bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Politics, Leadership, and Information Technology
Authors: Rocheleau Bruce
Published: May 2011

The underlying premise of this chapter is that information is power and consequentlyinformation management is inherently political. Information asymmetries give an advan-tage of one actor over others (Bellamy, 2000). Maintaining control over information canallow an individuals, departments, or organizations to control how successful theyappear to others and thus may protect autonomy, job security, and funding. Therefore,in order to provide effective leadership for IT, the generalist and head IT manager willneed to actively engage themselves in both internal and external politics.An excellent case illustrating the importance of political issues in managing IT occurredin California. The California Department of Information Technology (DOIT) was elimi-nated in June of 2002 (Peterson, 2002). The Department had been created in 1995 in orderto solve the problem of several disastrous contracts in the IT area including a DMVproject that cost over $50 million but never functioned as planned (Peterson, 2002).Peterson (2002) cites accounts from observers to support the argument that a majorreason for the failure was due to the other major agencies that viewed the new departmentas a threat to their power and lobbied to reduce the authority of the agency in thelegislation creating it. In particular, the opponents lobbied to deny the new DOIT controlover operations in the legislation creating DOIT. Those with interests that were opposedto the new DOIT included existing departments that had major authority in the IT fieldand/or those with large data centers. The opposition was successful so that thelegislation limited DOIT’s role mainly to authority over the budget.
University Case Study
Authors: Rahayu Johanna Wenny , Tanier David , Pardede Eric
Published: May 2011

Our intention in the previous chapters was to give some understanding of the ORDB concept and its implementation using Oracle™. Examples, case studies, and questions based on these chapters have been relatively simplified in order to explain one concept at a time. However, in the real world, often we find far more complex cases that may involve the integration of every concept that we have already discussed. In this chapter, we will consider a bigger case study that uses most of the ORDB concepts. In addition, we will also demonstrate the implementation of a big case study into one application that can be more user friendly. For this purpose, we will use a package that is also provided by Oracle™.
Institutional
Authors: Khan Badrul
Published: May 2011

The purpose of the E-Learning Quick Checklist book is to walk you through the various factors (encompassing these eight dimensions) important to developing, evaluating, and implementing open, flexible and distributed learning environments. This book is designed as a Quick Checklist for e-learning. It contains many practical items that you can use as review criteria to check if e-learning modules, courses and programs provide the level of services that learners (or consumers) should expect. Items in the checklist encompass the critical dimensions of an e-learning environment, including pedagogical, technological, interface design, evaluation, management, resource support, ethical, and institutional. Throughout this book, various critical e-learning and blended-learning factors are presented as questions or items that you can ask yourself when planning, designing, evaluating, and implementing e-learning and/or blended-learning modules, courses, and programs.
Ethical
Authors: Khan Badrul
Published: May 2011

The purpose of the E-Learning Quick Checklist book is to walk you through the various factors (encompassing these eight dimensions) important to developing, evaluating, and implementing open, flexible and distributed learning environments. This book is designed as a Quick Checklist for e-learning. It contains many practical items that you can use as review criteria to check if e-learning modules, courses and programs provide the level of services that learners (or consumers) should expect. Items in the checklist encompass the critical dimensions of an e-learning environment, including pedagogical, technological, interface design, evaluation, management, resource support, ethical, and institutional. Throughout this book, various critical e-learning and blended-learning factors are presented as questions or items that you can ask yourself when planning, designing, evaluating, and implementing e-learning and/or blended-learning modules, courses, and programs.
Age, Gender, and Cognitive Style Differneces in IS Professionals
Authors: Gallivan Michael J.
Published: May 2011

There is a long tradition of research on IS professionals that has examined potential gender differences between men and women, beginning with early studies by Igbaria and his colleagues (Guimaraes & Igbaria 1992; Igbaria & Chidambaram 1997; Igbaria & Siegel 1992). While these and many subsequent studies posited differences between men and women IS professionals, very few differences have been found—particularly for variables that are commonly studied: job satisfaction, turnover intentions, organizational commitment, and stress. I first summarize the results from many survey studies published in leading IS scholarly journals, as a way to frame my research on the adaptation of IS professionals to innovations in work practices. Then I summarize my program of research examining demographic variables, including age, gender and cognitive style differences as explanatory variables for a range of outcomes among IS professionals.
Comparing Gender Differences in Computer Science and Management Information Systems Majors
Authors: Beyer Sylvia
Published: May 2011

Why do so few women major in computer science (CS) or management information systems (MIS)? Are the reasons for women’s underrepresentation in these two disciplines the same? I will address these issues by reporting on my research on female and male undergraduates majoring in CS or MIS. I hypothesize that results from one area of information technology (IT), such as CS, do not necessarily generalize to other areas of IT, such as MIS. Structural barriers exist that keep women from advancement in IT careers (cf. Ahuja, 2002). However, an examination of these is beyond the scope of this article, which focuses on gender differences in IT students. In 2002 only 27.6% of U.S. Bachelor’s degrees in CS and 36.8% in MIS were conferred on women (U.S. Department of Education, 2002), limiting the number of women qualified to enter into the IT workforce. The problem of women’s under representation in IT is not limited to the U.S. Women are underrepresented in CS majors in other Western countries such as Canada (Gadalla, 2001), Germany (Huber, Reiff, Ben, & Schinzel, 2001), Norway (Berg, Gansmo, Hestflatt, Lie, Nordli, & Sorenson, 2002), and Ireland (MacKeogh, 2003). IT cannot afford to underutilize such a valuable and significant part of the workforce. Increasing the representation of women is imperative because “greater diversity among those who create computing technology ensures that those technologies are relevant to and usable by a wider range of people” (Roberts, 2003).
Crossing the Digital Divide in a Women's Community ICT Centre
Authors: Herman Clem
Published: May 2011

This article examines the role of community-based training initiatives in enabling women to cross the so-called digital divide and become confident users of ICTs. Drawing on a case study of the Women’s Electronic Village Hall (WEVH) in Manchester, United Kingdom, one of the first such initiatives in Europe offering both skills training and Internet access to women, the article will illustrate the impact that community-based initiatives can have in challenging and changing prevailing gendered attitudes toward technology. Gendered constructions of technology in dominant discourse suggest that women must also cross an internal digital divide, involving a change in attitude and self–identification, before they can see themselves as technically competent. Learning about technology is intimately linked to learning about gender, and the performance of skills and tasks that are culturally identified as masculine can be an empowering step for women, successfully challenging preconceived gendered relationships with technology. The WEVH occupied a unique position, acting as a model for other women’s ICT initiatives and influencing the development and proliferation of other community-based ICT access projects. There were two main motivating forces behind its setting up in 1992. The first was a shared vision of the potential for ICTs to be used as a tool to combat social exclusion. The second was a feminist commitment to redressing the inequalities and underrepresentation of women in computing. Both these perspectives formed an important backdrop to the growth and development of the organisation and have continued to inform its strategic plans.
E-Empowerment through Strengthening Women's Policy Issues via the Internet
Authors: Carstensen Tanja , Winker Gabriele
Published: May 2011

Both Internet studies and women’s and gender studies formulated various hopes and fears for the effects of the Internet on gender relations at an early point. Whereas some scholars saw it as a male domain, others pinned hopes for overcoming dichotomous gender constructions to the new technology. The Internet was also seen as an opportunity to network women’s policy activists and to strengthen women’s policy issues from the very beginning. There have, however, been few studies of how women specifically use the Internet to further feminist issues. This article addresses this question of Internet use in women’s policy networks based on an empirical study, which examined the democratizing use of the Internet for German women’s networks. We start off by signifying the importance of the Internet within the developments of the women’s movement and giving an overview of the existing research findings. We then analyze the use of the Internet within women’s policy networks, using the three dimensions “information”, “interaction,” and “political action”. We wind up the article by outlining an idea that could be used to better concentrate and structure existing Internet services, possibly strengthening women’s public political spaces.
A Faculty Role in Women's Participating in Computing
Authors: Cohoon J. McGrath , Lord Holly
Published: May 2011

The success of efforts to attract and retain more women in computing is influenced by many factors that are beyond the control of academic departments. Industry downturns, public perception about job opportunities and the desirability of a computing career, and gender stereotypes about interests and abilities are only a few contextual features that are likely to be relevant but over which computer science programs have little or no control. Nevertheless, there are ways that departments can have a measurable influence over women’s representation, and several of those ways depend on faculty. Women’s portion of undergraduate enrollment in computing majors is low on average, but it varies across institutions (Cohoon, 2006). Likewise, women’s portion of attrition from computer science (CS) is a disproportionately high rate—32% annual attrition of women from the major. Comparing women’s attrition rate to men’s attrition rate in the same department shows that on average, undergraduate women switched out of the CS major at a rate six points higher than their male classmates. However, just as some departments enroll higher proportions of women, there are also some undergraduate computing departments that retain men and women at comparable rates. The first part of our discussion examines the faculty behaviors that distinguish undergraduate departments that retain women. Women’s portion of graduate enrollment in computer science and computer engineering (CSE) is also low, but similar to undergraduate programs, it varies by department—from 8% to 33%. The second part of our discussion examines the faculty behaviors that distinguish graduate departments that enroll women. In this article, we take a department-level approach to identifying factors that are related to the gender-balance of post-secondary computing. We examine the considerable role that members of a department’s faculty play in bringing about similar outcomes for men and women. First, we discuss faculty actions that can affect retention in undergraduate computer science programs, and secondly, we discuss faculty recruitment of women into graduate CSE programs.
Females on Technology Courses in UK Colleges
Authors: French Sheila , Saxon Diane
Published: May 2011

This article reports the findings of a funded research project carried out in two further education (FE) colleges in the North West of England. The under-representation of women in the technology sector has been the focus of various initiatives in the United Kingdom (UK) over the last 30 years, and FE, with its emphasis on vocational and practical skills, could be seen as an effective route to redress this imbalance. However, data from colleges continues to show that student females are also under-represented on technology courses in the sector. The project is seeking to gain a greater understanding of the experiences of young women on a number of technology courses where the majority of students are male. The outcomes of the research are intended to inform the FE colleges’ developing strategies on how to improve the recruitment and retention of females, so helping to redress the gender imbalance on the technology courses in the study. Research studies of this nature are rare in the FE sector, as it is largely a neglected field of study for educational research in gender and technology. In this project, we provide a forum in which the experiences of the female students in the sector can be discussed. The research focuses on the young women who “have arrived” and are currently studying technology subjects in the colleges. We report that gendered notions of technology courses still prevail and these have an impact on the choice of course, progression to technology industries and issues of confidence with technology. Overall, we highlight some of the issues that make the female students’ experience of occupying “male spaces” an uncomfortable one.
Gender and Information Technology in Rural Bangladesh
Authors: Rahman Lutfor , Rahman Nusrat
Published: May 2011

Information technology (IT) is transforming our personal, social, cultural, economic and political lives. But women in developing countries do not have equal access to knowledge, due to the fact that they do not have access to the new technologies at the same level as western European women. They need to understand the significance of new technologies and use them in relevant fields. IT can offer immense opportunities for virtually all girls and women in developing countries, including poor women living in rural areas. Developing countries like Bangladesh are usually seen as problematic hosts for ITs because most developing regions of the country lack economic resources and indigenous techno-scientific capabilities to develop and deploy IT infrastructures. The regions also tend not to make the best use of opportunities of technology transfer. The wider adoption of IT in the 1990s promised a globally connected community of equal participants in electronic networks. The Internet has enabled people to communicate regardless of race, sex, physical ability, location and social background (GVU, 1998). IT now offers access to a huge pool of information. The Internet enables worldwide communication that is cheaper, faster and more flexible than older media like e-mail, telephone, telex or fax.
Gender and Australian IT Industry
Authors: Staehr Lorraine , Byrne Graeme , Bell Elisha
Published: May 2011

From its very beginnings in the post second world war years the information technology (IT) industry in Australia has exhibited gender stereotyping with the relegation of women to lower paid and lower status jobs. Unfortunately the words of Game and Pringle (1983) are as true today as when they were written more than twenty years ago: The sexual division of labor is not a remnant from the feudal past that is gradually being eliminated, but is a fundamental structural feature of capitalist society. (p. 81) The first IT projects were funded by the military when IT had a mathematics or science image. Neither of these characteristics was likely to make an IT occupation attractive to women. However some women were employed by small IT consultancies wanting to save money because in the 1950s in Australia, women were only paid around 75% of a male wage (Game & Pringle, 1983, p. 84). Opportunities arose for women to move into the IT industry in the late 1960s due to a skills shortage. However this had little long term impact as today women are still under-represented in the industry.
Gender and the Household Internet
Authors: Kennedy Tracy L.M.
Published: May 2011

Internet research has reached a point where a detailed analysis of household Internet use is necessary. Given that the household is a contested terrain for feminist theorists (Hochschild, 1989; Luxton, 1980), it is often a site of struggle between household members and a place where unequal divisions of domestic labour situate women as bearing the load of housework and caregiving (Cockburn & Furst-Dilic, 1997). How should researchers examine Internet use in the household? There are two particular areas that need to be considered in order to contextualize household Internet use. The first is household roles: the interactions and relationships shaped by societal expectations and social roles (gender, class, and race). The second is the domestic division of labour: Who is responsible for domestic tasks and how does this influence household Internet use?
Gender Bias in Computer Courses in Australia
Authors: Miliszewska Iwona
Published: May 2011

The participation of women in science and, more recently, in information technology (IT) has engaged researchers for more than 20 years. Despite extensive research and numerous practical interventions designed to address the relative dearth of women in IT, the problem persists. This is an important question since computing and computer competence are critical to ongoing developments of the “information revolution.” Evidence from around the world suggests that despite female predominance in undergraduate enrolments (59% in Australia, 55% in America, and greater than 50% in many European Union countries), women are reluctant to pursue IT study at tertiary level (Rees, 2001). Initial approaches to reverse this trend centered upon notions of equality and affirmative action, since the lack of significant numbers of females in the discipline was seen as inequitable. To alleviate the problem, intervention programs aimed at women have promoted information on technology-related careers, provided experience of computing work, and highlighted female role models. Other initiatives focused on helping women develop skills, attitudes, or background knowledge that women were thought to lack. These affirmative action measures, while commendable in fostering gender equality, were not sufficient in that they often served to reinforce the conceptions of IT as a masculine domain and, consequently, failed to attract women to IT. This suggests a need for an alternative approach—a re-conceptualization of IT into an environment that women would naturally embrace. Such a need, in the area of tertiary computing education, motivated this study. The aim of the study was to investigate, from the students’ perspective, the perceived problems faced by female computing students at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia; the study focused on problems related to the learning environment, particularly on direct and subtle gender-related problems encountered in the classroom, and special needs of female students.
Gender Differences in Education and Training in the IT Workforce
Authors: Carayon Pascale , Hoonakker Peter , Schoepke Jen
Published: May 2011

Historically, women have had lower levels of educational attainment (Freeman, 2004; NCES, 1999), which in turn could negatively affect their opportunities in the labor market. However, in the past decade, this has changed dramatically. In general, more women have completed college, and more women have received bachelor’s and master’s degrees than men. Only in the highest level of education (PhD), men hold more degrees than women (NCES, 1999, 2002). In a recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Freeman (2004) presents an overview of the latest developments with regard to gender differences in educational attainment. Historically, females have tended to account for the majority of bachelor’s degrees in fields that often lead to lower paying occupations, such as education and health professions, while males have typically predominated in higher paying fields, such as computer science and engineering. While some of these disparities persist, many changes have occurred since the 1970s. Certain fields in which men received the majority of degrees in the 1970s, such as social sciences, history, psychology, biological sciences/life sciences, and business management and administrative services, attained relative gender parity or were disproportionately female by 2001. While other fields, such as computer and information sciences, physical sciences and science technologies, and engineering, continue to have a larger proportion of males, the percentages of females majoring in those fields is increasing (Freeman, 2004). Between 1970 and 2001, the percentages of master’s, doctoral and first-professional degrees earned by females increased substantially in many fields. However, advanced degrees conferred still tend to follow traditional patterns, with women accounting for the majority of master’s and doctor’s degree recipients in education and health, and men accounting for the majority of recipients in computer and information sciences and engineering. Higher levels of educational attainment are associated with certain labor market outcomes, such as higher labor force participation rates, higher rates of employment, and higher earnings (Freeman, 2004). A study by Igbaria, Parasuraman and Greenhaus (1997) looked at gender differences in the information technology (IT) work force with regard to education and experience, career history and attainments and career orientation. The results showed significant differences in educational attainment. A larger percentage of female IT employees in the study ended their formal education after attaining a bachelor’s degree.
Gender Equalization in Computer-Mediated Communication
Authors: Ocker Rosalie J.
Published: May 2011

While traditional face-to-face (FtF) forms of interaction have proven disadvantageous to females in mixed-sex settings, computer-mediated communication (CMC) holds the promise of helping to level the playing field between the sexes, at least in terms of equitable communication between genders. However, evidence from resent research shows that gender inequalities persist. The objective of this article is to shed light on why the promise of gender equalization in CMC is not evidenced.
Gender in Norwegian Computer History
Authors: Corneliussen Hilde
Published: May 2011

“From the very birth of computing machines, women have made substantial contributions,” according to Denise Gürer (2002). Augusta Ada Byron Lovelace wrote the first sketches for a computer program. Grace Murray Hopper constructed the first compiler, and the first electronic computing machine, ENIAC, was programmed by six women during World War II. When the computer first started to invade the market in the 80s, it fitted an image of women’s work tasks: it was about handling a keyboard inheriting the typewriters place in office work, and it matched feminine qualities, like nimble fingers (Wajcman, 1991, p. 150). Female secretaries and office workers were among the first and most extensive user groups of computers. Yet, computer technology is regarded a male domain today, and the traces of women’s contributions and participation are not easy to discover (Corneliussen, 2003a). This article presents a research project which looks for discursive traces of gender in debates about computer technology in Norwegian culture in the last decades of the 20th century.
Gender, Gaming, and IT Careers
Authors: Lee Joey J. , Hellar D. Benjamin , Hoadley Christopher M.
Published: May 2011

Many IT researchers have noted the disturbing trend of an incredible shrinking pipeline; this pipeline represents the number of women who are involved in computer and technology fields from high school continuing onto graduate school or professional careers (Camp, 1997; Gorriz & Medina, 2000). A closely related phenomenon is how girls’ interest in computer and video games tends to dwindle during childhood. Researchers feel that computer games have provided “a significant impetus for many boys to become more acquainted with computers … [for] young people who play games are more likely to enter computer-related careers” (Agosto, 2004, pp. 11-12). It seems reasonable, then, that computer and video games provide an easy lead-in to computer familiarity, comfort and literacy (Cassell & Jenkins, 2000). Preschool children of both sexes demonstrate equal interest in computer games, but as girls mature, they lose interest in gaming (Agosto, 2004; Comber, Colley, Hargreaves, & Dorn, 1997). The reasons for this are uncertain. Perhaps it is partly because of the way women are often under represented in games—only 16% of the characters in the bestselling games are female—or when they are represented, the characters are portrayed unrealistically or negatively (Douglas, Dragiewicz, Manzano & McMullin, 2002). Female game characters are frequently depicted as damsels in distress, scantily clad, objectified rewards to be won, or passive bystanders (Provenzo, 1991; Douglas et al., 2002). Cassell and Jenkins (2000, p. 6)) see this portrayal as a “prime example of the social construction of gender.” Another reason may be the lack of enough compelling and attractive content tailored to young girls (Gorriz et al., 2000). Perhaps it is not that girls innately dislike video games, but there are simply too few titles to choose from. Statistics show that women actually do enjoy video games – in fact, 43% of all gamers today are women, but most of these women are over the age of 18 (Entertainment Software Association, 2005). When women do play games, they tend to play online games and social games such as Electronic Arts’ Sims Online. While a game like Sims Online is gender neutral, it is noteworthy that more women (56%) actually play this game than men. Evidently, when content is made available that is attractive or fun to women, they will play. It is, therefore, worthwhile to consider what kinds of games can be leveraged for education to promote computer literacy in girls and to attract more girls to technology in general.
Gender-Biased Attitudes Toward Technology
Authors: Morgan Konrad , Morgan Madeleine
Published: May 2011

During the past 30 years of investigation into the ratios of males and females using technology (Harrison, Rainer, & Hochwarter, 1997), there have been consistent reports of males being more positive toward technology and being more likely to adopt the use of new technology on a voluntary basis (Volman, & Van-Eck, 2001). This trend has been reported from early school through adult life, and from diverse geographical sources (Broos, 2005; Heemskerk, Brink, Volman, & Ten-Dam, 2005). Although some scientists have argued that this pattern is changing (Colley & Comber, 2003; Durndell & Thomson, 1997), surveys continue to show an imbalance between the sexes favoring males over females (Colley & Comber; Heemskerk et al., 2005). The authors consider the consequences of this gender bias to be significant not only in terms of maximizing the whole potential workforce, but also because there is some evidence that males design information- and knowledge-based systems in ways that are different from females, and often these differences favor male users in communication and searching methods. The gender imbalance may become of increasing importance as high-technology industries, such as knowledge engineering and Web commerce, become the normal methods of conducting business throughout the global economy.
ICT Usage in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Galpin Vashti
Published: May 2011

Given the circumstances of women’s lives in sub-Saharan Africa, it may appear that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are only for wealthy, well-educated, urbanized women with time to use them, and that they are irrelevant for other women in sub-Saharan Africa. However, this is not the case: women see ICTs as providing opportunities for change, by giving them access to the information which will help improve their circumstances, as the abundant research shows (Hafkin & Taggart, 2001; Huyer & Mitter, 2003; Morna & Khan, 2000; Pacific Institute of Women’s Health [PIWH], 2002; Rathgeber & Adera, 2000). This article presents an overview of women as ICT users in sub-Saharan Africa, covering the challenges and the success stories. Since there is a large body of literature covering this area, only a representative subset is surveyed. The focus here is usage. Information technology (IT) professionals and more technological topics are considered elsewhere in this volume. Much of the literature about usage in developing countries takes a broad definition of ICTs because of the lack of the latest technologies. For example, Holmes (2004) includes computers, the Internet, mobile phones and wireless technologies as well as telephone, radio, television, print media, listening groups, and community theatre. This article will consider all electronic technologies, from computers and networking to radio and television. When considering ICTs and developing countries, the digital divide is often mentioned. This term is sometimes used specifically to refer to the Internet; for example, see DiMaggio, Hargittai, Neuman, and Robinson (2001). In line with the broad definition of ICTs given above, in this article, the term digital divide will be used to refer to inequality in access to ICTs and ability to use them. There are multiple divides: men vs. women, urban vs. rural, rich vs. poor, young vs. old, developed vs. developing. When considering developing countries, there is an underlying information divide—people do not have access to information sources they require, electronic or otherwise, due to poverty and lack of infrastructure. This is the real problem that needs to be solved—ICTs are a means to this end.
Institutional Characteristics and Gender Choice in IT
Authors: Malliaris Mary , Salchenberger Linda
Published: May 2011

While the issue of attracting women to information technology professions has been studied extensively since the 1970s, the gender gap in IT continues to be a significant social and economic problem (Thom, 2001). Numerous research studies have been conducted to understand the reasons for the gender gap in IT (Gurer & Camp, 2002; Sheard, Lowe, Nicholson, & Ceddia, 2003; von Hellens, Nielsen, & Beekhuyzen, 2004). Universities and colleges have developed a variety of programmatic efforts to apply gender gap research results, implementing strategies that increase female undergraduate enrollment in computer science programs (Wardle & Burton, 2002). Yet, individual successes have not translated into any significant change in the overall percentages of women choosing IT. An analysis of current choices of women in their selection of four-year undergraduate institutions reveals yet another alarming trend—young women are not choosing to study IT at the traditional academic four year institutions that would best prepare them for the IT professional careers of the future. To complicate matters, the information technology job market is changing rapidly. For example, some well-documented IT trends that are causing such shifts are outsourcing, the commoditization of IT, the effect of the dot com bust on the job market, and most importantly, the integration of IT into the fundamental economic, social and cultural fabric of our society. IT now permeates every aspect of professional work, even the traditional female-oriented occupations such as nursing and teaching. This integration of IT into the professions must guide the development of a new set of strategies to insure that women have equal opportunities and access to the benefits of an education that prepares them for professional careers. It is in the best interest of the IT profession and our society in general to help young women make choices that include the pursuit of information technology.
Negotiating a Hegemonic Discourse of Computing
Authors: Corneliussen Hilde
Published: May 2011

The number of women within computer sciences is low in Norway, as in other Western countries (Camp & Gürer, 2002). Research projects have documented that girls and women use the computer less and in other ways than boys and men (Håpnes & Rasmussen, 2003). Even though variations between women and between men also have been documented through research, a dualistic image of gender and ICT has dominated throughout the 1990s (Corneliussen, 2003b). Worries about the “gender gap” related to computers have resulted in a number of initiatives to include girls and women in the “information society,” but in order to do this in a successful manner we need knowledge about what it means to be a man or a woman with a relation to computers. How do men and women construct their own relations to computing?
Online Life and Netsex or Cybersex
Authors: Marshall Jonathan
Published: May 2011

Netsex, or cybersex, may be thought of as the mutual textual simulation, or narration, of sexual activity between people online. Branwyn (1993, p. 786) divides Netsex into three different types. First is that in which people “describe and embellish real-world circumstances” such as touching themselves, taking their clothes off, and so on. They may or may not be performing these actions, but probably not if they are typing reasonably steadily. The second type involves “a pure fantasy scenario” in which people jointly create a story with relatively coherent expectations. This can be performed before an audience. The third type involves one party giving instructions to another who supposedly performs them. These techniques involve textual references to sexually charged notions of gender (anatomy, actions, clothing, and so on), which are frequently exaggerated to fit the story. It is now possible to transmit real-time video pictures from a camera attached to a person’s computer, and this may also be used for Netsex. However, people often express ambivalence about this, perhaps because it emphasises the distance between people, is not as mutually intense, or because it increases possible disjunctions. The disruption of expectations of narrative in Netsex is often a source of online humour. A final, often mentioned, but currently fictional form of Netsex is virtual teledildonics, in which a complete sensory field is simulated via electronics.
Outsourcing to the Post-Soviet Region and Gender
Authors: Gapova Elena
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this article is to analyze the outsourcing of information technology (IT) jobs to a specific world region as a gendered phenomenon. Appadurai (2001) states that the contemporary globalized world is characterized by objects in motion, and these include ideas, people, goods, images, messages, technologies and techniques, and jobs. These flows are a part of “relations of disjuncture” (Appadurai, 2001, p. 5) created by an uneven economic process in different places of the globe and involving fundamental problems of livelihood, equality or justice. Outsourcing of jobs (to faraway countries) is one of such “disjunctive” relationships. Pay difference between the United States (U.S.) and some world regions created a whole new interest in the world beyond American borders. Looking for strategies to lower costs, employers move further geographically; and with digital projects, due to their special characteristics, distribution across different geographical areas can be extremely effective. First, digital networks allow reliable and real-time transfer of digital files (both work in progress and final products), making it possible to work in geographically separated locations. Second, in the presence of adequate mechanisms for coordination through information exchange, different stages of software production (conceptualization, high-level design and low-level analysis, coding) are also separable across space (Kagami, 2002). In the Western hemisphere, the argument for outsourcing is straightforward and powerful. It is believed that if an Indian, Chinese, Russian or Ukrainian software programmer is paid one-tenth of an American salary, a company that develops software elsewhere will save money. And provided that competitors do the same, the price of the software will fall, productivity will rise, the technology will spread, and new jobs will be created to adapt and improve it. But the argument against outsourcing centers on the loss of jobs by American workers. Although there is no statistics on the number of jobs lost to offshore outsourcing, the media write about the outcry of professionals who several years ago considered themselves invulnerable.
Participation of Women in Information Technology
Authors: Barnes Tiffany , Berenson Sarah , Vouk Mladen
Published: May 2011

Our nation’s continued global competitiveness is widely believed to depend upon the United States maintaining its leadership in the development and management of new information technologies (Freeman & Aspray, 1999; Malcom, Babco, Teich, Jesse, Campbell, & Bell, 2005; Sargent, 2004). Rapidly changing technologies have pervaded every sector of American society, infusing nearly everyone’s work and personal lives. Over the long term, we may face a shortage of highly educated IT workers who are needed to maintain and increase the economic productivity of the United States. Interestingly, according to Freeman and Aspray, if women were represented in the IT workforce in equal proportion to men (assuming the percentage of men in IT vis-à-vis other professions remained constant), this impending shortage and its potentially economically devastating consequences could be prevented. We identify the pipeline of potential female IT workers as beginning in the middle grades, with the girls who take college-prep algebra by the eighth grade and elect college-bound courses in math, science, and computer science through high school. These girls are then prepared to complete a bachelor of science degree in computer science, computer engineering, or electrical engineering and become creative future IT workers. In this article, we examine some of the factors that, as suggested by the literature, influence the low participation of women in IT. We also discuss the open research issues in understanding and modeling the (educational) persistence of young women in IT-related disciplines, and we outline some results from Girls on Track, an intervention program for middle-school girls. We end with some suggestions for making IT more appealing to this currently underrepresented population.
Personality Characteristics of Established IT Professionals I
Authors: Ash Ronald A. , Rosenbloom Joshua L. , Coder LeAnne , Dupont Brandon
Published: May 2011

Women are under represented in the information technology (IT) workforce relative to the overall labor force, comprising about 35% of the IT workforce and 45% of the overall labor force (Information Technology Association of America, 2003). A basic question to be addressed is whether this under representation is a function of barriers to employment of women in this career field, or a function of career-related choices that a majority of women make during their lives. The research reported here is part of a series of studies attempting to better understand the reasons underlying this under representation of women in this reasonably lucrative profession. Through a grant provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF 29560) and in partnership with Consulting Psychologists Press, we have been able to design and conduct an extensive survey of professional workers, IT professionals and a comparable set of non- IT professionals. The non-IT professionals included individuals who are similar to the IT sample in terms of education level (but not specific degree fields) and who work in jobs with comparable human attribute demands, including written comprehension, oral comprehension, oral expression, written expression and deductive reasoning. The survey items include measures of Big Five personality constructs (NEOAC) and Core Self-Evaluations (CSE). The purpose of this article is to document similarities and differences between established IT and non-IT professionals and between males and females on these variables, thereby establishing a benchmark for comparisons with future samples of IT professionals. Why is this worth doing? Because in the last decade of the 20th century, a critical mass of knowledge related to personality in work organizations has developed. Personality contributes to all that happens during a person’s career, and informs our understanding of things like work motivation, job attitudes, citizenship behavior, leadership, teamwork, well-being and organizational culture. Increasingly, we have realized that personality plays an important role in determining who is hired and fired (see Schneider & Smith, 2004).
Pushing and Pulling Women into Technology-Plus Jobs
Authors: Mathieu Chris
Published: May 2011

This article discusses the causes and implications of an empirically observed tendency to channel a disproportionate number of female computer professionals working in IT companies into what we term technology-plus positions. Technology-plus positions are positions requiring technological knowledge and skills but also containing a significant “non-technological” component. The most common such positions are project and group management, but also some sales/business development tasks, technical and specifications writing, and positions entailing substantial client contact can also be included in this category. Channeling a disproportionate number of female computer professionals into technology-plus positions is seen as evidence of gendered “segregation”1 at the occupational sub-specialization level in the high end of the IT industry. This process is primarily based on horizontally differentiated positions and tracks rather than vertically hierarchical positions, though as argued below, a particular status hierarchy plays a central role in this process. Space constraints mandate sacrificing depth for breadth in making the argument here (see also Davies & Mathieu, 2005).
Questioning Gender through Deconstruction and Doubt
Authors: Crutzen Cecile K.M. , Kotkamp Erna
Published: May 2011

Questioning gender can lead to a reformulating research into: “Why did the hard core of methods, theories and practices of the informatics discipline and domain become a symbol for masculinity?” and “Why is femininity constructed as situated only in the discipline’s soft border of the interaction with the users of ICT-products?” In the view of Judith Butler, questioning gender is a strategy to disrupt the obvious acting of every actor, designers and users in the informatics domain: The abiding gendered self will then be shown to be structured by repeated acts that seek to approximate the ideal of a substantial ground of identity, but which in their occasional discontinuity, reveal the temporal and contingent groundlessness of this “ground.” The possibilities of gender transformation are to be found precisely, in the arbitrary relation between such acts, in the possibility of a failure to repeat, a deformity, or a parodic repetition that exposes the phantasmatic effect of abiding identity as a politically tenuous construction. (Butler, 1990, p.141) In every interaction world, there is a continuity of ongoing weaving of a complex web of meanings in which we live, constructed by the interactions that take place in that world.s In that web of meanings, gender is a web of meanings on women and men, masculinity and femininity, which is connected to other webs of dualistic meanings. Gender is a process1 in which the meaning of masculinity and femininity are mutually constructed, situated at symbolic, individual and institutional levels of a domain. All social activities, practices, and structures are influenced by gender. The meaning of gender is thus embedded in social and cultural constructions and is always dynamically linked to the meaning of many concepts, such as technology or the relation between use and design. The performances of gender are the symbols for power relations in a domain (Harding, 1986; Scott, 1988).
Race and Gender in Culturally Situated Design Tools
Authors: Eglash Ron
Published: May 2011

In theer study of equity issues in information technology (IT), researchers concerned with workforce diversity often utilize the metaphor of a “career pipeline.” In this metaphor a population full of gender and race diversity enters the pipeline in kindergarten, but its delivery at the pipeline outflow in the form of software engineers and other IT workers is disproportionately white and male. While we might question the metaphor—its lack of attention to economic class or social construction, its illusion of rigid boundaries, etc.—the phenomenon it describes is well established by a broad number of statistical measures. For example, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Surveys shows that between 1996 and 2002 the percentage of women in the overall IT workforce fell from 41% to 34.9%; during the same period the percentage of African Americans fell from 9.1% to 8.2%. Not only are women and certain minority groups under-represented, but the gap is in some cases getting worse. Returning to the pipeline, we might ask what barriers are encountered by women and minorities that act as impediments to this flow. Some of these barriers can be attributed to economic status; in particular the impact that poor educational resources have on low-income minority student academic success (Payne & Biddle, 1999). But other barriers appear to be more about cultural identity, including both race and gender identity. This essay describes Culturally Situated Design Tools (CSDTs), a suite of Web-based interactive applets that allow students and teachers to explore mathematics through the simulation of cultural artifacts, including Native American beadwork, African American cornrows, ancient Mayan temples, urban Graffiti, and Latin percussion rhythms (see http://www.rpi.edu/~eglash/csdt.html). Our preliminary evaluation indicates that some of the identity barriers preventing women and minorities from participating in IT careers can be mitigated by the use CSDTs in classroom and out of class learning environments.