The challenges and barriers of recruiting young women into majors and careers in information technology (IT) are addressed in this book. It also deals with the factors that influence women to choose a career in IT, and how this varies across cultures and countries. The book is divided into five parts, which are comprised of 11 selected papers from the “Crossing Cultures, Changing Lives: Integrating Research on Girls’ Choices of IT Careers” conference, held at Mansfield College, Oxford, in 2005. In addition to the papers, the book contains three appendices, biographies of the contributors, and an index.

The book is organized and logically structured. Each part opens with an introduction by the editors (moderators). These introductions explain the common theme, give insights into the papers presented, and add tremendous value to the book. The papers are well-written, and the theories, hypotheses, and findings are corroborated with facts, figures, graphs, illustrations, case studies, and references.

The first part of the book consists of an editorial introduction, which provides an overview of the book: its goals, the target audience, key concepts, and terminology. This part contains the first research paper, which explains a model that identifies key factors that predict high school and college women’s interest in, and choice of, a career in IT.

Part 2, “The Secondary School Level,” concentrates on identifying the key reasons that prevent females from choosing academic paths that lead to an IT career. The first chapter of this part explains the findings of a study among high-achieving girls that explains reasons for their lack of interest in IT and IT careers. The second chapter examines why girls who are brilliant and academically advanced in mathematics are not interested in IT careers. The last chapter of the section explores how female and male high school students make IT career decisions.

The third part, “The Post-Secondary Level,” contains the section overview and four chapters. This section looks into the different views on the effectiveness of female-targeted interventions, and the impact of social, cultural, and environmental support for improving women’s interest in IT. The first chapter of this section presents a cultural perspective for dealing with gender issues in computer science and related fields. The second chapter probes into the reasons for the high enrollment of black South African females from technologically disadvantaged backgrounds in IT-related courses. The third chapter examines the factors that are related to the gender composition of graduate computer science and computer engineering courses. The last chapter explores, using surveys and interviews, the factors that influence undergraduate students’ choice of academic majors and careers.

Part 4, “IT Careers,” deals with the issues, opportunities, and challenges faced by women in the IT field. Since there is a paucity of research literature in this area, the introduction lays a solid foundation for the chapters in this section. The introduction provides an excellent overview of the current scenario, and how women succeed in their IT careers. The first chapter of this section presents the results of a study of women and men in the software and Internet industry, which led to a better understanding of the workplace experiences of women in the IT profession. The second chapter identifies the different routes that IT professionals can take to reach their jobs. The last chapter explores the barriers and hurdles that women face to pursue a career in the IT field.

The final part, “Conclusion,” summarizes the findings, and makes recommendations on how to attract more girls to IT-related courses, and more women to careers in the IT field. Appendices A and B provide supplementary material for chapter 1, while appendix C is the supplement for chapter 7.

One major problem with the book is that its title is misleading, and the chance of it being classified as a book on firewalls and security are high. Only if one reads the subtitle does the topic discussed in the book become apparent. A more appropriate title would have avoided the confusion. Another drawback of the book is that it is not truly global, even though its subtitle claims it is. The countries that account for the majority of IT professionals--India, China, Singapore, and Israel--only receive scant mention. The absence of papers and studies from these countries, where the IT revolution is at its peak and where new trends emerge, takes away the universal appeal of the book.

This book is a must-read for parents, schoolteachers, college faculty, student advisors/counselors, creators of education policy, researchers, IT professionals, and human resource personnel of IT organizations. The observations, suggestions, and recommendations in the book will give valuable insight and practical ideas for devising programs to attract women to IT-related courses, with the objective of becoming IT professionals.