Introduction
This literature review examines the patterns in female involvement and under-representation in the world of information technology and information systems. This will be the application of elements and aspects of a structured literature review and will cover three main areas:
Barriers to career development of women in information technology;
Methods of promoting the inclusion of women in information technology.
This literature review will focus on scholarly academic journals and articles. This will include the critical analysis and assessment of peer-reviewed journals that focus on the elements of women and their involvement in information technology and the attempts to build thriving careers in IT.
Factual Under-Representation of Women in Information Technology
In this section of the literature review, the focus will be on the identification of the information and trends of women in IT careers and positions. This will be based on the need to ascertain the main elements and nature of the challenges and difficulties that come up in the quest to get women to achieve some kind of decent careers in information technology and other technological jobs.
It is identified that there is a structural underrepresentation of women in pure research and IT design. This is because fewer women are involved in things that relate to information technology. Women are more likely to use data from IT systems rather than configure IT processes. This means that women are more prone to becoming users of information systems rather than creators of systems that help IT. It is common to identify that such actions and processes causes some degree of technological feudalism which means the users of information technology become dependent on the creators of information technology and systems.
There is also widespread evidence of underrepresentation and stereotypes against the admission of women into the IT workplace. There are major salary differences that persist between men and women in the workplace and this goes a long way to shape and define the way and manner in which women can rise and consider building a career that will help and aid them to become information technology professionals who bring anything meaningful into the world.
Also, in terms of work, there is a higher turnover amongst women than men and this is a sign that women are not satisfied with IT jobs. The implication is that women are more comfortable and better off if they consider jobs and roles in other areas rather than working and processing things to become information technology professionals. Also, the turnover seem to occur in sensitive roles that make women more independent and competent as opposed to roles that causes women to be reliant on other members of the work industry. This shows that the trends in women’s involvement or the lack thereof is one that put them in a disadvantaged and feudal position in the workplace.
Perception issues cause women to consider careers outside Information Technology. This is because dominant views suggest that men are better when they are employed to do things in information technology than men and this is pervasive and creates a conscious and unconscious barrier to the women who want to pursue a career in information technology.
In spite of this, there are many different individual needs and expectations that lead to the non-participation and exclusion of women in the IT workplace and industry. These vary from person to person and could have many different reasons and explanations. However, stakeholders seek to aggregate these reasons and tend to stereotype and define a set of variables that indicate that women are not capable of helping and working at an equal footing as their male counterparts in the workplace.
Therefore, there is evidence that the work environment has systems that support the exclusion of women in IT. This has created an environment where structured discrimination exist against women and they are not able to build IT careers and develop these careers for the attainment of optimal results.
Barriers to Women’s Career Development in IT Industry
There are many individual factors and reasons why women are not encouraged to build a positive and strong career in information technology. Some researchers identify that the information technology industry and the sciences in general have gender segregation as a norm that is generally accepted. There is a male-dominated environment in which women feel isolated and excluded in the workplace so they end up having to choose other careers and stay away from working in IT to avoid issues and complications.
There are various social factors and structural factors that create barriers for women and causes women to be limited in their quest to build careers in information technology. Other writers also identify that there institutional problems and issues in the corporate culture which contributes to the creation of barriers and limits in the way of women trying to build careers in information technology .
The main issue is that the structural and social factors create impediments directly on women. This is because women tend to build perceptions and worldviews that causes them to be frozen and stuck within their old work positions and seek other careers. This is because society dictates patterns of the lives of women and they are expected to work in certain industry other than IT where they are seen to be more cut-out for. Thus, a woman might be encouraged to be a teacher, pediatrician, nurse or something related to the home environment. This is because society has created an idea that women are better at such qualitative jobs and as such, they are encouraged to stay out of information technology.
Structural factors include the things in the entire work environment that prevent women from building a career when they take up IT jobs. Whilst social factors prevent women from considering information technology as an option, structural factors ensure that women who venture to enter the industry do not develop or climb the career ladder. The implication is that women are either prevented from entering the workplace of an IT industry entity or they are discouraged from growing when they enter the industry.
There are some elements and features inherent in the work environment that contribute to the structural discrimination against women. This include the work culture and norms that create conscious efforts to exclude women. This is because in the workplace, metrics are based on things that women are generally not encouraged or interested in pursuing. For instance, it is all about qualitative results and IT jobs require things that make it difficult for women to make any meaningful contribution. Things women are generally stronger at – like the qualitative aspects of work are not considered to be important in the career progression in the IT industry. This creates a form of discriminatory environment where women are not to be treated with so much dignity and their efforts are considered to be useless at best and destructive in extreme situations and cases.
There are various elements that are put in place to limit women in their career progression. First of all, there are educational ceilings which are put together in ways that women are sure of getting limited possibilities of getting jobs. There are also family characteristics and sociological factors that are limiting on women and do not contribute to their quest to become better in the information technology industry . For instance, the media will always present women in a negative light and this will ensure that they are seen as people who care for the home and cannot do jobs in science and technology. This is internalized and many women end up becoming non-IT oriented and then consider other careers.
There are also preconceptions that women do not excel in information technology roles. This is because people are made to think that the contribution of women to information technology is limited and does not include many major things that are required and expected. There is a wide variation of preconceptions but all of them come together to make the workplace feel unwelcomed and unsustainable for women.
People in the workplace also hold the view that men are more productive in IT due to the fact that the context supports men and does not encourage women to work hard enough. This is because of things like the lack of the need for a work-life balance and other things that are almost always necessary to create a positive environment within which women can work and have a decent life and satisfying work environment for the attainment of results.
There are also the gross disrespect for individual preferences amongst women and this is considered to be unimportant and hence contribute to the limitation of the workplace environment for women. Women therefore tend to feel limited and unmotivated in the workplace and this causes them to be less interested and desirous of the IT industry.
Methods of Promoting Inclusion and Presence of Women
There are many propositions that have been put up for the improvement and enhancement of the inclusion of women in the IT industry. These are all meant to provide various levels of solutions to the sociological, structural and occupational limits that are placed on women in information technology.
Trauth, Quesenberry and Huang (2009) identify that there is the need to create a work environment that women will feel comfortable and happy working within. This include the inclusion of work-life balance, changes in organizational culture and mentoring. These are things that will involve a conscious effort to encourage and promote better ways of dealing with women and their needs in information technology.
There is also the lack of social inclusion – no funding, coordination and no attention paid to women’s needs. There is therefore the need for a conscious effort to be made to encourage the inclusion of women. This is because the system is such that people are stuck to their old perceptions and views. And until it is made uncomfortable to hold on to such views, it will continue and women will feel information technology is hostile to them. Therefore, a conscious effort will have to be made to make the IT-industry female-friendly.
Studies show that in third world countries, women are treated better and they have more improved ways of viewing information technology as a career option because they do not only focus on quantitative results as the case is in the developed world. This is because there is more to work than just attaining economic rewards in poorer countries and due to this, women can be protected better and they might feel more welcomed and more accommodated in the IT industry.
There must be the need for a conscious effort based on relevant factors. The relevant factors include changes in personal perceptions and this include the removing of fears and the provision of assurances to women in the IT workplace. This will make it less hostile and more attraction to women in many ways and forms. Women in ethnic minority groups also face exceptional and more complicated difficulties and there is the need for more effort and extra work to help such women.
Some authorities identify that there is the need for the formulation of quotas for women in science courses and courses that will lead to a career in information technology. This way, girls will be taught to understand the basics of information technology and prepare them for serious long-term engagements in the industry.
The encouragement of women at high school level and active recruitment is something identified to be the best way of promoting the inclusion of women in IT. This is because many women trickle off at the high school level. Therefore, getting them to do science courses and encouraging them to take up jobs through active recruitment. This will provide the basis for discussions on the inclusion of women.
Once women are in the work place, there is the need for mentoring and the guidance of women in a special way to ensure they are able to stay motivated and their special needs are taken care of. This is because mentorship bridges the technical and productivity gaps. This will help women to go through difficulties and complications. This will encourage better methods and ways of building the learning curve of women in the IT industry.
Role models have also been suggested as a way of getting women to understand their needs and develop careers in information technology . This will help to promote better action and promote improved connection and interactions in the work place and help women to be more productive.
In terms of structural difficulties, there is the need for gender neutrality in IT so that the work place is seen to be positive and welcoming of women. This should be complemented with the promotion of changes in the curriculum and the promotion of better methods of teaching and diversity in partnerships
Gaps in Research
In order to undertake a meaningful factor analysis, there is the need to evaluate and analyze the different components of the research. This will help to provide the basis for the coding of the research and the identification of the main functions that are necessary and relevant towards the creation of a framework for the collection of data and the evaluation of these core findings.
This section will try to categorize and evaluate the different findings of the literature review. This will help to sort the data and define the core pointers and aspects that ought to be given significant attention as the research cusps into the creation of data-collection tools and systems.
Scope of Problem
The literature review identifies that there are three main paradigms within which the problem evolves, they include:
Social Problems: Most authorities identify that the environment within which girls grow make them believe that IT and computing are not areas they should go into. Other researchers identify that there are various issues and problems within the work environment that gets women and girls to be intimidated by the prospect of working as IT professionals. This includes amongst other things, the requirement for mathematics and other statistical models that might keep them uninterested. There are also stereotypes that women are better for certain jobs and this gets girls to pursue other careers aside IT.
Personal Variables: There are personal choices and decisions that people make in the choice of careers. Some writers argue that girls are generally made to think within a limited scope of career choices so they end up choosing careers they think are suited for them. Others conclude that girls make personal choices to stay away from IT because they do not see it as a great option for them. Therefore, they build personal preferences that are different from the field. Yet, another set of authors seem to postulate that girls are more likely to avoid IT because it is full of barriers for women. They not seem to feel the positives that come with the field and as such, may end up having to contend with other career choices and processes.
Structural Issues: These are issues relating to the workplace and how it deals with women in general. The general view is that girls and women are treated unfairly and negatively in the workplace and they tend to consider other career paths other than information technology.
Systematic Factors
These are the factors that give impetus to the variables identified as the causes of problems and issues in women’s integration into the Information Technology industry and its related activities. These are important pointers that ought to be reviewed and analyzed in order to draw conclusions and inferences of the real scope of the problem and how it can be utilize in dealing with issues and problems. To ensure that it can be coded into the actual fieldwork and data collection, this section will also review the pointers in relation to the three main frameworks within which the research is evolving.
Social Problems: The environment, family pressures, social expectation are amongst the dominant pointers and aspects that were identified by the researchers reviewed in the literature analysis as the most significant. This includes amongst other things, the main element sand features that are put in place in the work-place to get girls and women to become less interested and focused on building an IT career and competencies.
Personal Variables: There is a general lack of education and this affects women and make them choose careers that are different. There is a general gender segregation which women tend to view as the norm and as such, make choices that are different from IT. There are also personal feelings and desires that make women look for careers other than IT.
Structural Issues: There are various issues in education and practice that come together to exclude women from the IT industry. This includes the preconceptions, male-dominated yardsticks for career progression, the lack of a work-life balance which favors women and the lack of role models and mentors for women in the IT workplace.
Solutions to Problem
There are numerous solutions put forward by different authorities in resolving the problem. This includes various processes that are meant to modify the workplace and also help the society to be more friendly and positive towards women seeking to enter the information technology sector.
Social Problems: There is the need for a conscious effort to be made to change the society to fit women and girls into the system. This is something that has a universal appeal for all the researchers. They advocate for various solutions including media programming that promotes women’s inclusion, funding, attention to consumer needs and the direct challenge of preconceptions relating to women in fields like IT.
Personal Variables: The vast majority of the researchers identify that there must be media programs and other social campaigns that aim at challenging preconceptions relating to women in IT. There are writers who say women should be encouraged with programs to see IT as a better alternative whilst others view it as something that can be improved through mentors and role models.
Structural Issues: There is the need to undertake mentorship at the workplace as a main way of including women. There must be conscious efforts to challenge stereotypes and there should be better solutions to problems and issues relating to women in the IT industry.
In conclusion, this literature review has examined and critiqued aspects of women’s involvement in information technology and related fields. There has been a systematic review of literature and this has culminated in the identification of three main elements – patterns, specific barriers, an approaches towards the reversal of trends. These three elements have various social, personal and structural connotations.
The research will proceed to identify ways of coding the main findings of this section. They will include the presentation of major patterns and procedures that will lead to the formulation of data collection, data analysis and review. This will culminate in the formulation of a conclusion that will provide a solution to the problem of the exclusion of women in the IT Industry.
References
