Female Information Technology Research Articles

Job crafting for female contractors in a male‐dominated profession

AbstractIn this paper, we explore the job crafting experiences of women who left permanent employment for contracting positions in Information Technology (IT), a sector widely considered male‐dominated with limited career opportunities for women. This qualitative study is based on interviews with 24 female IT contractors. Findings show that through the flexibility and autonomy that come with contracting, numerous crafting practices are adopted by female IT contractors enabling them to gain empowerment in a male‐dominated environment. The study contributes to in‐depth understanding of job crafting theory by showing a reflexive relationship between role and resource crafting for women in alternative forms of employment, especially those with a high degree of autonomy. By engaging directly with the experiences of these female IT contractors, we provide unique insights into what might drive women into IT contracting, and why they often stay with this option owing to the freedom and autonomy offered.

Navigating the gender structure in information technology: How does this affect the experiences and behaviours of women?

How do women, outnumbered and outranked, navigate work and careers in information technology? Only one in six information technology (IT) specialists in the UK is female. Such extreme male dominance potentially gives rise to a gender structure that affects women’s experiences of IT work. Using data from interviews with 57 technically skilled female IT professionals, we examine how women orient this gender structure and how they make sense of their gender identities as women working in IT. Our findings elucidate how the IT gender structure shapes women’s careers in this field of work. They reveal how women use their agency to assert notions of femininity into technical careers, disentangle narratives around whether women have unique and different (but less technically focused) strengths in IT and interface with ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ identities to achieve successful IT careers. In doing so, they provide insight into how technical women continue careers within a structure that externalises them through gender norms. This understanding can be used to aid efforts to retain women within IT as well as other fields facing similar challenges.

Organizational citizenship behavior of IT professionals: lessons from Poland and Germany

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this research is to investigate the similarities and differences in Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) of male and female information technology (IT) professionals in Poland and Germany, which represent a transition economy and a developed economy, respectively. We examined two dimensions of OCB: individually-oriented (OCBI) and organizationally-oriented (OCBO). We conducted an online survey among 282 Polish respondents and 80 German respondents, using a combination of random and snowball sampling. We observed both similarities and differences between Polish and German IT professionals. Overall, female subordinates evaluated their supervisors’ OCB more positively than did male subordinates. In contrast, female supervisors evaluated their subordinates’ OCB less positively than did male supervisors. Also, it was evident that in Germany employees value OCB more than those in Poland. In conclusion, our findings contribute to the stream of existing research on the relationship between gender, country and OCB in transition and developed economies in Europe.

Investigating the Determinants of Starting Salary of IT Graduates

The starting salary of a fresh graduate is considered a potential indicator of career advancement. Yet few studies have examined the determinants of starting salaries of information technology (IT) graduates. Further, existing studies have focused on how demographics affect either the salary or the kind of job the graduate enters into, but rarely both. In this paper, we explore both and examine if entry into an IT job mediates the effects of demographics on the starting salaries of fresh IT graduates. Our model is tested using data from annual surveys of undergraduate students majoring in IT at a large public university in Singapore over a 5-year period. We find that gender and foreigner status influence both starting salary and fresh graduates' entry into an IT vs. non IT job. Further, the effect of gender on the starting salaries of IT graduates is partially mediated by their entry into an IT job. In other words, part of the reason for a gender difference in starting salary could be attributed to female IT majors being less likely to enter IT jobs upon graduation than their male counterparts. On the other hand, foreign IT graduates are more likely to enter IT jobs, yet their starting salaries are found to be lower than local graduates. The implications of the results for research and practice are discussed.

Turnover or Turnaway? Competing Risks Analysis of Male and Female IT Professionals’ Job Mobility and Relative Pay Gap

This study draws on distributive justice, human capital, and stigmatization theories to hypothesize relationships between relative pay gap and patterns of job mobility. Our study also expands the criterion space of job mobility by contrasting different job destinations when information technology (IT) professionals make job moves. We examine three job moves: (a) turnover to another IT job in a different firm, (b) turnaway-within to a non-IT job, and (c) turnaway-between to a different firm and a non-IT job. We analyze work histories spanning 28 years for 359 IT professionals drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We report three major findings. First, as hypothesized, larger relative pay gaps significantly increase the likelihood of job mobility. Second, IT males and IT females have different job mobility patterns. IT males are more likely to turn over than turn away-between when faced with a relative pay gap. Further, and contrary to predictions from human capital theory, IT males are more likely to turn away-within than turn over. This surprising finding suggests that the ubiquitous use of IT in other business functions may have increased the value of IT skills for non-IT jobs and reduced the friction of moving from IT to other non-IT positions. Third, and consistent with stigmatization arguments, IT females are more likely to turn away from IT than to turn over when faced with a relative pay gap. In fact, to reduce relative pay gaps, IT females tend to take on lower-status jobs that pay less than their IT jobs. We conclude this study with important theoretical, practical, and policy implications.

Techno stress in Gender perspective: An Empirical Investigation

One of the greatest challenges facing information technology (IT) managers is adapting to change. IT managers must cope with frequent changes while implementing new applications within their organizations. There are many indicators that this constant change is a challenge for IT professionals and managers. This paper reveals the gender differences in occupational stress among information technology (IT) personnel in India. Data was collected via a combination of mail surveys and semi-structured interviews. Results of the survey using analysis of variance show that ,female IT personnel reported significantly higher scores on sources of stress originating from internal factors to the job, managerial role, relationships within office, career and achievement, and organizational environment, where as no significant gender difference was found for stress originating from work-home conflict. The information inputted by this study will help and assist employees, especially female IT personnel, in their professional development and achievement and will help to root up the key issues which are generating stress to female personnel so as to strive higher satisfaction level and enhanced profitability.

Gender within the IT major – a retrospective study of factors that lead students to select an IT major

Though the job market for information technology (IT) related skills remains strong, many students, especially females, avoid IT majors. This study identifies four major influences on students' choice of major: social influences, interesting work, extrinsic rewards, and cognitive beliefs (computer self-efficacy and anxiety). Surveying over 200 IT students from four universities in the USA, this study examines the relative importance of these factors for males and females. While findings suggest many similar influences for male and female IT majors, men were more influenced by the technology itself and women by social factors. In addition, women had significantly lower computer self-efficacy and higher computer anxiety than men. The conclusions of this research suggest that colleges, employers, and others interested in enrolment in IT majors, and especially female enrolment, focus on enhancing awareness of the field as well as reaching students in high school and in the early years of college.

Women, work and Web 2.0: a case study

This article examines the opportunities and obstacles facing female information technology (IT) professionals holding ‘hybrid’ or ‘mixed skill’ positions in the Web 2.0 era. The author presents data from a case study to argue that choices of career pathways, technical skill set, age and experience are factors that affect career progression and job satisfaction in a masculinist culture of computing.

Power relations in IT education and work: the intersectionality of gender, race, and class

PurposeSocial exclusion as a result of gender, race, and class inequality is perhaps one of the most pressing challenges associated with the development of a diverse information technology (IT) workforce. Women remain under represented in the IT workforce and college majors that prepare students for IT careers. Research on the under representation of women in IT typically assumes women to be homogeneous in nature, something that blinds the research to variation that exists among women. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachThe paper challenges the assumption of heterogeneity by investigating how the intersection of gender, race, and class identities shape the experiences of Black female IT workers and learners in the USA.FindingsThe results of this meta‐analysis offer new ways of theorizing that provide nuanced understanding of social exclusion and varied emancipatory practices in reaction to shared group exposure to oppression.Originality/valueThis study on the under‐representation of women as IT workers and learners in the USA considers race and class as equally important factors for understanding variation among women. In addition, this paper provides rich insights into the experiences of Black women, a group that is largely absent from the research on gender and IT.

Gender differences in occupational stress and coping strategies among IT personnel

Examines gender differences in occupational stress and coping strategies among information technology (IT) personnel in Singapore. Data were collected via a combination of mail surveys and semi‐structured interviews. Analyses results of the survey using analysis of covariance procedures. Female IT personnel reported significantly higher scores on sources of stress originating from “factors intrinsic to the job”, “managerial role”, “career and achievement”, “organizational structure and climate”, and “relationships with others”. Contrary to initial prediction, no significant gender difference was found for stress originating from “home‐work interface”. With respect to coping strategies, female IT personnel tend to seek social support and talk to others when they experience stress, while men tend to suppress their emotions and deal with problems in a logical and unemotional manner. Discusses implications of findings.