Feminist approach and IS research: a study of MIS Quarterly

Abstract

Over a few decades, some research in several academic fields (history, anthropology, sociology, education, management…) has questioned the social construction of gender roles. Despite their diversity, most of these works share a research approach that can be named ‘feminist approach’. The objective of this article is to use this approach to understand how gender is taken into account in information systems research, and more precisely in a leading journal, MIS Quarterly . First, we describe the different dimensions of a feminist approach. Then, all the articles mentioning “gender” have been examined using this framework, whether the term gender is used as a demographic variable or refers to male-female social relations. Results suggest that using a feminist approach could be of interest for improving IS research, providing additional rigor, and more robust findings, less flawed by cultural biases. Then, researchers can be questioned on their contribution in consolidating stereotypes and gender norms in IS. Last, a feminist approach in IS research could open the way to new ideas.