It’s Not Solely Gender-Filter but More of Gender-Age Filter

Abstract

Women are vastly underrepresented in ICT education and careers in the western contexts (Trauth, 2006). However, research on Indian context points out to a different perspective indicating women’s increasing participation in ICT education and careers (Gupta, 2015). Scholars studying women’s careers in the Indian ICT’s have argued that women view ICT as gender-neutral (Gupta, 2015) unlike the western contexts (Adya and Kaiser, 2005; Kelan, 2007a; Lewis et al., 2007). Indian women are also argued to obtain high parental support in studying computer education and entering ICT careers (Gupta, 2015; Raghuram, 2004). Although studies point out that women occupy 38% of the entry- level ICT workforce (Raghuram et al., 2018), research indicates that women are increasing opting out from the ICT workforce especially during junior to mid-career stages. For example, recent research notes that almost 48% of the Indian women are choosing to opt-out during junior to middle-management transition (Gender Diversity Index, 2011). Ravindran and Baral (2013) cite that it is not clear exactly for what reasons women choose to opt-out, although scholars widely point out to the social and structural barriers to be the reasons for women’s restricted career progression (Srinivasan et al., 2013). This is particularly intriguing considering the fact that Indian women experience an equal footing with men while entering the ICT sector (Catalyst, 2011). This study, therefore, aims to address this problem by exploring why Indian women decide to opt-out of ICT careers very early (Ravindran and Baral, 2014: 31; Srinivasan et al., 2013). This study adopts an intersectional approach to understand the reasons behind Indian women's restrictive progression in ICT careers during junior to middle management transition. The study adopted a qualitative methodology to interview 30 women participants who left ICT careers during junior to middle management transition. The study finds that intersections of gender with age have severely restricted women’s access to structural opportunities that are crucial for their career development during junior to middle-management transition. Thus, the study contends that gender alone does not dictate women’s restricted career path in the Indian ICT’s, and that the intersections of gender with age equally restrict the women’s access to crucial opportunities. The study contributes to the literature suggesting the term ‘marriage-age penalty’ to be one of the important barriers for women's career progression in the Indian context.