedly generated the stereotype that computer science and information technology are male dominated, but Trauth said there are a number of underlying variables doing damage.

"The media shows information technology as a masculine endeavor," she said. "It just reinforces that this isn't something females do."

Quesenberry said the two began their research investigating the career motivations of women. Older studies assumed that women's career motivations were constant throughout their lifetime.

"What the previous research had recorded wasn't the case," Quesenberry said. "I personally didn't agree with that [research] so I looked closer."

She said that Trauth conducted interviews with 96 women entering the IT field, which led to surprising findings. Trauth's research showed that much was based on lifestyle characteristics.

Penn State has been no exception to the nationwide issue, Trauth said.

"There gets to be this chicken and egg kind of thing," she said. "If I teach a class and there's only one female, she'll feel isolated, and depending on the kind of woman, may not want to be in a setting where she is the minority."

Professor Chao-Hsien Chu said the percentages for women entering the new Security Risk and Analysis major within the College of IST is higher at 30 percent but still not ideal.

Within IST, a lot is being done to combat those low percentages.

"We need to do intervention," Trauth said. "We do a lot of outreach to schools, to try and overcome stereotypes."

Trauth said the College of IST runs camps for middle and high school girls as an introduction to IT through games and other activities.

Caitlin Ferro (sophomore-information sciences and technology) said she's not concerned or intimidated by entering into a male-dominated field.

"Since I've been here, I've always been told that being a girl gives me a huge advantage," she said. "All fields are trying to diversify, and women are stereotypically better communicators -- a trait a lot of companies are looking for."