Abstract: Controversy and fanfare accompanied the announcement in 2010 by Mattel, Inc. of the Barbie® doll’s 126th career - computer engineer. Even though women have been and still are in a minority in the information technology (IT) and computer science (CS) fields, enough women voted for the computer engineer as the next career for Barbie® on Mattel’s website that it won the overall vote, while the winning choice voted for by young girls was news anchorwoman. The discrepancy resulted in Mattel producing Barbie® dolls in both careers. This paper reports the results of a survey completed by women in the IT and CS fields regarding their attitudes about and purchases of Computer Engineer Barbie®.

Keywords: enrollment, Recruiting, Recruiting Women, women in computing, women in IS

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Recommended Citation: Martincic, C. J., Bhatnagar, N. (2012). Will Computer Engineer Barbie® impact young women’s career choices?. Information Systems Education Journal, 10(6) pp 4-14. http://isedj.org/2012-10/ ISSN: 1545-679X. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of ISECON 2011)