Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Being an IT in IT : gendered identities in the IT workplace.
AU - Keogh, Claire
AU - Adam, Alison
AU - Griffiths, Marie
AU - Moore, Karenza
AU - Richardson, Helen
AU - Tattersall, Angela
PY - 2006/8
Y1 - 2006/8
N2 - This paper reflects on aspects of gender and IT work. The core hypothesis is that, if technical skill and masculinity are fundamentally related, then women working in IT jobs who are, in effect, challenging masculine skills by gaining them themselves, must develop a number of strategies to cope with the challenge that they feel is being made to their own gender identities and those of the men with whom they work. One strategy is for women to distance themselves from IT work; a second strategy is for women to distance themselves from their identities as women. Our results are drawn from a set of semi-structured interviews. We adopt the approach of critical research that seeks to expose asymmetric power relations in the organization and to let silenced voices be heard. This is related to the literature on silence in organizations. Within the critical approach, we chose a feminist methodology that looks towards identifying practices that are problematic for women and that acknowledges our biases and interests as researchers. Additionally, we draw upon the theoretical constructs of the gender and technology literature to theorize the relationship between gender and technical skill and how this impacts conceptions of gender identity.
AB - This paper reflects on aspects of gender and IT work. The core hypothesis is that, if technical skill and masculinity are fundamentally related, then women working in IT jobs who are, in effect, challenging masculine skills by gaining them themselves, must develop a number of strategies to cope with the challenge that they feel is being made to their own gender identities and those of the men with whom they work. One strategy is for women to distance themselves from IT work; a second strategy is for women to distance themselves from their identities as women. Our results are drawn from a set of semi-structured interviews. We adopt the approach of critical research that seeks to expose asymmetric power relations in the organization and to let silenced voices be heard. This is related to the literature on silence in organizations. Within the critical approach, we chose a feminist methodology that looks towards identifying practices that are problematic for women and that acknowledges our biases and interests as researchers. Additionally, we draw upon the theoretical constructs of the gender and technology literature to theorize the relationship between gender and technical skill and how this impacts conceptions of gender identity.
KW - gender identity
KW - women in IT
KW - gender and technology
U2 - 10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000631
DO - 10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000631
M3 - Journal article
VL - 15
SP - 358
EP - 368
JO - European Journal of Information Systems
JF - European Journal of Information Systems
SN - 1476-9344
IS - 4
ER -