How relevant is the information technology gender gap?

This paper describes research-in-progress investigating gender based wage differentials in I/T professions. The existence of these differentials is undisputed, but the significance of the "gender gap" is an area of considerable debate. The applicability of organizational and behavioral research in other areas to I/T is frequently predicated on the assumption that I/T professions are similar to other specific professions or to the economy at large. This paper describes a quantitative investigation of this assumption.