Environmental Influences on Gender in the IT Workforce

2008 | ACM SIGMIS Database | Citations: 0

Authors: Trauth, Eileen M.; Quesenberry, Jeria L.; Yeo, Benjamin

Abstract: In an effort to better understand the under- representation of women within the ... Expand

Abstract: In an effort to better understand the under- representation of women within the IT profession, one promising line of investigation is the influence of factors in the socio-cultural environment. In order to examine this topic, we draw on data from a multi-year field study of women IT professionals in three regions of the U.S.: Massachusetts, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. We employ Trauth's (2000) conceptual framework of environmental influences on the development of a region's information economy to consider economic and cultural influences on women's recruitment and retention in the IT field. The findings reveal a range of influences and a wide variety of responses to them. The contribution of this research to theoretical understanding is twofold. First, we demonstrate that socio-cultural factors serve as both barriers to and facilitators of women's recruitment and retention in the IT profession. This suggests the need for investigations of not just women themselves, but also of the societal environments within which they grow up, live and work. Second, we demonstrate that there is not one unilateral set of environment factors that can explain women's under-representation. Rather, a combination of differing regional influences and individual responses to them is in evidence. This finding of variability both among environmental influences and among women's responses to them provides empirical support for ongoing theory development efforts regarding the role of individual differences in explaining women's under-representation in IT Collapse

Topics: IT workforce IT career IT job individual characteristic societal context

Methods: qualitative interview qualitative coding field study theory development participant observation

Theories: individual differences theory of gender

Let the Sisters Speak: Understanding Information Technology from the Standpoint of the 'Other'

2006 | ACM SIGMIS Database | Citations: 0

Authors: Kvasny, Lynette

Abstract: In this paper, I examine how and why the situated knowledge and lived experience ... Expand

Abstract: In this paper, I examine how and why the situated knowledge and lived experiences of working-class African American women shape their standpoint on information technology (IT). Using the biblical metaphor of the exodus and narratives of ascent, these women view IT access and training as part of a strategy for escaping poverty and despair. Whereas most of the extant gender and IT research provides rich insights into the marginalization of women, the women in this study felt empowered by IT. This contradictory outcome has three implications for the study of gender and IT. First, researchers must consider the multiple identities such as gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and sexuality that shape and are shaped by women's engagement with IT. Second, the notion of IT workforce should take into account not only the highly skilled IT workers who design and build IT artifacts, but should also consider the lower skilled workers who indirectly use IT. Third, IT training programs that serve working-class women must go beyond the transfer of IT skills to individuals. They must also redress the persistent structural barriers of poverty, spatial isolation, illiteracy, sporadic work, and racial and ethnic discrimination that systematically limit women's ability to compete for jobs that provide higher incomes, greater safety, more security, full-time hours, increased benefits, higher status, and less stressful work environments. Collapse

Topics: IT workforce

Methods: qualitative interview theory development narrative analysis qualitative content analysis ethnography

Feminist Philosophy and Information Systems

2001 | Information Systems Frontiers | Citations: 15

Authors: Adam, Alison; Richardson, Helen

Abstract: This paper offers a new approach to the philosophical foundations of information ... Expand

Abstract: This paper offers a new approach to the philosophical foundations of information systems (IS) through feminist philosophy and, in particular, feminist epistemology. This can be used to expose the universalizing tendency of many information systems and to show the importance of using real-life complex examples rather than the simplified examples often favored by philosophers. Within traditional epistemology and its relation to IS, subjectivity, the propositional/skills distinction and epistemic hierarchies are subject to arguments from feminist epistemology. With respect to the emerging critical school of IS, feminist epistemology, and within that, feminist standpoint theory, are used to examine the complexities of the positivist/anti-positivist position and the related concept of emancipation. In addition, it is argued that the liberal version of emancipation encapsulated in such systems may have an effect opposite to that of emancipation These issues are illustrated in an existing expert systems project. Collapse

Topics: problem solving IT project expert system