6 IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Fall 2003 T he revolution in information technology (IT) has had a profound impact on the technologi- cal progress, globalization, and growth of the U.S. economy. The consequences of IT are part of what has been called the information age, information society, digital era, or information- based economy. IT has contributed to America’s structural shift from manu- facturing to a service economy. Further, the IT-producing sector has been grow- ing faster than the economy as a whole. IT has also contributed to an increased demand for labor, as well as an overall skill upgrade in the workplace. The U.S. Bureau of Labor has projected that between 2000 and 2010, the number of IT-related jobs would grow over 80%, exceeding an overall job growth of about 15%; science and engineering expects job growth of about 47%. While the IT-based economy is expanding, women and minorities are underrepresented in U.S. IT educa- tion as well as in the American IT workforce. Women make up 51% of the U.S. population and 47% of the U.S. labor force, but women comprise only 27% of U.S. computer/math scientists. Since the early 1990s, the percentages of women in most science and engi- neering occupations have gradually increased except in computers/math in which the percentage of women declined about 4% between 1993 and 1999. The per- centage of women earning their bachelor’s degrees in IT-related fields has been dropping steadily since the mid-1980s in contrast with the general trends in grad- uation rates as well as those in science and engineer- ing. For instance, women earning baccalaureate degrees in computer science peaked at 15 126 in 1986 and came down to 7063 by 1995. Since then the num- ber has stabilized. Of incoming freshman in 2002, only 0.7% of women planned to major in computer science compared to 4.2% of men. At the graduate level, higher percentages of men earn computer sci- ence degrees (4.5%) as compared to women (1.4%). Underrepresented minorities (African-Americans, Hispanics, and native Americans) make up 24% of the U.S. population and over 21% of the U.S. labor force but comprise less than 8% of U.S. com- puter/math scientists. Further, a bache- lor’s degree is more likely to be the highest degree achieved for underrepre- sented minority computer/math scien- tists than for white or Asian comput- er/math scientists. Among the small number of underrepresented minority students pursuing higher education, a larger percentage tends to earn degrees in the social sciences, psychology, and biological sciences than in computer science. For instance, from 1985 to 1999, underrepresented minorities earn- ing bachelor’s degrees increased only by 1% annually in computer science; in contrast, the annu- al increase for the social sciences was almost 10%. Trends for master’s degrees show only modest growth in computer science (from 305 in 1985 to 583 in 1998) for underrepresented minorities. Underrepresented minorities are earning doctoral degrees in computer science starting at such a low base that they are barely visible on a graph compared to other racial/ethnic groups. For instance, in 1999, whites earned 854 doc- toral degrees in computer science/math, Asians earned 145, and underrepresented minorities earned 59. If we are to improve the representation of women and minorities in IT education and the IT workforce, we GUEST EDITORIAL Roli Varma Guest Editor Roli Varma is with the School of Public Administration, University of New Mexico, Albu- querque, NM 87131. Email: varma@mgt.unm.edu. Special Issue on Women and Minorities in Information Technology Roli Varma