Looking beyond the software boom: Gendered costs and benefits?

Abstract

The expansion of the IT sector in recent years, coupled with the positive economic cycle and the openness of the field, characterized by the dynamic creation of new tasks, seemed to justify hopes for an increasing involvement of women. Moreover, flexible knowledge and skill requirements for vaguely defined tasks in this dynamic period seemed to open up opportunities to enter the IT and software development sectors on the basis of non-restrictive academic technical requirements. Looking at the general situation of the software sector in Germany, it is very important to note that small and medium-sized enterprises with a youthful workforce predominate in the market (BMBF 2000). The IT sector in Germany is furthermore characterized by the high number of “side-step” workers enrolled in many parts of the sector (Dostal 2001), since in times of labour shortage, which affected the software sector in recent years, professional experience and non-formalized skills became as important as academic certificates. In Germany, the previously good economic situation and the shortage of highly qualified computer specialists made it possible to enter the software sector without a specific university degree in computer science, and also opened up the field for women, especially for young women without family responsibilities.2 Moreover, recent positive economic trends, particularly in the German IT sector, and the acute labour shortage of in this field, have contributed to an increasing focus on women as a potential source of labour.