i

GENDER AND CAREERS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: A

QUALITATIVE STUDY

A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

in the Faculty of Humanities

2018

Robyn M. Jelley

Alliance Manchester Business School

ii

LIST OF CONTENTS

LISTOFTABLES.................................................................................................................................viLISTOFFIGURES............................................................................................................................viiiABBREVIATIONS...............................................................................................................................ixABSTRACT............................................................................................................................................xDECLARATION...................................................................................................................................xiCOPYRIGHTSTATEMENT..............................................................................................................xiiDEDICATION....................................................................................................................................xiiiACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................................xiv

1 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................11.1 THERESEARCHPROBLEM................................................................................................11.2 THEISSUEINCONTEXT:WOMENSPRESENCEINIT.................................................31.3 THERESEARCHANDITSAIM...........................................................................................81.4 DESCRIPTIONOFDISSERTATIONCHAPTERS............................................................9

2 GENDERDIFFERENCESINITWORK........................................................................112.1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................112.2 THEORIESOFOCCUPATIONALSEGREGATIONANDLABOURMARKET

INEQUALITY......................................................................................................................................112.2.1 Supply-sideexplanations...........................................................................................................122.2.2 Demand-sideexplanations........................................................................................................202.2.3 Cultural,FeministandGenderTheories:TheNon-EconomicApproachto

OccupationalGenderSegregation..........................................................................................................212.2.4 Overarchinglimitationofoccupationalsegregationmodels.....................................25

2.3 BARRIERSTOWOMENSENTRANCEANDPROGRESSIONINITWORK............272.3.1 TheLeakyPipeline........................................................................................................................272.3.2 Genderdifferencesinearlyexposureandcomputingeducation.............................282.3.3 SocialandstructuralinfluencesonfemaleITcareers...................................................33

2.4 THEORETICALLIMITATIONSOFEXISTINGRESEARCH.......................................442.5 SUMMARY............................................................................................................................47

3 GENDER,KNOWLEDGEWORKANDCONTEMPORARYCAREERSINIT........503.1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................503.2 CAREERTHEORIES...........................................................................................................503.3 CONTEMPORARYCAREERS...........................................................................................54

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3.3.1 Issueswithcontemporarycareerconcepts.......................................................................573.4 KNOWLEDGEWORKANDCONTEMPORARYCAREERFORMS............................623.5 PROPOSEDANALYTICALFRAMEWORKFORUNDERSTANDING

CONTEMPORARYFEMALECAREERS........................................................................................663.6 SUMMARY............................................................................................................................70

4 RESEARCHDESIGN........................................................................................................724.1 STUDYAIMANDRESEARCHQUESTIONS..................................................................724.2 RESEARCHAPPROACH....................................................................................................754.2.1 Rationaleforchosenresearchapproach.............................................................................754.2.2 Outlineofresearchapproach...................................................................................................75

4.3 SAMPLINGMETHOD........................................................................................................844.3.1 Samplingforindustrystakeholderinterviews.................................................................844.3.2 Samplingforcareerhistoryinterviews...............................................................................844.3.3 Samplingfororganisationalinterviews..............................................................................884.3.4 Participantrecruitment..............................................................................................................91

4.4 DATACOLLECTION...........................................................................................................934.5 DATAANALYSIS.................................................................................................................954.6 LIMITATIONS.....................................................................................................................994.6.1 Issueswithsamplingandrecruitmentofparticipants.................................................994.6.2 Issueswithdatacollection.....................................................................................................1004.6.3 Issueswithdataanalysis.........................................................................................................102

4.7 ETHICALCONCERNS.......................................................................................................1044.8 SUMMARY..........................................................................................................................105

5 SCHOOLTOWORKTRANSITIONS:GENDERDIFFERENCESINEDUCATION

ANDINDUSTRYENTRY......................................................................................................1065.1 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................1065.2 DEFININGPATHSOFENTRY.......................................................................................1075.3 EDUCATIONBACKGROUNDANDDIFFERENCESBYGENDER...........................1115.3.1 Overviewofeducationallevelsandsubjectspecialities...........................................1125.3.2 Influencesoneducationalchoices......................................................................................116

5.4 SELECTINGITWORK.....................................................................................................1275.5 SEEKINGFURTHERITQUALIFICATIONS................................................................1335.6 METHODOFENTRY.......................................................................................................1375.7 ORGANISATIONALSTRUCTURESANDPATHSOFENTRY..................................1425.7.1 Conditionsfacilitatingalternativepathsofentryinthisstudy..............................1425.7.2 Changesreducingviabilityofalternativepathways...................................................145

5.8 SUMMARY..........................................................................................................................151

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6 EMPLOYMENTOPPORTUNITIESANDCONSTRAINTS:GENDEREDCAREER

TRAJECTORIESINIT..........................................................................................................1556.1 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................1556.2 CAREERTRAJECTORIESINITWORK.......................................................................1576.2.1 Measuresofcareersuccess....................................................................................................1576.2.2 Framingofcareerdevelopment...........................................................................................1596.2.3 Continuingrelianceonorganisationsforcareerdevelopment..............................161

6.3 HRPOLICIESANDPRACTICES:ORGANISATIONALCONTEXT,PROJECT-

WORKINGANDGENDEREDCAREERCONSTRAINTS.........................................................1646.3.1 Organisationofworkand‘idealworker’norms...........................................................1646.3.2 Processesofworkallocation.................................................................................................1656.3.3 Performancemanagement.....................................................................................................1736.3.4 Promotionalprocesses.............................................................................................................178

6.4 FEMALESPECIFICINTERVENTIONS..........................................................................1816.4.1 MonitoringofgenderissuesinITfirms...........................................................................1826.4.2 Educationaloutreachprogrammes....................................................................................1866.4.3 Femaleemploymentsupportinitiatives:Aimsandcomposition..........................1866.4.4 Femaleemploymentinitiatives:Measurement,efficacyandlimitations..........190

6.5 CONTRIBUTIONTOUNDERSTANDINGUNDEREPRESENTATION...................1986.6 SUMMARY..........................................................................................................................200

7 FAMILYANDCARE:PARENTHOOD,CAREERCONSTRAINTSANDIT

WORK……...............................................................................................................................2047.1 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................2047.2 IMPACTOFPARENTHOODONMALEANDFEMALECAREERS.........................2067.3 CHALLENGESOFPARENTHOODFORMAINTAININGITCAREERS..................2147.4 WORK-FAMILYRECONCILIATION:SPECIFICCHALLENGESINITCAREERS.2257.4.1 Project-basedworkandwork-lifechallenges................................................................2257.4.2 Accessingflexibleworkingpolicies....................................................................................2287.4.3 Exclusionfrominformalnetworks.....................................................................................2347.4.4 Difficultywithperformancemeasurement.....................................................................236

7.5 PARENTHOOD,GENDERANDCAREERTRAJECTORIES......................................2387.5.1 Modellingcareertrajectories................................................................................................2387.5.2 Careertrajectoriesofcareerhistoryrespondents.......................................................241

7.6 SUMMARY..........................................................................................................................246

8 DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................2498.1 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................249

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8.2 KEYFINDINGSANDEMPIRICALCONTRIBUTIONS...............................................2508.2.1 AccessingITcareers..................................................................................................................2508.2.2 MaintainingandadvancingITcareers..............................................................................2568.2.3 Limitationsofcompanyeffortstoaddressgenderissues........................................265

8.3 THEORETICALCONTRIBUTIONS...............................................................................2688.4 PRACTICALRECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................276

9 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................281

APPENDICIES........................................................................................................................314APPENDIX1:ListoffemaleCEOs.............................................................................................315APPENDIX2:Aide-memoireforcareerhistoryinterviews............................................316APPENDIX3:SampleinterviewguideforHRrepresentatives.....................................317APPENDIX4:DefinitionofITworkers.................................................................................319APPENDIX5:DefinitionofITcompanies..............................................................................320APPENDIX6:Careerhistoryparticipants–Female..........................................................321APPENDIX7:Careerhistoryparticipants-Male................................................................323APPENDIX8:Participantrecruitmentflyer........................................................................324APPENDIX9:Initialcodingscheme........................................................................................325APPENDIX10:Sampleconsentformforcareerhistoryinterviews............................326APPENDIX11:Digitalapprenticeshipequivalencies.......................................................327

WORD COUNT: 87,291

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 ONS 4-digit standard occupation codes denoting IT occupations .............. 5

Table 2.1 UK Higher Education enrolments by gender and level of study, 2012/13 -

2016/17 .................................................................................................................... 18

Table 3.1 Comparison of traditional and boundaryless careers ................................. 55

Table 3.2 New protean career contract ........................................................................ 56

Table 4.1 Profile of contextual interview respondents ............................................... 84

Table 4.2 Criteria for selection of career history interview participants .................. 86

Table 4.3 Summary of career history respondents’ demographic characteristics .... 88

Table 4.4 Criteria for selection of organisational representative interview

participants ............................................................................................................ 89

Table 4.5 Profile of HR and E&D Respondents ........................................................... 90

Table 4.6 Recruitment mechanisms used ................................................................... 91

Table 5.1 Paths of entry by age and gender ................................................................ 110

Table 5.2 Highest formal educational award held by respondents ........................... 113

Table 5.3 Primary subject area of highest educational award held ........................... 115

Table 5.4 Computer related degree titles, by gender ................................................. 115

Table 5.5 Illustrative examples of prompts for the decisions to pursue IT work .... 128

Table 5.6 Motivation for pursing IT careers, by gender ............................................. 131

Table 5.7 Mode of entry by age and gender ............................................................... 137

Table 5.8 Mode of entry by degree subject. ............................................................... 140

Table 5.9 Summary of the contextual influences shaping female entrance into the

IT industry, arranged according to the proposed analytical framework ......... 154

Table 6.1 Types of career transitions identified within the career histories ............ 161

Table 6.2 Summary of employment support initiatives used in support of female

employment .......................................................................................................... 183

Table 6.3 Potential constraints on women’s ability to make career transitions,

arranged as per the levels of analysis of the analytical framework ................. 203

Table 7.1 Maternity leave period’s utilised by female respondents ......................... 207

Table 7.2 Employment status of partner, for workers identified as having ‘Leave to

Partner' career response. ...................................................................................... 217

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Table 8.1 Potential career constraints relating to gender, limiting lateral and/or

vertical progression ............................................................................................. 258

Table 8.2: Potential career constraints relating to motherhood, limiting lateral

and/or vertical progression ................................................................................. 259

Table 8.3: Potential career constraints relating to flexible working, limiting lateral

and/or vertical progression ................................................................................. 260

Table 8.4 Gendering of personal characteristics that influence career boundaries275

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 IT specialists in the UK by gender, 2003-2017 ............................................... 6

Figure 1.2 Female workers as a proportion of all workers, by IT occupation (SOC4

codes), 2017 .............................................................................................................. 7

Figure 2.1 Gender breakdown of UK Higher Education enrolments in 2016/17, by

subject area and level of study. ............................................................................ 19

Figure 3.1 Proposed analytical framework ................................................................... 69

Figure 4.1 Research process .......................................................................................... 83

Figure 4.2 Braun & Clarke’s six-phase framework for thematic analysis (2006) ...... 96

Figure 5.1 Paths of entry, by gender ........................................................................... 109

Figure 6.1 Shape of ‘typical’ career paths in IT work ................................................. 162

Figure 6.2 Contributing elements of female exclusion from informal networks ... 169

Figure 7.1 Main career responses to parenthood, as reported by study participants

............................................................................................................................... 217

Figure 7.2 Negotiation of flexible working arrangements across project structures

.............................................................................................................................. 233

Figure 7.3 Model of career trajectories of mothers and father in IT work .............. 240

Figure 8.1 Paths of entry reported by career history respondents ........................... 252

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ABBREVIATIONS

A-Level General Certificate of Education: Advanced Level,

App Application Software

BA Business Analyst

BACS BACS Payment Schemes Limited, previously known as Bankers'

Automated Clearing Services

BAME Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

BCS British Computing Society

BNIM Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method

BTEC Business and Technology Education Council vocational

qualification

CAD Computer Aided Design

CEO Chief Executive Office

CIO Chief Information Officer

CRM Client Relationship Management

CV Curriculum Vitae

E&D Equality and Diversity

ERG Employee Resource Group

FWA Flexible working arrangements

FWP Flexible working policies

GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education

HNC Higher National Certificate

HND Higher National Diploma

HR Human Resources

HRM Human Resource Management

ICT Information and Communication Technologies

IPSE Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed

IC Integrated Circuit

IS Information Systems

IT Information Technology

LFS Labour Force Survey

LGBTQ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer

O-Level General Certificate of Education: Ordinary Level

ONS Office for National Statistics

PC Personal Computer

RQ Research Question

SIC1 Standard Industrial Classification

SOC2 Standard Occupational Classification at the two-digit level

SOC4 Standard Occupational Classification at the four-digit level

SQL Structured Query Language

SRQ Sub Research Question

STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

ZX Spectrum Sinclair ZX Spectrum Home Computer

ZX81 Sinclair ZX81 Home Computer

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ABSTRACT

This research sought to investigate why, despite growing demands for IT

professionals and a growing emphasis on the benefits of diversity to companies and

society, women remain underrepresented in the UK IT industry. Optimistic

narratives had suggested contemporary career forms and characteristics of

knowledge work, supported by technological developments and flexible working

policies, would provide women with greater opportunities to participate in the IT

industry - yet the disparity remains.

This study draws on an original qualitative data set of 62 narrative career history

interviews with male and female IT workers and 20 interviews with company and

stakeholder representatives. It examines how gender interacts with other personal

characteristics, occupational features, organisation dynamics and socio-cultural and

institutional factors to form different career constraints for individual women and

men in the IT industry at key stages over the life course.

This research provides insights that help to understand the persistence of female

underrepresentation in IT. The data reveals how the viability of paths of entry

previously used by women to access IT careers is diminishing. It also demonstrated

how gender and motherhood interact with organisational structures and the hybrid

nature of careers to constrain female careers. Women and mothers are found to still

suffer disadvantage in relation to traditional elements of career, but also in relation

to the contemporary elements of career so optimistically regarded. Characteristics

of constant change and informality and the endurance of masculine ‘ideal worker’

norms are highlighted as particularly problematic. This study also contends that

efforts made by IT companies to redress the gender imbalance represent little more

than half-hearted rhetoric. Gender initiatives privilege a few women and reinforce

the masculine hierarchy while undermining calls for broader systemic changes.

In an extension to existing critiques of the contemporary careers literature, this

research finds that distinctions between organisational careers and careers crossing

organisational boundaries are becoming less apparent as the sector is increasingly

characterised by project-based work. Supporting calls to bring boundaries back in,

this study has underlined the need for the reconceptualisation of female career

constraints to a more informative gendered career boundaries approach. This allows

for research to consider variances in boundary salience and permeability, creating

nuanced consideration of the interaction between agency and context in the

formation of careers, thus providing a more useful perspective for understanding

contemporary careers of both men and women.

xi

DECLARATION

I declare that no portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in

support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other

university or other institute of learning.

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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis)

owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given

The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for

administrative purposes.

Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic

copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents

Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in

accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time.

This page must form part of any such copies made.

The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and other

intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of

copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”),

which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be

owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and

must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the

owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions.

Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and

commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property

and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University

IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=24420),

in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library,

The University Library’s regulations (see

http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/about/regulations/) and in The University’s

policy on Presentation of Theses.

xiii

DEDICATION

Dedicated to my mum, Christine. An amazing woman who taught me so much,

including the pleasure of reading, the value of self-reflection and the importance of

persistence – all skills so needed throughout the PhD process. You are deeply

missed.

xiv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am eternally grateful for the support and encouragement I received from all the

people I mention below (and many more besides). Without them I would not have

completed what has been, by turns, both an intensely rewarding and challenging

process.

Undoubtedly my greatest thanks go to my supervisors for all their help and guidance

throughout my study. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Isabel Távora, for her excellent

advice, valuable insights and encouragement during this process. I also wish to

thank Professor Damian Grimshaw, for his consistent enthusiasm and for sharing

his wealth of expertise with me, both of which have been invaluable in shaping this

thesis. I would also like to express my gratitude to Professor Anne McBride for

taking over supervision in the latter stages. I appreciate the knowledge, help and

feedback each one of you has offered, and feel very lucky to have had this

opportunity to learn from you all.

This thesis would not have been possible without the participants of this study, who

were more open, honest, and candid than I ever could have hoped. Without their

generosity of time and insight this work would not have been possible – I hope I

have done justice to their stories. In addition, my study was funded through a full-

time PhD studentship awarded by the ESRC and I would like to recognise that

without this assistance, I would not have had this opportunity.

I would also like to thank my PhD family, Micha Korn and Franziska Drews, for their

encouragement and friendship. The endless kind words, tough love and tea made all

the difference.

A special thank you goes to my Dad. You have not only always offered me

unconditional love, encouragement and support, but also inspired me to make

changes and take chances. I am glad I took this chance, and I consider myself very

lucky to have you to look up to.

Finally, to Phil, my partner and best friend, there are just not enough words to

express my gratitude to you (maybe there is a diagram?). Without your unwavering

confidence in me, and your support, generosity and patience, this would never

have been possible. For this, and for so many other reasons, I am so glad to share

my life with you.

1

1 INTRODUCTION

Greater female participation in the information technology (IT) sector is argued to

be good for women, beneficial for the technology industry and advantageous for

society as a whole. The technology sector is a crucial component of the transition

from an industrial to a knowledge-based economy, creating substantial demand for

IT professionals to support this expansion. Yet women remain persistently

underrepresented across in the IT professions, particularly in senior levels and in

more technical occupations. This study seeks to understand why occupational

patterns of female employment endure, despite many drivers for change.

1.1 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

The information technology industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK

economy and drives the shift from an industrial to an information based economic

system, termed the knowledge economy (Powell and Snellman 2004). This has

generated a high demand for professionals possessing the knowledge, skills, and

abilities needed to design, implement, and maintain complex technological systems

(Gordon 2005). Employment data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows

that the UK IT workforce comprises almost 1.3 million workers. Of those, 627,000

(49 per cent) are employed in the IT industry itself, while the other 651,000 (51 per

cent) are engaged in other industries across the UK economy (Tech Partnership

2015b). The number of people working in IT-related positions in the UK job

categories increased at a rate three times that for UK workers as a whole (21 per cent

compared with 7 per cent) (Tech Partnership 2015c). As a result, the industry faces

significant challenges in recruiting enough to meet current and future workforce

demands. Industry and policymakers regularly report concerns about the ability for

IT companies to recruit enough workers to match the rate of growth in the sector

(Tech Partnership 2014; Tech Partnership 2015d; Tech Nation 2016; Marshall 2017).

At the same time, employee retention in the IT industry has been identified as

problematic since the 1970s (Niederman and Sumner 2001; Hoonakker et al. 2004).

2

High turnover rates of IT staff are expensive and disruptive to organisations

(Niederman and Sumner 2001), and limit their ability to manage workload.

Despite these workforce challenges, women remain underrepresented as a

proportion of the workforce. If IT jobs were more accessible to women, it is argued

that these reported skills shortages could be more readily addressed (Schenk and

Davis 1998; Wilson 2004). In addition, greater female representation is purported to

bring additional benefits, to individuals, IT companies and wider society.

On an individual level, equal access to IT work provides women with the opportunity

to work in occupations characterised by relatively high pay and growth

opportunities. According to ONS, full time IT specialists earn on average 53 per cent

more than the average UK employee (Tech Partnership 2016).

Meanwhile, for companies, a more diverse workforce has been argued to create

increased levels of innovation and creativity (Florida and Gates 2002; Florida),

development of more diverse products and services (Joshi and Kuhn 2001; Wardle

2004), higher productivity and market advantage (Gravely 2003). A more diverse

workforce is also asserted to improve employee retention (Kossek and Pichler 2007),

an area of particular concern for IT companies, with Kochanski and Ledford (2001)

estimating it costs anything between one to seven times an employee’s annual salary

to replace a single IT specialist.

A more diverse IT workforce has also been argued to support broader moves toward

social inclusion, social access and corporate social responsibility (Trauth et al. 2006).

In essence, as we become increasingly dependent on technology to shape society, it

is morally imperative that women claim as influential a position in its development

as men.

Due to these numerous benefits Miller and Katz (2002) argue that building inclusion

into IT workplaces must be a component of all long-term strategies. Support for

diversity and inclusion typically focuses on the economic benefits to businesses.

Many scholars contend that the business case is more appealing than social justice

arguments, not just to company directors and executives, but also to line managers

3

who are responsible, in most cases, for implementing diversity policies (Cornelius et

al. 2001; Noon 2007; Kirton 2008). The business case for diversity has been widely

critiqued (Lorbiecki and Jack 2000; Noon 2007), with some opponents highlighting

fundamental flaws which can undermine equality outcomes and prove dangerous

for social justice (Noon 2007). Equality and diversity researchers also argued that

this focus on short-term quantifiable benefits of diversity fails to create a sense of

urgency or the level of commitment required to push forward the changes necessary

to make meaningful changes. Faced with poor returns to diversity, companies end

up adopting a diversity and inclusion checklist approach, which seeks to make

changes that allow them to comply with what is minimally required. Instead,

attention to the moral case for greater inclusion is required.

1.2 THE ISSUE IN CONTEXT: WOMENS PRESENCE IN IT

There has been a significant growth in the IT sector, yet women have remained a

relatively static proportion of those employed in the IT professions over the last 15

years: as demonstrated in Figure 1.1. Over the period from 2003 to 2017 the total

number of people employed in IT roles in the UK increased by 432,000, yet only

66,000 of these were women. Figures for female participation in the IT workforce

are based on the eleven IT Standard Occupational Classification (SOC4) categories

monitored by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as listed in Table 1.1. As a

proportion of workers in IT, women have remained between 16 and 18 per cent over

this period. This figure compares poorly with that of the workforce as a whole where

women make up 47 per cent of all workers.

The prevailing areas of research have focused on the circumstances that decrease

the likelihood of girls and young women from entering the field of information

technology. Invoking the leaky pipeline metaphor, they predicate explanations for

underrepresentation on the lack of skilled females emerging from the education

system for the technology industry to hire.

The underrepresentation of women in the IT workforce is compounded by poor

retention statistics, and segregation of women within the industry into less

technical, lower paying occupations. Whitehouse (2006, p.122) argues that ’in spite

4

of predictions that the spread of information technology (IT) would help break down

the gender segregation that characterised employment in the industrial era, women

are underrepresented in professional computing occupations throughout the

advanced world, and those who do take up work in the IT sector are most likely to be

found in routine and comparatively low-paid jobs’. Demaiter and Adams (2009, p.37)

similarly found women segregated into a few, "less desirable", less technical jobs,

characterised by relatively low pay. Ghoshal and Passerini (2006, p.30) find

‘separation of women in the IT workforce into low paying, low ranked jobs which

involve low decision-making powers in an organisational context’, and data from

ONS supports this finding. Higher female representation occurs in occupations

argued in previous studies to be “softer”, or less-technical, with women comprising

31 per cent of project and programme managers, 24 per cent of web designers and 22

per cent of operations technicians. In contrast, women made up much smaller

proportions of the “harder” or more-technical professions, at 12 per cent of

programmers and software developers and 15 per cent of business analysts, architects

and systems designers. Additionally, while women make up 20 per cent of IT

specialist managers and 27 per cent of project and programme managers, this is not

translating to greater representation at senior and executive levels of management,

with women comprising just 12 per cent of all IT directors in 2017 (ONS, 2018).

Women have also been found to leave IT occupations (Tapia 2004; Griffiths et al.

2007; Trauth et al. 2009; Wentling and Thomas 2009) exacerbating issues of

underrepresentation. For instance, a study by Wardell et al. (2006) of 2823 male and

female IT professionals found that women are approximately two-and-a-half times

more likely than men to leave the IT work force. They propose that this lack of

retention is due to a combination of organisational factors (e.g. organisation size,

climate, and environment) and societal factors (e.g. children and domestic

responsibilities). These findings are consistent with Tapia et al.'s (2004) review of

the research literature regarding the retention of women in the IT field. This

research finds that it is the social pressures on women to manage domestic duties

that raises difficulties for career advancement and retention in IT work.

These patterns persist despite the optimistic rhetoric of some commentators

suggesting IT occupations would provide women with opportunities free from the

5

embedded "sex stereotyping" of more established professions that had previously

limited their potential (Lorber and Farrell 1991; Cross et al. 2006). Held up as

prototypical contemporary careers, IT work has been viewed as autonomous and

flexible. In allowing for pursuit of subjective measures of success, IT might offer

women better career prospects than those associated with traditional linear careers.

Technological developments and the nature of knowledge work were argued to, in

theory, facilitate high levels of worker autonomy and both temporal and spatial

flexibility that allowed for better reconciliation of home and work responsibilities.

IT companies have also widely publicised their efforts to address the continuing

gender imbalance, with a series of gender-specific programmes and initiatives that

appear to signal a concerted effort to recruit women. Therefore, it is puzzling that

the proportion of women in IT occupations remains stagnant.

Table 1.1 ONS 4-digit standard occupation codes denoting IT occupations

6

Figure 1.1 IT specialists in the UK by gender, 2003-2017

Source: Analysis of ONS Annual Labour Force Survey data

NB/ Not seasonally adjusted. Includes both part-time and full-time workers

7

Figure 1.2 Female workers as a proportion of all workers, by IT occupation (SOC4 codes), 2017

Source: Analysis of ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data, 2017

8

1.3 THE RESEARCH AND ITS AIM

Arguably, these patterns of female representation persist because the theoretical

attractiveness and benefits of IT careers outlined in the literature are not being

reflected in the perceptions and career experiences of women in reality. Some

pertinent questions remain concerning female employment in the IT industry. These

include: do women in IT careers continue to experience different career

opportunities and constraints compared to their male peers? For example, is the

flexible nature of the work, and of contemporary careers more generally, helpful for

women and mothers in practice or is it creating new challenges that may contribute

to maintaining the high turnover rates and occupational segregation observed? How

do IT companies themselves frame female underrepresentation and their role in

addressing these issues?

Therefore, the primary aim of this research is to examine how gender interacts with

personal, organisational and institutional factors in shaping contemporary IT

careers over the life course, to identify potential mechanisms that produce and

reproduce gender-based disadvantage, segregation and exclusion.

To assess the contemporary situation of women in IT, this study approaches these

questions from a ‘career history’ perspective: exploring the career paths of male and

female IT workers. Rather than merely exploring the factors considered inhibitors

to career success for aspiring female employees, it focuses on how women and men

have made sense of their careers, and how they have defined and achieved success

in their careers. This study considers these narrative accounts in the broader context

of institutional, organisational and individual constraints, through examination of

the organisational and personal contexts in which they occur. This allows for

examination of the interplay between the perceived and realised constraints of

careers and personal agency, with consideration as to how gender moderates these

relationships.

9

The research addresses the issue of female representation from the perspectives of

the female IT workers themselves and, as a counterpoint, from male IT workers too.

By examining and analysing the life events, experiences, and career, the study

contributes significantly to understanding gender differences over the life course,

and how this contributes to understanding underrepresentation and developing

more nuanced measures to address it.

1.4 DESCRIPTION OF DISSERTATION CHAPTERS

The thesis comprises nine chapters. To contextualise the study, Chapter 2 begins by

reviewing and discussing the existing theoretical explanations of gender inequality

in the labour market, before moving to examine the relevant literature concerning

gender and IT work more specifically. The purpose of reviewing the gender and IT

discourses is to identify gaps in the understanding of women in the IT workforce.

Chapter 3 then reviews the contemporary careers literature, focusing on career

theory, knowledge work, and career boundaries. Based upon this critique, this

chapter then identifies the relevant research gaps in relation to understanding

female careers and proposes a framework for analysing the careers of study

participants. Chapter 4 describes the research approach. This includes a discussion

of the overarching research aim and specific research questions, the epistemology,

methodology and data collection methods used. It also outlines the study limitations

and pertinent ethical concerns. Chapter 5 is the first empirical chapter and examines

variances in IT professionals’ education and entry routes into the industry. It

demonstrates how men’s and women's differing educational backgrounds may shape

their motivations and methods for accessing the IT industry. Finally, it considers the

effect of gender differences on occupational segregation and female

underrepresentation within the industry. The second empirical chapter, Chapter 6

contains a broader analysis of other gendered opportunities and constraints on IT

careers over the life course, how individuals respond to these, and what effect this

has on underrepresentation. It also considers how IT companies frame and respond

to issues of equality and diversity, and the efficacy of mechanisms used to address

female underrepresentation. The final empirical chapter, Chapter 7 examines the

impact that parenthood has on IT careers. It considers how different career

responses to becoming a parent taken by mothers in comparison with fathers, shape

10

career trajectories and negatively affect female career progression. Chapter 8

presents the main findings and addresses the research questions. It also discusses

the broader theoretical contributions and the practical implications of the study.

The last chapter, Chapter 9, outlines the conclusions and limitations of the study,

along with recommendations for future research and practice.

11

2 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN IT WORK

2.1 INTRODUCTION

The IT industry is characterised by both a low number of women and the segregation

of women both horizontally and vertically within the industry. To understand these

gendered patterns of employment, this chapter considers how the existing

theoretical explanations for gender inequality and segregation in the labour market

can provide insights into possible processes of exclusion and segregation of women

within IT. To begin, this chapter reviews and discusses the various perspectives on

women's relatively subordinate position within the labour market, focusing

particularly on those that may offer insight into the level and pattern of female

participation in professional occupations. It then considers the existing barriers to

female entrance and advancement in IT careers identified by prior studies before

considering their limitations for understanding the continuing underrepresentation

of women.

2.2 THEORIES OF OCCUPATIONAL SEGREGATION AND LABOUR

MARKET INEQUALITY

Despite the expansion of higher education provision, greater educational rates and

labour market participation among women, gender-specific segregation of

occupations continues to be a typical characteristic of contemporary labour markets

(Anker 1997; Charles and Grusky 2004; Charles and Bradley 2009). Gender-specific

segregation has two dimensions. Horizontal segregation exists where men and

women occupy different types of occupations, while vertical segregation sees men

and women concentrated in different positions in occupational hierarchies

(Blackburn and Jarman 1997). It is important to note that ‘segregation’ is a relative

concept, taking different degrees in different organisations, occupations and jobs

(Blackburn and Jarman 1997; Halford et al. 1997; Blackburn and Jarman 2005).

Negative consequences of segregation arise at the individual level if it results in an

undervaluation of women’s work, wage discrimination and/or a lack of job quality

(Blackburn et al. 1999), and at the macroeconomic level if it results in market

inefficiencies. As Bettio and Verashchagina (2009) state "segregation may be

12

exacerbating skill shortages insofar as it impedes the efficient reallocation of male and

female workers and distorts the allocation of future flows of workers" (p. 46). The

extent to which these effects occur is dependent on the specific context in which

they take place. In general, however, segregation has been found to result in women

suffering from reduced career prospects and pay compared to men (Fagan and

Rubery 1996).

There is a considerable body of research concerning work segregation by gender

(Hakim and Britain 1979; Bradley 1989; Blackburn et al. 2002), with many authors

providing different descriptions of its causes. Broadly, however, they can be divided

into supply side explanations and demand side explanations. Supply side theories

maintain that women choose specific occupations because of attributes those jobs

have, and how these relate to their own preferences and free choices (Becker 1964;

Hakim 2000; Ridgeway and England 2007). From this perspective, segregation is

merely a reflection of men’s and women’s different preferences with respect to work.

In contrast, demand-side explanations focus on segregation as a product of

structural barriers and gender discrimination limiting opportunities for women

(Petersen and Saporta 2004). Rubery (2009) has noted, however, that in reality,

occupational employment patterns result from the interaction of both labour supply

and labour demand conditions, suggesting mono-causal explanations are

insufficient.

In addition, cultural, feminist and gender theories consider the effects of non-

economic and non-labour market variables alongside behavioural influences to

explain patterns of gender occupational segregation.

2.2.1 Supply-side explanations

Supply-side theories focus on the characteristics of those supplying their labour and

view occupational segregation as the reflection of the different choices, and

associated investments in their human capital, that men and women make. Two of

the most influential supply-side theories are human capital theory (Becker 1964) and

preference theory (Hakim 2000) and these will be examined in more detail.

13

Human capital theories propose that occupational segregation is the product of the

different, rational, human capital investments made by men and women, done so in

accordance with their gender roles in social reproduction (Becker 1964; Becker

1971). As women typically take time out of the labour market to have children and

assume the majority of domestic and caring responsibilities, it is argued that they

predict non-continuous and/or less intensive labour market participation.

Consequently, women are prevented or disincentivised from accumulating human

capital through on-going education or work experience in the same way as men.

Instead, they seek occupations with relatively high starting pay, relatively low

returns to experience, and relatively low penalties for temporary withdrawal from

the labour force - so those with low skill depreciation and relatively flat age-earnings

profiles (Becker 1964; Mincer and Polachek 1974). Occupations that offer these

characteristics are typically the lowest paid and lowest skilled but offer flexibility in

relation to entry and working hours (Blackburn et al. 2002).

Another supply-side explanation is Hakim's (2002) 'preference' theory. This

approach proposes that women select occupations that allow them to maintain the

lifestyle they value according to their own preferences for combining work and non-

work activities. Developed by Hakim to provide the 'missing link' between biological

and patriarchal explanations, and as a refinement of human capital and rational

choice perspectives, it rationalises occupational segregation as a product of

heterogeneity in female preferences for employment. Hakim contends that in

modern affluent societies, women face a truly unconstrained choice between

undertaking paid employment and home-making. Two significant social changes

drive this choice: 'the contraceptive revolution', giving women control over their

fertility, and the 'equal opportunities revolution' giving women access to all positions

and occupations in the labour market. Within this approach, women are categorised

into three groups: (i) the work-centred women, (ii) the home-centred women, and

(iii) the adaptive women. 'Work-centred' women possess a work commitment

similar to men and usually work full- time in jobs with higher status and wages.

'Home centred' women, in contrast, are committed to non-employment and regard

their families as the central feature of their life. Thus, paid employment is rare or

restricted to a few hours. However, the majority of women fall into the 'adaptive'

14

category. Both women who deliberately choose to combine work and family, and

those with no clear strategy for organising family and work life are considered by

Hakim to be 'adaptive'. Less ambitious than the work-centred women, these women

prefer a balanced work-family life, and therefore select less-demanding occupations

that allow a better combination of the two roles, typically those that allow part-time

work. Hakim deems occupational segregation to be a rational response by the

market to expression of women's preferences in combining paid work with home

life. Discrimination in this paradigm only affects the work-centred women who

express the same commitment to work as men.

There are significant limitations to these supply-side theories in explaining wider

gender segregation (Gonäs and Karlsson 2006), and in respect to the IT industry.

Firstly, these approaches are also criticised for being overly agentic in their

perspective. The individual is credited with a significant amount of agency

(Blackburn et al. 2002; Blackburn and Jarman 2005), limiting the capacity to consider

broader structural constraints on labour market 'choices' and outcomes (McRae

2003; Leahy and Doughney 2006). The assumption of rationality means that actions

have to be viewed as an accurate reflection of a person’s preference, otherwise they

would have been expected to select an alternative course of action. That women

carry out the majority of the care and domestic work is, therefore, considered a

reflection of their preference for, and happiness to specialise in, these activities. They

are content to relinquish the opportunity for paid work to do so. Preferences, when

modelled in the way that supply-side theories do, do not necessarily reflect choice

free of constraint. Many women in the absence of public or social support are obliged

to adjust their occupational 'choices' to meet the needs of their families (Gash 2008).

Supply-side models, particularly preference theory, incorrectly equate voluntary

actions with unconstrained choice, ignoring the structural constraints to which

women are subject to (Ginn et al. 1996; Crompton and Harris 1998b; Fagan 2001).

Biological determinism is embedded into this argument, by the assumption that

biological differences underpin ‘preferences', which risks legitimising gender

inequality through framing gender differences as ‘natural' (Crompton and Harris

1998a). Fundamentally a circular and essentialist argument emerges, in which the

15

comparative advantage gained from the gendered division of labour (men in paid

employment, women in the home) is both inferred from the sexual division of labour

and then used to explain it (Tavora 2009). Inherent in these approaches is the

assumption that preferences are fixed and stable throughout a person’s life. Given

that women’s work histories usually comprise periods of both full- and part-time

jobs (Blackwell and Glover 2008). ‘Preferences' for paid work can therefore be seen

as varying over the life course (Crompton and Harris 1998a; Fagan 2001). This

explanation for occupational segregation is fundamentally tautological.

Heterogeneous preferences are used to explain women’s disadvantaged position in

the labour market, and this disadvantage is, in turn, used as evidence of the

voluntary choice of women to give priority to their family lives, primarily those who

‘choose' to be in lower-paid, part-time work.

Explanations predicated on rational choice, such as human capital and preference

theory would also imply that there is rationalism for all aspects of human behaviour.

Not all individuals enter professions offering the best financial rewards, or greatest

opportunities for advancement (Radford 1998). Just because individuals possess

agency does not mean they will act rationally according to a prescribed or economic

notion of rationality. Many views exist as to the costs and benefits of different jobs

(Blackburn et al. 2002). Supply side approaches fail to account for the influence of

the broader social context on the determination of what is a preferable or suitable

occupation for women. In reality, preferences are shaped by factors including

previous labour market experiences, personal and family circumstances, social

norms and childcare arrangements (Duncan and Edwards 1997; Correll 2001; McRae

2003; Leahy and Doughney 2006; Bolton and Laaser 2013).

Duncan (2005) highlights the limits of economic rationality, by suggesting that while

people act pragmatically regarding their material, social and institutional

circumstances, decisions about the balance between paid employment and unpaid

work are not solely based on economic rationality. Instead, he contends that they

are acted according to collective ideas of what is deemed socially correct (Duncan

2011). The social group and context of the individual determines what is

considered 'socially correct'. In this way, preferences are “socially and culturally

16

created through the development of the career as an identity, through biographical

experience, through relations with partners, and through the development of

normative views in social networks” (p.73) women act rationally, but within a

gendered moral framework rather than an economic framework, and act according

to social and moral rationalities, rather than purely economic concerns. The focus

on women’s 'preferences' to explain employment behaviour without due

consideration of wider social expectations and institutional limitations is a

significant limitation to supply-side explanations.

Many empirical studies have highlighted that women’s employment and

occupational choices reflect processes of gender segregation and undervaluation of

women’s jobs in the labour market (Grimshaw and Rubery 2007). While human

capital theory is alleged to explain the tendency of women to cluster in low-skill jobs,

it cannot justify why women are concentrated in a small number of female

occupations at each skill level (Blau and Jusenius 1976). Blackburn et al. (2002) also

note that a part of the gender pay gap cannot be accounted for despite adjusting for

different worker characteristics, and so not explained by human capital differences

(Gornick 1999). Particularly for women in the professions, Baron and Cobb-Clark

(2010) found that the degree to which occupational segregation contributes to the

gender pay gap differs between low and high-wage workers. While the gender pay

gap amongst lower-paid workers was more than explained by wage-related

characteristics (such as education and labour market experience), such

characteristics did little to explain the gender pay gap amongst high-wage workers

(Barón and Cobb-Clark 2010).

There is also limited evidence to support the notion that women are choosing to

make fewer investments in their human capital in contemporary society. There are

no consistent differences between the sexes regarding education that can bear out

this argument (Curtis et al. 2009). According to figures compiled by the Higher

Education Statistics Agency, the number of female enrolments onto first degree

Higher Education courses outnumbers those for men, at 56 and 48 per cent

respectively in 2016/17. This trend has stayed relatively consistent over the past

five years, as shown in Table 2.1. However, female enrolments onto computer

17

science related courses remains far lower than for all subjects – both for first

degrees and postgraduate courses – with no signs of significant improvement.

Figure 2.1 illustrates these stark differences.

18

Table 2.1 UK Higher Education enrolments by gender and level of study, 2012/13 -2016/17

NB/ The gender category for those identifying as ‘Other’ has been removed from the source data for clarity and because the proportions were low enough not to affect the overall percentage

figures included here.

Source: HESA (2018)

19

Figure 2.1 Gender breakdown of UK Higher Education enrolments in 2016/17, by subject area and level of study.

Source: HESA (2018)

20

2.2.2 Demand-side explanations

Demand-side explanations explain occupational segregation through theories of

structural barriers and gender discrimination (Petersen and Saporta 2004). These

perspectives are underpinned by the assumption that the labour market and

employers will always try to maximise profits and minimise costs, potentially leading

to discrimination against certain groups, such as women. Demand side explanations

focus more on institutional factors and preferences besides expectations within

organisations and from the employer (Doeringer and Piore 1971; Kanter 1977) (Acker

2006b).

As Rubery (2007) argues "the attraction of segmentation theory is that it focuses on

employing organisations, the architects of the employment system, in the shaping of

labour market inequalities..." (p.955). Occupational segregation is argued to result

from the actions of employers, who create divisions in the workforce into 'non-

competing' groups based on personal characteristics, such as gender, creating a cycle

of inequalities. In an environment of weak labour market regulation and

unemployment, employers exercise significant discretion in their structuring of

work (i.e. full-time versus part-time) and in their hiring behaviour. Different groups

emerge as employers and the wider economic conditions provide selective access to

career and training opportunities (Doeringer and Piore 1971); underinvestment in

productive structures leading to low-skill, low-wage cycles (Wilkinson 1983); and the

undermining of worker resistance through divide and rule tactics (Edwards 1975).

On the demand side, gender segmentation can arise from several sources, including

employer flexibility strategies aimed at recruiting large, ‘casual’ workforces, other

employer strategies to build and reproduce internal labour markets with committed,

secure and reliable (typically male) employees; employer discrimination and career

blocks in part-time work (Rubery 2005). On the supply side, factors include the

social definition of women’s jobs related to the domestic sphere; their portrayal as

possessing less skill than men’s jobs; and male resistance to women in men’s jobs

(Rubery 2005). Segmentation divides ‘male’ and ‘female’ jobs (Rubery 2005).

21

Individuals are assigned real or perceived characteristics of the group to which they

belong (for example high turnover or absenteeism rates) and employers are able to

cost-effectively choose members of a group displaying desired characteristics and

exclude those who do not. Women are assumed to have fewer desirable

characteristics (such as discontinuous labour market participation) and denied the

best labour market positions. Due to women’s inferior power position in society,

their work is systematically devalued and they can be 'pushed' into low-quality jobs

(Reskin and Roos 1990; Reskin and Maroto 2011). In a study by Riach and Rich (2002)

women and men with similar qualifications and experience were treated unequally

in the hiring process, but due to discrimination occurring during shortlisting,

applicants were unlikely to realise that any unequal treatment had occurred in male-

dominated occupations.

Reskin and Roos’ (1990) propose a gender queue model, which proposes that better

jobs are allocated to men as they are perceived by employers to be preferable

employees. Women gain access to typically male-dominated occupations only when

conditions in these jobs deteriorate. As men opt for better opportunities elsewhere,

the shortage of labour forces both employers to look further down the 'queue’, and

moves women further up in the queue – leading to a greater number of women being

hired Reskin and Roos (1990).

2.2.3 Cultural, Feminist and Gender Theories: The Non- Economic

Approach to Occupational Gender Segregation

One of the main criticisms of economic theories is that they fail to consider non-

economic and non-labour market variables and forms of behaviour (Anker 1997;

Anker 2001; McRae 2003). Yet, non-economic concerns are crucial for understanding

patterns of gender segregation. Cultural and feminist theories evolved to recognise

the pervasive influence of gender divisions on social life, and understand

the oppression of women as a product of structures in a society that espouses female

oppression and subordination (Anker 1997; England 2005).

The basic premise of feminist theory is that patriarchy exits in the manifestation and

institutionalisation of male dominance over women in the family, the labour market

22

and society (Hartmann 1976; Walby 1986; Walby 1989; Walby et al. 2012). The

concept of patriarchy suggests that "men hold power in all the important institutions

of society” and that "women are deprived of access to such power" (Lerner 1989,

p.239). This conception is not designed to imply "women are either totally powerless

or totally deprived of rights, influence, and resources" (Lerner 1989, p.239).

Hartmann (1981) defines patriarchy as "as a set of relations which has a material base

and in which there are hierarchical relations between men and solidarity among them,

which in turn enable them to dominate women" (p.14). Men’s control over women's

labour forms the material base of social relations between men and women and

allows for the exclusion of women from access to basic productive resources. Prior

to capitalism, she argues, “a patriarchal system was established in which men

controlled the labour of women and children in the family, and that in so doing men

learned the techniques of hierarchical organisation and control. The emergence of

capitalism in the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries threatened patriarchal control based

on institutional authority as it destroyed many old institutions and created new ones,

such as a "free" market in labour” (Hartmann 1976, p.139)

According to Hartmann (1981), in the new capitalist system, occupational

segregation by gender became the central instrument used by men to maintain

superiority over women by limiting women’s access to income and earnings.

Without access to well-paying jobs, women are rendered financially dependent on

men whilst also ensuring men retain the best jobs for themselves (Hartmann 1987).

Since men's superior position was reinforced by the state, and men acted in the

political arena as heads of households and in the households as heads of production

units, it they were able to develop organisational structures beyond their

households. Women, in an inferior position at home and without the support of the

state, would be less likely to be able to do this. It is argued, therefore that the

capitalistic organization of industry, in removing work from the home, served to

increase the subordination of women since it served to increase the relative

importance of the area of men's domination (Hartmann 1976, p.152).

23

In this way, capitalism and patriarchy can be viewed as separate but interwoven

systems. The capitalist system was established on a pre-existing system of

patriarchal oppression, but compounds many of its defining characteristics.

The oppression of women is a tool that enables capitalists to manage the entire

workforce for their own profit. It also provides justification for policies that shift

responsibility for social welfare away from the State and collective institutions to the

family. When the capitalists need additional labour, they can draw upon a reserve of

female labour, who are paid less than men. This also has the side effect of dragging

down wages more generally, in support of capitalist aims.

Rather than ascribing to the view of an over-arching model of patriarchy, Walby

seeks to develop a more comprehensive model applicable in industrial societies. She

proposes a system of six partially interdependent structures which vary under

different historical conditions to produce two types of patriarchal relations: private

patriarchy and public patriarchy, which is further divided on the basis of the

importance of the market versus the state in defining women's economic situation.

These structures include (i) paid work, (ii) household production, (iii) culture, (iv)

sexuality, (v) violence, and (vi) the state (Walby 1989). The organisation of household

production positions men as breadwinners within these structures’ men exploit

women by benefitting from their unpaid labour at home. In doing so, men are

positioned as breadwinners, while women are implicitly or explicitly lead to consider

the domestic sphere their domain.

In doing so Walby (1990) seeks to avoid the notion "that every individual man is

always in a dominant position and every woman in a subordinate one" (p.20) and

avoids endorsing the concept of biological determinism in her framing of

patriarchy. Walby makes a strong argument for patriarchy is not reducible to

capitalism, however, as Walby notes, she must relate the patriarchal structures she

describes, in particular the 'patriarchal domination in paid work', to capitalism

Patriarchy as an explanation of segregation has been criticised. Blackburn et al.

(2002) note that, while useful as a descriptive term, patriarchal explanations of

segregation are fundamentally circular: male dominance is explained by the fact men

24

dominate (p.521). Other critiques have suggested these theories overstate the extent

of men's agency and underestimate women's agency (Browne 2001). Nonetheless

patriarchy remains a dominant perspective in explaining occupational segregation

(for example Hartmann 1976; Delphy et al. 1977; Walby 1986).

Acker contends that within the capitalist economic, it is organisations that shape

gendered and racialised class relations by "deciding what should be produced and

what services should be offered” (2006b, p.443). Acker develops the concept of

inequality regimes to explain how these relations are developed, which are loosely

defined as interrelated practices, processes, actions and meanings that result in and

maintain class, gender and racial inequalities within particular organisations. The

inequality regime within an organisation aligns with the history, politics, and

economy of the wider societal context. So even though an inequality regime is

specific to a certain organisation, as analysis requires understanding how it is

embedded in wider relations of power and inequality, patterns of inequalities can

extend beyond the experiences of those working within the specific organisation

(Acker 2000; Acker 2006a).

Eight dimensions of these regimes are identified by Acker, which are "the bases for

inequality, the visibility and legitimacy of inequalities, the degree of hierarchy and

participation, the ideologies supporting and challenging inequalities, the interests of

different groups in maintaining and/or diminishing inequality, the organising

mechanisms that maintain and reproduce inequalities, the types of controls and

subversions of control, and interaction patterns and identities of participants".

Acker (2006b) divides the visibility and legitimacy of inequality into two separate

categories, suggesting the visibility or "the degree of awareness of inequality" (p.452)

varies between organisations and also between groups within organisations. For

example, senior managers may be unaware of inequality while affected groups are

more than cognisant of them. The shape and degree of inequality are influenced by

the degree of organisational hierarchy. Acker contends that steeper hierarchies are

more gendered than flatter structures. However, all organisational structures are

characterised by the requirement that women adopt specific behaviours in order to

25

succeed. Organisations adopt 'organising processes’ which include structuring the

way work is arranged, which are inherently gendered and racialised due to the base

expectation that a worker is "a white man who is totally dedicated to the work and

has no responsibilities for children or family demands other than earning a living”

(p.448). These organising processes, according to Acker (2012) form part of the

‘gendered sub-structure of organisations, Other elements include (i) organisational

culture, which is rooted in societal culture, (ii) interactions on the job between

colleagues, which are influenced by gender assumptions and which can result in

gendered practices including sexual harassment, as well as influencing the ways in

which social capital is built through, for example, networking and mentors, and (iii)

gendered identities formed internally and externally to the workplace. Examination

of these many interacting factors (Acker 2012, p.217) means inequality regimes

provide a useful conceptual strategy for examining the production and reproduction

of complex inequalities within organisations.

Lastly, Smulders (1998) argues that gender-based roles which are irrelevant to the

workplace, are carried into the workplace and kept in place because the actors

involved, both dominant and subordinate, subscribe to social and organisation

reality. Cultural factors lead to stereotypical views about women's abilities within

the cultural context, and men and women subscribe to the dominant view that top

management positions are only suitable for men, thus relegating women to

secondary roles. Women’s roles as mothers, caregivers and nurturers are emphasised

instead.

2.2.4 Overarching limitation of occupational segregation models

One of the major limitations of these individual theories seeking to explain

occupational segregation by gender, is the inherent assumption that there is a mono-

causal explanation, or at least one theoretical perspective (representing the tying

together of several broad causes) that provides an explanation to the exclusion of

others (Adu-Oppong and Kendi 2017). In doing so, these theories are rationally

reductive. They each suggest that there are basic elements to which they can reduce

the phenomena of segregation, and in doing so allow for the individual theories to

be discounted. This is despite them each offering at least a partial explanation or

contribution toward understanding. Examination of these theories indicates that

26

occupational segregation is driven by many complex and multifaceted variables that

no singular theory can adequately capture.

In the case of women in IT, while many women are pursuing full-time careers and

making substantial investments in their human capital to enable them to pursue

professional careers are not doing so for IT careers. While these models have

explained why historically women may be less likely to work in male-dominated

fields, they have not accounted for the fact women have made inroads into some

traditionally masculine fields, such as law and accountancy, but not into IT. In law,

for example, according to the Office for National Statistics (2017) women now

account for 47 per cent of solicitors and 45 per cent of legal professionals, and in

accountancy, women comprise 46 per cent of certified or chartered accountants. It

must be noted, however, that women do continue to be concentrated in more junior

and lower paying roles within these fields.

Greater female labour market participation and higher female higher education

qualifiers are not translating to greater representation in the IT industry, which

remains at just 17 per cent. These differences occur within the same social contexts

and therefore are subject to the same overarching patriarchal relations. Therefore,

attention has to be paid to the processes of occupation selection by women, and the

influences of social and organisational influences on women's access to good quality

IT work. Attention also has to be paid to issues with processes of valuing or devaluing

work once they are there, as occupational segregation is less of an issue if the two

varieties of work that men and women occupy are valued in the same way (Gonäs

and Karlsson 2006). As such, the discussion will now move to the problems women

face in accessing and maintaining IT careers.

27

2.3 BARRIERS TO WOMENS ENTRANCE AND PROGRESSION IN IT WORK

Literature examining women in the IT field has identified a number of interrelated

factors that contribute to the persistent underrepresentation and segregation of

women. Gender disparity in the IT industry is linked to both a lower female uptake

of IT-related education, leading to a low rate of female entrants, and the poor rate

of career persistence and advancement of women in the industry. These two

elements span the frequently invoked leaky pipeline metaphor for understanding

underrepresentation. This section outlines existing theories explaining low and

declining rates of female participation in IT education and considers the extent to

which they can explain female underrepresentation. It then explores existing studies

into career barriers for women in IT occupations, and how these explanations can

help understand the processes of occupational segregation and the low numbers of

women in the field.

2.3.1 The Leaky Pipeline

The leaky pipeline metaphor is used to describe the shortage of women in the IT

field. Originally designed to explain shortages in the STEM field more generally, it

explains gender disparity as the product of women 'leaking' away in greater numbers

than men at critical junctions in both the education and career pathway. Designed

to highlight areas that could be improved in terms of female attrition, it has been

widely used in academic and practitioner research examining women in IT (see

Camp 1997; Jepson and Peri 2002; Soe and Yakura 2008; Woodfield 2012; Whitney et

al. 2013).

The model has, however, been criticised. From a theoretical perspective, much

criticism surrounds its flawed predictions and supply-side focus (Lucena 2005), poor

measurements (Lucena 2005; Metcalf 2010), the tendency to homogenize people,

fields, sectors, and stages (Hammonds and Subramaniam 2003), its discursive view

of people as passive pipeline “flow,” and lack of focus on systemic change and power

relations (Metcalf 2010). As a relatively new field, and an even newer profession, IT

28

is not characterised by the same clear educational and professional qualifications,

which ensure advancement to the next stages as with core sciences, for example. The

assumption of linearity means that this approach cannot account for IT's more

varied career paths (Xie and Shauman 2003).

Despite these limitations it remains a popular descriptive tool in practitioner and

policy-based literature in relation to IT, although it is often limited to an analysis of

easily quantifiable stages and therefore tends to only outline the formal educational

and career entry stages, rather than providing insight into occupational segregation

within the industry (for an example of typically usage in IT, see Tech Partnership

2016). It is therefore important to consider this model, because it is used to frame

underrepresentation of women as a product of the low number of female educational

qualifiers. This limits the amount of qualified female labour from which IT

companies can recruit, termed the 'pool problem'. In framing underrepresentation

in this way, it places greater responsibility on educational providers and on girls

themselves to address the gender disparity compared with organisations. This

approach suggests that as long as women select IT subjects and survive the many

points of educational attrition, there will be no inherent obstacles to progressive

career advancement because of her gender.

Used as justification for the various longstanding national campaigns to promote IT

education and careers (Tech Partnership 2016), this context means that issues

relating to career retention and advancement receive limited attention. While

encouragement of IT uptake amongst girls is a vital element of increasing

representation, understanding how women experience the industry and how these

experiences may lead to women opting out earlier is also essential.

2.3.2 Gender differences in early exposure and computing education

Gender disparity in IT is said to emerge from differences in early exposure and

educational stages. A wide body of research has sought to understand the causes of

these gender differences, particularly in relation to educational pathways (for

instance Margolis and Fisher 2003; Frieze 2005; Anderson et al. 2006; Timms et al.

2006).

29

A low level of early exposure to, and interest in, technology is said to explain the low

rates of females selecting IT-related education. By the time that women arrive at IT

education it has already developed a prominent male focus and culture. Women

then struggle to fit in and compete and may not select to persist through subsequent

educational stages.

Early exposure to computing usually occurs through computer gaming, but

numerous studies (for example Chaika 1996; Cassell and Jenkins 2000; Hartmann

and Klimmt 2006; Jenkins and Cassell 2008; Prescott and Bogg 2011; Denner et al.

2012; Prescott and Bogg 2014) have stressed that computer games are typically

designed with boys in mind (Denner et al. 2012) and the content and style of play

can put girls off (Cassell and Jenkins 2000; Jenkins and Cassell 2008). They point to

research that suggests most of computer games software reflects typically male

fantasies centred on violence and aggression, with female characters relegated to

sexual objects (Jenkins and Cassell 2008). Cassell and Jenkins (2000) argue that

violent games without positive representations of women have historically

dominated the games market, reinforcing misogynistic images and sexist ideologies.

Within these games, women are prescribed limited roles that typically revolve

around an interest of sexual desire, which are unappealing to girls. The authors

suggest that it is not computer games that girls are lacking interest in, but rather

they wish to play different games than the ones widely available. Cruea and Park

(2012) examined perceptions of video game characters amongst 227 college students

and found sexist portrayals held women back from more active participation in

gaming culture. Excessive violence and negative depictions of women in video games

in this study was argued to be the by-product of women’s lack of representation in

games and game developing more generally – pointing to a cycle of masculinization

of computing. Unappealing games, and a male-dominated, often hostile social

environment for women in gaming, discourages girls from pursuing any early

interest they had in computers (see also Millar and Jagger 2001; Gürer and Camp

2002). This means they miss out on development of computer ‘hobbyism’, which

creates comfort with, and confidence in, using technology and encourages pursuit

of IT education.

30

This masculine domination persists into formal education and career pathways and

creates environments where girls feel alienated. Many studies have argued that

technology itself is characterised as ‘masculine’ (Wilson 1998; Wilson 2003;

Wajcman 2004; Wajcman 2007), reasoning that ‘technologies have a masculine

image, not only because they are dominated by men but because they incorporate

symbols, metaphors and values that have masculine connotations' (Wajcman 2007).

From this perspective, women’s reluctance to engage with computing is the result of

not only men’s monopoly of technology, but also the way gender is embedded in

technology itself. Due to the alignment of masculinity with technology in this way,

girls perceive a fundamental incompatibility between technology and femininity

(Wajcman 2007). This places girls and young women outside of the realm of

computing, unless they wish to compromise their femininity.

Prominent stereotypes linked to ‘geeky’ images of computing professionals,

compound negative female perspectives of IT. Beyer, Rynes and Haller’s (2004) study

examined over 500 college level students and noted that there is a perception by

those outside of the field of computer professionals as “brilliant but socially inept

mumblers who could use a few tips on hairstyles and clothes”. In addition, Carlson

(2006) found computer science students are perceived as “somewhat unsociable and

nerdy" (p.26). Margolis and Fisher (2002) suggest that while these portrayals are

unattractive to some men and some women, because they are still broadly aligned

with notions of masculinity women are more likely to be discouraged by them than

men. While Bartol and Aspray (2006) argue that “the nerd hacker image of singular

focus, work addiction, and total absorption makes computer science a difficult subject

to study for women” (p.385). When women do not experience an intense obsession

with computers, they are more likely question their place within IT compared with

men and leave in higher numbers as a result. Branson (2018) expands this perspective

by suggesting that because young women join the pathway later than their male

counterparts, they have developed a wider range of interests and find the

technicality and singular focus associated with these stereotypes less achievable,

instead seeking linkages between their broader interests and computing:

31

“For most women students…the study of computer science is made meaningful by its

connection to other fields. Men are more likely to view their decisions to study computer science

and the study itself as ends in themselves" (p.49).

That girls are subject to these experiences may explain why parental and teacher

encouragement at the educational and career choice stages toward STEM and IT has

been found to be more important for women than men (Wyer 2003; Maltese and

Cooper 2017). Yet there are fewer female teachers in the IT field to provide this

support, or act as role models for girls in relation to IT. In addition, Margolis and

Fisher (2002) note in Unlocking the Clubhouse: "when girls do receive encouragement

or enthusiasm from parents it usually occurs later, in the form of encouraging

daughters to take computer science in high school [or] majoring in computer science

in college". Although it is positive that women are encouraged with respect to IT

education at any point, that women are encouraged later in their educational path

means that they are liable to lack hands-on experience and confidence with

computing in comparison with most men when, or if, they select subsequent IT

education and career opportunities.

These factors underpin a pattern of male dominance that repeats across subsequent

educational levels, which sees male confidence, status and expertise with technology

increase at each stage, while girls’ interest and confidence level take a corresponding

decline. Many studies have focused on nuances and specific contributions to low

female participation in IT education. Most of these can be encompassed in five main

aspects. First, in an expansion to Wajcman’s (2007) perspective, the masculinisation

of technology is reflected in educational curricula that reflects the interest and

aptitudes of boys rather than girls. In reality, computing is used in numerous sectors,

(including medicine, public health, environmental science, art, music to name but a

few) yet within educational setting, computer science is typically clustered with

other STEM subjects (Margolis and Fisher 2003, p.37). In doing so, both formally and

organisationally, the gender gap is exacerbated. For while previous studies have

highlighted how women studying IT-related subjects emphasise the value that

technology plays in solving real-world problems, their male counterparts are more

absorbed with working with technology as a means in unto itself. Yet the curricula

32

of most courses are narrow in focus, failing to exploit these links with other areas of

investigation. This reduces the confidence and interest of the girls in the subject.

Often boys have been found to monopolise the instructors’ time or dominate the

educational setting. This results in girls being left to try and figure things out on

their own, with the imbalance frustrating young girls. Research also highlights that

the relative absence of female role models, mentors and peers is felt keenly in the

later years of school and in higher education. Cohoon (2003) argued that students

also regarded peer support as vital for meeting the demands of being a Computer

Science major. While peer support is essential to male and female students alike,

women do not have the level of access to same-sex classmates that men have

(Cohoon 2003, p.671). Girls may feel inferior and/or dominated or intimidated by

male students within learning environments as a result (Gürer and Camp 2002).

Although IT has been viewed as relatively new field, it has been noted that at the

higher levels of education, particularly university level, there is an increasing

tendency to impose prerequisites on entry into IT courses, even at foundation levels.

This disadvantages women, as men are not only more likely to have computer-based

educational qualifications, but they also more likely to have experienced ‘hobbyism’

which could signal aptitude. As Branson (2018) queries: "who feels welcome in the

computing classroom…when prerequisites start requiring prior programming

experience for introductory courses?” (p.61). This is liable to dissuade young women

who do express an interest in computing toward the latter stages of their school

education. A last point is made by Kahle and Schmidt (2004), who suggest that in

contrast to the issues above “not being informed is the most important reason why

women are not enrolling in computer science” (p. 82)

Deficiencies in the educational system are considered to be one of the primary

causes of female underrepresentation in the IT professions. A ‘leaky' educational

pipeline, whereby women are lost at subsequent stages of formal qualification, leaves

an inadequate pool of qualified female labour from which to draw. However, this is

only part of the underrepresentation puzzle. Women who do qualify from IT and

33

other STEM degrees still face barriers to their career entry, retention and

advancement. These barriers will now be considered.

2.3.3 Social and structural influences on female IT careers

According to Swanson and Woitke (1997) career barriers are defined as “events or

conditions, either within the person or in his/her environment which makes career

progress difficult" (p.434). This definition includes the concepts of both

intrapersonal barriers (e.g., lack of interest) and environmental barriers (e.g., gender

discrimination) (Swanson and Tokar 1991). Based on a review of the extant literature,

Ahuja (2002) identifies both social and structural factors, which may act as barriers

to women during three dependent stages: career choice, career persistence, and

career advancement. Social factors are defined as the “social and cultural biases or

values that incorporate both the internal view that women have of themselves (self-

expectations) and the external view of women (stereotyping, for example) that is held

by society in general” (Ahuja 2002, p.22). In contrast, structural factors work to limit

the opportunities available to women. The impact of the main social and structural

barriers to female careers will now be considered with respect to contemporary

research.

Male-dominated occupational culture

Male construction and dominance of the industry underpins many of the issues that

constrain female careers. Using Green, Owen, and Pains’ (1993) terminology,

technology is "gendered by design". As already outlined in relation to IT education

(see 2.3.2 Gender difference in early exposure and computing education) technology

itself is not a gender-neutral concept. Rather, as Wajcman (2000) proposes, it

is embedded with masculine symbols, meanings and value due to the fact that

technology creators are men, with women largely excluded from this process.

Wilson (2003) argues that the continuing male dominance of IT professionals is due,

in large part, to the continuance of symbolic association of masculinity and

technology. Cultural images and representations of technology have “converged

images of masculinity and power to render ‘computing culture' unattractive to

women” (p.128). In this way, it produces and reproduces sex stereotypes.

34

Due to the masculine construction of technology and male dominance of IT

occupations a particularly pervasive masculine culture amongst IT workers has

emerged (Faulkner and Lie 2007; Wajcman 2007; Demaiter and Adams 2009). As

argued in the previous section, IT professionals are stereotypically portrayed as

geeks or hackers, characterised as individualistic, lacking empathy and with no need

to socialise and interested in computers in of themselves (Håpnes 1996). Men are

viewed as more suitable for technical work and appropriate it, while women seek to

distance themselves from it (Wagner and Wodak 2006; Herman and Webster 2007;

Kelan 2007; Wajcman 2007) through either avoiding IT occupations entirely or

selecting less-technical roles within the IT context (Guerrier et al. 2009). Less

technical roles are constructed as more aligned with the skills that women 'naturally'

have.

Griffiths et al. (2007) and Wajcman (2007) show both that women are

underrepresented in high skilled, technical IT jobs but are clustered in the less

technical project management and customer-support roles. Jubas and Butterwick

(2008) maintain that this clustering is due to women deliberately opting out of core

IT areas, preferring more feminised 'peripheral, feminised niches' such as website

design, project management or technical writing.

Segregation of men into higher level, technical occupations continually reinforces

masculine constructions of technology, as it is they who develop and deploy new

technologies. Because of the low number of women in IT occupations and their

grouping in lower-level, less technical positions, new technologies continue to

reflect male values and styles of doing IT work (Burger et al. 2007). This has also

resulted in a masculinised culture prevailing across the IT industry. Although

substantial debate exists whether this masculine culture is a cause or a consequence

of the gender composition of the IT workforce (Cohoon and Aspray 2006),

researchers do agree that it contributes to the marginalisation and exclusion of

women in several ways relating to (i) sex stereotyping and gendered expectations,

(ii) work-life conflict, (iii) lack of female role models, (iv) networking and mentoring,

(v) occupational structures.

35

Sex stereotyping and gendered expectations

Gender stereotypes associated with people and occupations affect both labour

demand and labour supply, limiting women’s ability to enter the IT industry and

restricting them to specific occupations.

Research on gender stereotypes generally shows that women are perceived to be

more communal (e.g., caring and interdependent) than men, whereas men are

perceived to be more agentic (e.g., ambitious and self-reliant), compared with

women (Williams and Best 1990). Men are therefore privileged on competence-

related traits like intelligence, skill, and capability, but also advantaged due to the

belief that they are better able to get things done by being assertive, goal-oriented,

ambitious, independent, competitive, and self-interested. In contrast, women are

presumed to be primarily oriented toward others: warm, kind, nurturing, friendly,

and polite (Eagly 2018; Thébaud and Charles 2018). These stereotypes are thought to

stem from traditional gender roles (domestic for women, bread-winning for men

(Eagly 2018).

While a minority of studies contend these stereotypes are changing over time, for

example the belief that women are less intelligent or skilled than men has

diminished (Eagly 2018), most research points to their persistence. Especially high

levels of intelligence or technical ability remain masculine-coded (Furnham et al.

2006; Ridgeway 2011) and stereotypes continue to privilege men’s ability in male-

typed tasks, such as those related to technology (Ridgeway 2011).

Thébaud and Charles (2018) argue that these stereotypical beliefs are not just

descriptive, but that much of their impact lies in their prescriptive role. They can be

seen as creating expectations for male and female appropriate behaviour (Prentice

and Carranza 2002). So, while being assertive and ambitious is intensely prescribed

for men (i.e., cultural beliefs dictate that men really ought to possess this trait in

order to be liked and respected by others), whereas demonstrating warmth and

interpersonal traits is intensely prescribed for women (i.e., cultural beliefs dictate

that women really ought to possess this trait in order to be liked and respected by

36

others). Individuals are, therefore, motivated to behave in stereotype-consistent

ways (Heilman 2001; Rudman and Phelan 2008).

On the demand side, stereotypes mean that women can be discriminated against

because they do not ‘fit’, or align with, the assumed masculinity of the job,

recruitment practices, and are subject to biased assessments of their relative

qualifications (Becker 1964; Heilman 2001). As skill and merit are not objectively

identifiable and measurable, women can be judged as lacking because they did not

‘fit’ with the gendered expectations of behaviours (Wilson 2003) For example, a

quantitative study of 140-graduate-level students conducted by Michie and Nelson

(2006) found that men have lower confidence in the technical capabilities of women

compared to men. Therefore women, in assumed possession of feminine skills, are

considered less suitable for, and less competent at, technical roles (Herman and

Webster 2007; Kelan 2007; Wajcman 2007). Reports of a ‘chilly atmosphere’ (Wright

1997) for women in IT companies, could be attributed to the perception by the male

incumbents that women do not belong due to these gendered perceptions (Margolis

and Fisher 2002; Roldan et al. 2004)

On the supply side, stereotyping can lead to segregation by guiding people to make

gender-conforming choices that affirm their masculinity or femininity, and avoid

social sanctions and discriminatory work environments (Ridgeway 2011; Blair-Loy

and Cech 2017; Reid et al. 2018). Experimental studies show, for example, that

women’s expectations of discrimination and gender bias reduces their anticipated

sense of belonging and their interest in STEM careers (Moss-Racusin et al. 2018).

Lage (1991) found that females feel an interest in technology can threaten their

feminine image. Women’s interest in computing may be seen as a challenge to the

social world and so they may face claims of ‘gender inauthenticity’. By this, it is meant

that pleasure in technology can be felt and/or perceived to be gender authentic

options for men, but gender inauthentic options for women (Faulkner 2011, p.279).

By disconfirming the stereotype associated with IT, women can suffer from

stigmatisation and exclusion. Håpnes and Sørensen (1995) suggest women seek to

emphasise their femininity in the technical sphere, through emphasising motivation

linked to the application of technology, rather than technology in of itself

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Kelan (2008), in her study of skilled IT workers notes that the construction of women

as more socially adept is hegemonic, as women can then be seen as just providing

the ‘soft’ skills. For example, as Peterson (2007) found in an examination of IT

workers in Sweden, women tended to be more vulnerable to redundancy because

they were considered to have fewer ‘tough’ technical skills that provided a safe career

path, with their value rooted more in ‘soft’ skills that offered no such security. From

another perspective, Woodfield (2000) finds in her qualitative study of an

international computing company, that managers would overlook lapses in soft

skills in those who demonstrated a high level of skilled technical ability. In this way,

soft skills are further devalued in relation to technical skills. As Guerrier et al. (2009)

find, although soft skills are apparently highly valued by the organisation, from their

interviews with IT employers they noted that these skills would be unlikely to be

formally recognized since they are assumed to come ‘naturally' to women. This helps

explain the finding by Appelbaum et al. (2003) which argues that in competing for

promotions, men are given credit for demonstrating aptitude in ‘soft’ skills while

women are rarely recognized for it, as it is assumed to be natural and thus not an

achievement (Nielsen et al. 2005), worthy of reward.

Despite the prizing of technical competence, there is evidence to suggest that the

most prestigious and best-paid roles in the IT sector demand both advanced

technical skills and ‘soft' management skills. Woodfield (2002) describes the

emergence of a new 'corporate ideal' worker to meet the needs of contemporary IT

work, which expect employees to have technical, interpersonal and organisational

skills. This shift, in theory, should have offered greater opportunities for women, for

whom the ‘soft' skills were seen as ‘natural'. Nevertheless, as Whitehouse and

Diamond (2005) and Simard and Gilmartin (2010) emphasize, a high status,

'technical only' core remains intact within the industry, and these roles continue to

be dominated by men. Moreover, where the new ‘corporate ideal’ roles are in place,

men continue to dominate the higher ranks of them, with limited female

encroachment (Fitzsimmons 2002; Trauth 2002; Woodfield 2002).

38

Descriptive and prescriptive stereotypes are produced and reproduced in such a way

as to make it less appealing for women to enter the field, less pleasant to remain in

the field, and far harder for them to advance their careers to more senior levels.

Whether demand for these new combinations of competencies is providing a more

even playing field for women remains underexplored.

Work-Life Conflict

Most frequently, women’s inability to persist and advance IT careers is linked to their

existing (and anticipated) family commitments. Due to an unequal domestic

division of labour, women take on the majority of domestic and caring

responsibilities and their careers are more constrained by the need to reconcile these

two roles.

Work in the IT industry is characterised by long hours, late nights and the

requirement to travel. Freckle (1990) considered meeting these demands to require

employees to demonstrate ‘highly focused, almost obsessive behaviour’ (p.38).

Perhaps a product of its gender composition, IT work is arranged with the inherent

assumption that employees do not have caring responsibilities to accommodate, and

thus work can and should retain primacy. Acker (2006b) argues that that gender

inequalities are therefore “created in the fundamental construction of the working day

and of work obligations” (p.448) in the IT workplace. Male workers would

traditionally have left childcare to their (female) partners. They were then able to

dedicate the time to work, and ‘put in the hours'. Maintaining availability, employer-

friendly flexibility and visibility signalled commitment and dedication to work.

These are then constructed as ‘ideal worker' norms, setting expectations for

behaviours that create challenges for women reconciling the work sphere and the

domestic sphere to meet.

While explanations relating to work-life balance are pervasive in the literature

(Moore et al. 2005), Armstrong et al. (2017) have argued that barriers to staying in

the IT due to domestic responsibilities have reduced in more recent times. In their

literature review and focus group of IT workers, they noted employers efforts to

implement initiatives to support balancing family and work obligations, such as

39

flexible working, and/or developing more family-friendly work environments

(Brough et al. 2005) (Fiksenbaum 2014) and suggest it they may be helping female

retention. Technological advances, such as telecommuting, virtual private networks,

mobile ubiquity, and consumerisation, (Armstrong et al. 2012) have also been

outlined as mechanisms which provide scope for women to better manage their

work and domestic responsibilities better. Additionally, despite the fact that women

continue to undertake the majority of domestic responsibilities, men have been

found to increase the amount of domestic work they do (Kan et al. 2011) and spend

more time with their children than before (Coltrane 2010). These changes may in

part be due to the increased time pressures on working women, but may also reflect

substantial changes in attitudes to gender roles (Lyonette and Crompton 2015).

Quantitative data analysis has suggested that the more a woman earns, the more

likely it is that her male partner will carry out domestic work (Coltrane 2000;

Harkness 2008) which would imply that female IT workers with lower paid male

partners may be relieved of these pressures. Additionally, the private market

provides domestic assistance in the form of cleaners, au pairs and nannies to those

earning relatively high incomes – which many in IT occupations do. Technological

advances and greater availability of flexible working policies have also arguably

shifted the extent to which combination of career and care is possible. The extent to

which all of these changes have shaped female IT workers perspectives in relation to

their economic and moral rationalities, and thus shaped decisions around paid

employment have not been considered with respect to IT professions.

While flexible working may help women stay in IT, researchers such as Panteli et al.

(2001) have argued that through use of them, advancement of women’s careers is

limited. Their study analysed two quantitative surveys of over 250o IT workers, in

conjunction with case study interviews from four IT companies and found that

working flexibly delayed or permanently damaged women’s promotional prospects.

This outcome is termed the ‘mommy track’ by Quesenberry et al. (2006). This view

influences hiring and promotion decisions, especially in the case of women of

childbearing age.

40

There is also literature that suggests "dual-edged’ effects for telecommuting and

flexible work schedules, such that the positive aspects may be counteracted by a lack

of separation of work from non-work space, and consequently reduced personal time

(Towers et al. 2006; Pedersen and Lewis 2012; Sullivan 2014)

Lack of Female Role Models

A lack of female roles models and mentors has also been highlighted as impeding

the ability for women to advance their careers. Yet some women have been very

successful in IT careers with twelve prominent IT companies having, or having had,

female CEO's (listed in Appendix 1) since the year 2000. Commentators suggest that

with women in CEO positions, the pathways for women to advance into upper

management and executive positions should increase, through a process known as

the "trickle-down effect" (Fairfax 2005). Female CEO's are also argued to be more

sensitive to the needs of female employees and thus "…improve the quality of life for

all women” (Kellerman et al. 2007, p.137). These women should also provide role

models for young women: an area highlighted as crucial for recruitment (Cohoon

and Aspray 2006). The extent to which these changes have influenced the career

choices of female IT workers, or have been shaped by masculine discourses of IT, has

yet to be considered.

Arguably, however, the negative messages women garner related to female

experiences in the IT industry may outweigh these positive messages. Examples

include the high-profile case of a senior software engineer at Google distributing an

internal memo suggesting women fail to make inroads in technology roles due to

biological essentialism in "their preferences and capabilities". Although subsequently

fired, many believe this episode underlined the attitude of men to women in IT work

(Booth and Hern 2017). Alternatively, the case of Uber, where a female software

engineer published an extremely negative account of her time at the company after

she has left which sparked an investigation by the Attorney General. The post, which

alleged multiple instances of sexism and sexual harassment at the company, went

viral in 2017. Although not headquartered in the UK, many of the UK employers are

subsidiaries of these companies and these messages can be damaging.

41

Mentoring has been highlighted in extant research as a key mechanism to improve

female advancement and the representation of women at higher levels. This allows

female IT professionals to receive access to advice, knowledge and an advocate at

senior levels. Yet, despite an implicit assumption that mentoring programmes will

be beneficial for women (Allen et al. 2004; O'Brien et al. 2010) there is little empirical

evidence to determine to what extent women benefit from participating in such

programmes in the IT field. For example, in their study of male and female graduates

from business school, Dougherty, Dreher, Arunachalam, and Wilbanks (2013) found

that mentees with non-senior level mentors actually received less compensation

than those with no mentors at all. This negative effect presented as particularly

strong for women. Armstrong et al. (2017) propose that in fact the ‘old boys network'

might be negating the benefits of women’s mentoring, as it may intentionally or

inadvertently encouraging discrimination. Alternatively, it may be that there are just

not enough potential female mentors that provide a well-rounded role model of the

type that women wish to emulate. As Amon (2017) notes in her study of 46 STEM

women graduate students and postdoctoral fellows: "women also had a difficult time

identifying mentors and role models who represented, not only a desirable career path

but also a desirable lifestyle” (p. 238).

Informal interactions and networks

Networking is widely seen as essential for career development and therefore an

organisational practice that women could potentially benefit from (Acker, 2006).

However, studies observe that women in IT are often excluded from informal

organisational networking (for examples, see Ahuja 2002; Margolis and Fisher 2003;

Cohoon and Aspray 2006; Quesenberry et al. 2006) and that aside from the potential

psychological harm caused by such exclusion (e.g. damage to self-confidence and

self-efficacy), women may be missing opportunities for gaining visibility among

powerful organisational figures, for participating in informal business discussions,

and for learning about upcoming career opportunities (Ahuja 2002; Wentling and

Thomas 2009; Armstrong et al. 2012).

The prevalence of an ‘old boys network', which typically assists with work allocation

and career advancement, is beneficial to men and exclusionary to women

42

(Woodfield 2000; Gamba and Kleiner 2001; Margolis and Fisher 2002) (Webster 2014;

Branson 2018). While this is an issue across all STEM fields, a study by Hewlett et al.

(2008) identifies this as a particularly prevalent issue in the technology field (p.18).

Career decisions are made based on the information available, which is gained not

just through formal networks, such as meetings, but also through informal networks

within the organisation. However, informal networking usually takes place socially

and often outside of working hours, which presents issues for women. Logistically it

is more difficult due to their greater domestic responsibilities. Furthermore, as a

male-dominated field, informal corporate networks are primarily made up of men

and are based around traditionally ‘male' activities to which women are less keen to

take part: such as drinking, sports, or golf, for example (Margolis and Fisher 2003),

Exclusion of women from these male-dominated networks is perceived as a

significant barrier for women in reaching senior management positions because they

lack access to access to the same contacts, opportunities and political information

as their male counterparts (Margolis and Fisher 2003; Cross et al. 2006). Moreover,

this also increased their feelings of exclusion, isolation and frustration with IT

careers more generally (Cross et al. 2006). Simard et al. (2008) suggested that women

working in the mid-levels of the technology sector experience workplace culture

differently than do men, partly due to their more limited access to power and status:

They note that “women are more likely than men to perceive workplace culture as

competitive. They do not see their workplaces as true meritocracies, rather they see

cultures that require connections to power and influence in order to advance. This can

create an environment where women are viewed (and can view themselves) as ‘‘not

fitting in’’ with the company culture”. (p.4)

In many studies, women in IT report feeling like outsiders, viewed as less capable

and less promotable (see Michie and Nelson 2006; Hewlett 2007; Wentling and

Thomas 2009; Moore and Griffiths 2010; Servon and Visser 2011). In a study by

Wentling and Thomas’ (2009), women reported that men used derogatory

comments and intimidation aiming to ensure they were allocated to the best work

assignments and actively excluded women. Exclusion is often legitimized by

43

reference to women’s putative caring responsibilities and the tough ‘choice’ to be

made between career and family (Ahuja 2002).

Organisational structures and control mechanisms

Due to broader economic changes, IT companies have increasingly flattened their

organisational structures. Projects have become the dominant form of work

organisation during recent decades. This ‘projectification’ (Midler 1995) has resulted

in organisations in which almost all operations are organised as projects and where

permanent structures typically only fulfil the function of administrative support

(Cicmil and Hodgson 2006; Söderlund and Tell 2009). Acker has argued that scope

for gendered organising processes is reduced in flatter hierarchies and some research

has shown women experience more equality and opportunity in flatter structures in

comparison to hierarchical bureaucracies`, but only if the women function like men.

For example, one study of engineers in Norway (Kvande and Rasmussen 1994) found

that women in a small, collegial engineering firm more easily obtained recognition

and advancement when compared to women in the engineering department in a big

bureaucracy. Yet, it could be argued that where there are reduced chances for

promotion due to a decreased number of ‘rungs’ on the organisational ladder,

women are liable to be viewed as less desirable prospects for the fewer promotional

opportunities offered by companies.

Despite facing these numerous career barriers, there is little evidence of female

collective action in order to try and change the situation. Rather, research tends to

focus on low entry rates and high attrition rates of women as evidence of

dissatisfaction. This implies an assumption that women either accept the status quo,

and remain, or leave the industry entirely.

Acker (2006b) argues that this is the result of various complex and intersecting

‘controls’, fostered within organisations, which “mitigate challenges to inequality and

produce compliance among workers” (p.454). Direct control mechanisms include

bureaucratic rules and various punishments/rewards, while indirect controls

include the restricting of information flows and internalised controls, such as belief

44

in the legitimacy of male privilege, or the pointlessness of attempting to challenge

the way things are.

This aligns with what existing research tells us about how women respond to

negative experiences in the IT workplace. Studies show that women often silence

themselves as a means of survival (Griffiths et al. 2007; Reid et al. 2010) or engage in

a form of impression management in attempts to better integrate within the

dominant masculine workplace culture (Servon and Visser 2011). Essentially, many

women who persist in the IT workplace appear to accept being, as Trauth (2002,

p.98) terms it, the ‘odd girl out’. As other studies show (for example Quesenberry et

al. 2006; Crump et al. 2007; Wentling and Thomas 2009) this can be perceived as a

necessary price for the benefits of pursuing a career that provides good pay, pleasure

and satisfaction.

2.4 THEORETICAL LIMITATIONS OF EXISTING RESEARCH

It is important to note that vast majority of extant studies rely on an essentialist or

social constructionist underpinning, which differentiates clearly between male and

female experiences on the basis of either biological differences or, more commonly,

the way gender is socially constructed. However, this theoretical perspective

assumes that women, as a group, are different from men as a group, either for

psychological, biological or social differences, and as such the basis for redressing

the balance is in understanding what the differences are (Trauth 2002; Trauth 2009;

Trauth 2011), and the developing inclusion strategies that accommodate for them.

Trauth (2002) stated, within the essentialist research “the policies for addressing the

gender imbalance would focus on assumed inherent differences between women and

men and the equality issue would focus on ‘separate but equal’ “(p.101). Alternatively,

with a social constructionist underpinning, recommendations for inclusion would

adopt one of two paths. The first aims to assist women to ‘fit in’ with the dominant

culture and domains. Measures could include provision of support structures such

as mentors (e.g. Townsend 2002) support groups (e.g. Ahuja et al. 2004), role models

(e.g Cohoon 2008) and positive societal messages about women working in IT (e.g. Von

45

Hellens et al. 2001). A second approach seeks to reconstruct the IT domain to better

reflect femininity – focusing on the social shaping of female gender identity and its

relationship to technology (e.g. Wajcman 2004).

Both of these approaches towards inclusion create intense tension between

embracing gender stereotypes and binaries and challenging them, as Faulkner

(2007) outlines:

“On the one hand, there are examples [of inclusion strategies] drawing on

gender essentialisms and binaries (although simplifying) can serve to validate

women’s perceived interests and practices, and so may be effective in engaging

otherwise excluded groups of women. On the other hand, such strategies may

serve to marginalize women and making them invisible, especially in the

longer run, by assigning them to special positions at the margins of ICT use

and development.” (p.162)

This is, in part, a result of the tendency to overstate both homogeneity between

members of each gender group, and simultaneously exaggerate differences between

the genders. Wajcman's (1991) consideration of the social constructivist approach

highlights that there is no universal definition of ‘masculine' or ‘feminine' behaviour,

instead varying according to the broader context in which it occurs. It is notable, for

example, some men have been found to be alienated from fields such as IT because

of its ‘geeky’ image, in the same way as many women (Faulkner 2002).

It could be argued then, that value lies in not approaching these potential barriers

from a male/female dichotomy perspective, in which the low numbers of females is

inherently a gender issue (Moore et al. 2005) (Trauth 2002). Instead, career barriers

need to be considered from an ‘individual differences’ perspective (Trauth 2002;

Trauth et al. 2004), where personal contexts are affected by gendered structures.

This provides scope to consider issues of gender and technology construction from

an individual perspective, considering the differences and similarities between men

and women (Trauth 2002). In examining heterogeneity within gender categories, the

value of explanations predicated on assumed gender traits can be refined and a more

nuanced understanding can be developed as to why some individuals succeed while

46

others do not, in relation to their personal characteristics and contexts – in addition

to their gender.

47

2.5 SUMMARY

This chapter has reviewed the literature on gender and employment. As the

objective of this thesis is to understand the low rates of participation of women in

IT careers and female segregation into lower paid, lower status occupations therein,

the focus has been on understanding the patterns of gender participation in

professional occupations requiring a significant human capital investment.

The review has demonstrated that many interactive and dynamic factors influence

the patterns of employment in a given occupation. These include human capital

investments (specifically education), family circumstances, cultural values related to

combining paid work and mothering, and perceptions of accessibility and

desirability attached to occupations. These factors determine the extent to which

women will be available to enter employment and influence the nature of the

employment contract they select and, to an extent, the occupational area they

pursue. They do, however, have limitations in the extent to which they speak to the

career choices made by women who have opted to work full time in a professional

occupation, most notably in the inability to explain specific occupational selection.

The review has, in turn, identified gaps in explanations of the underrepresentation

currently proposed. Perhaps due to the dominance of the “leaky educational

pipeline” rhetoric, much of the research has focused on why girls and young women

do not opt for IT (or STEM) education. Research has highlighted many interrelated

barriers to female preference for IT-related education, primarily stemming from

technology’s close association with masculinity and early male dominance. What is

perhaps missing is an understanding of how workers in the IT industry frame the

value of an IT or STEM education to their own career paths. In short, did women

(and men) in IT occupations pursue this educational option and, if they did, what

was it that motivated them to do so. If not, then how did they come to be in the

industry and what does this mean for understanding underrepresentation beyond

the ‘pool problem’. Assumptions relating to the need for an IT or STEM education

for entry into the industry have limited scope for these considerations.

48

Extant literature examines barriers to women entering, persisting and advancing IT

careers. Masculine ‘ideal worker norms’ and the need for women to meet greater

domestic demands are highlighted as impediments to women in the industry. Some

commentators have noted that the nature of IT work is changing, with occupations

now requiring employees who can demonstrate both technical skills with greater

interpersonal skills. Sex stereotyping persists which (rightly or wrongly) associates

women with these skills, thus deeming these ‘new’ occupations more than suitable

for women. In combination with wider use of flexible working and technological

developments to facilitate spatial and temporal working, some optimistic voices

have suggested IT work should be more accessible than ever to women. How female

IT workers experience these developments, and what difference this makes to

potential exclusion or marginalisation, remains a gap in understanding.

Moreover, the essentialist and social constructionist underpinnings of the majority

of studies into women and IT leave little scope for nuance and heterogeneity in

relation to lived experiences of IT work and IT workplaces. This is a somewhat

reductive approach. There is space to consider the careers of both men and women

with a consideration of the influence of gender, but by placing it within a broader

context of other influences the homogeneity and heterogeneity within and between

gender categories can also be considered. For despite research suggesting significant

barriers for female IT professionals, some women have forged successful IT careers.

There is little in the extant literature to explain why this would be. Broadly adopting

Trauth et al. (2004) proposed and individual differences approach to research,

examining the many contextual influences to women’s exclusion and segregation,

which allow some to be successful and others to be more constrained or excluded

regarding IT work, would be a valuable addition.

This body of literature focuses on explaining segregation through placing workers

within the broader social and organisational system. This may, however, lead to

underrepresentation being seen as largely as a product of female passivity, simply

responding to challenges presented by external forces. It also provides limited

opportunity to consider how these forces, or barrier, alter over the life course. The

careers literature, in contrast, puts workers at the forefront and could provide a more

49

appropriate lens to understand underrepresentation. It allows as a result of the

interaction of contextual forces, organisational dynamics and individual agency.

Therefore, the next chapter will examine how the theoretical perspectives associated

with contemporary careers provide useful conceptualisations of exclusion and

segregation of women in IT.

50

3 GENDER, KNOWLEDGE WORK AND CONTEMPORARY

CAREERS IN IT

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter explores how careers have changed over the past fifty years due to many

socio-economic changes, the most influential of which may be the increasing

dominance of the knowledge economy. It begins with a review of the change from

traditional career forms to more contemporary conceptualisations, and how these

interrelate with features of knowledge work to create career opportunities and

constraints that shape female participation in IT work. As the most prominent

contemporary career metaphors in extant literature, the boundaryless and the

protean models form the focus of this discussion. The implications and limitations

of these metaphors for understanding the careers of knowledge workers generally,

and female workers specifically, will then be outlined. Based on extant studies, a

multilevel, context-based analytical framework is then proposed for use in the study

of IT workers’ careers over the life course within this study. The chapter concludes

with a summary of what is known about female career in the IT industry, and what

remains to be discovered.

3.2 CAREER THEORIES

Until recently, economic and social condition ensured that traditional career models

prevailed. These were exemplified by the career-stage and life-span theories of Super

(1957) and Levinson et al. (1978), for example, which explained careers as a series of

work experiences, typically within one or two employers over their life course,

Career progression was a linear, upward movement through a number of

hierarchically ordered stages according to age or seniority (Adamson et al. 1998).

Increasing stages were demarcated by rising levels of prestige, authority and pay

(Spilerman 1977; Rosenbaum 1979).

These theories were predicated on a pattern of, full-time employment, and situated

within a framework of comparative economic stability (Collin and Young 2000;

51

Reitman and Schneer 2003). Progression and tenure were seen as employer-created

and controlled, and advancement, security and stability underpinned by an

employment contract between employers and employees. Those seeking career

advancement were expected to conform to an uninterrupted work-career involving

long and sometimes unpredictable hours of work (Kanter 1977; Acker 2006b). As the

prototypical career was implicitly male, enabled by a male breadwinner arrangement

which saw domestic responsibilities assumed by their stay at home female partner.

As such, limited attention was paid to the impact of gender or family structures on

career forms and restricted the scope for these models to speak to a more diverse

range of experiences (Collin and Young 2000), particularly those of women (Gutek

and Larwood 1987; Fitzgerald and Betz 1994).

From this perspective, women faced significant disadvantage. Feminist scholars note

that employment was organised as if paid work was the only, or at least the primary,

responsibility of employees (Acker 1990; Britton 2000). Child bearing and rearing

meant that their careers were rarely continuous or full time over the life course, and

in meeting their family responsibilities they often failed to display the behavioural

norms associated with a ‘committed’, male worker. The expectation was that white-

collar workers - especially managers and professionals - would prioritise paid work,

travelling or working according to the needs of the organisation (Bailyn 1993;

Lyonette et al. 2011). In doing so, workers signalled an appropriate level of

commitment or devotion to paid employment (Blair-Loy 2003), thus improving their

chances of career advancement. Consequently, this fuelled the close association of

professional image and reputation with long working hours (Smithson et al. 2004).

Widely referred to as the ‘ideal worker’ norms (Williams 2000), these expectations

reinforced gender inequality in the workplace because women could typically not

meet them in the same way as men. (Bianchi et al. 2000). Women, and mothers, in

particular, are less likely to live up to these expectations and so less likely to reap the

economic rewards associated with being an ‘ideal worker’ (Hynes and Clarkberg

2005; Stone 2007). Such norms are arguably constructed and maintained by firms as

well as related professional bodies and communities of practice (Donnelly 2015).

52

Flexible working exacerbated this inequality, seen as the preserve of women,

especially mothers, the adoption of flexible and part-time working arrangements

created even more challenges in meeting ‘ideal worker’ norms. As such, those

working these alternative schedules were relegated to less preferential positions. The

nature and volume of the work was then an inadequate basis for progression into

senior corporate roles (Ford and Collinson 2011).

While many feminists and gender theorists challenged and problematised this

notion of careers, many of these characteristics associated with career-focused

individuals remain pervasive, and so this type of traditional, organisational careers

were, and remain, gendered in a masculine form.

Although some individuals (e.g. self-employed, contract workers) have always been

outside traditional career models, the traditional career has dominated research

because most organisational structures supported it. The dramatic changes in work

organisations over the last few decades have, however, challenged its pervasiveness.

Environmental challenges such as rapid technological advancements (Coovert 1995)

and increased global competition, resulted in a shift from the tall, multi-layer,

functionally-organised structures (Miles and Snow 1996) which had enabled

organisational careers, to structures that focused on enabling greater flexibility.

They downsized, removing hierarchical layers and adopting flatter structures

(Sullivan and Baruch 2009) to meet flexibility needs. New structures were supported

by the employment of workers on a wider range of alternative employment

contracts, allowing them to adapt their workforce efficiently as and when the market

required (Guest 2004; Roper et al. 2010). Broader demographic changes also

challenged this notion of careers. The large numbers of women entering the labour

market undermined male-as-breadwinner career models. A greater diversity of

family structures (dual-earner partners, single parents, and employees responsible

for their ageing parents) emerged, and increasingly careers had to adapt and reflect

these other parts of workers lives. Additionally, many ‘baby boomers’ remained in

the workforce beyond traditional retirement age, extending career over a longer life

course than was previously.

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These contextual changes have led to what Kidd (1996) described as ‘new career

realities’. A larger proportion of the workforce was viewed as moving outside of

organisational structures, challenging traditional conceptualisations of careers. A

range of metaphors developed to capture this new career, although two have gained

the most attention– the protean and boundaryless concepts (Gubler et al. 2014).

Although the focus of their attention is somewhat different, essentially both of these

models are concerned with the transfer of responsibility for career development

from the employer to the individual, who now creates and develops their own career

identity by moving autonomously between employers, maintaining allegiance to

themselves rather their employer (Lips-Wiersma and Mcmorland 2006). The crucial

difference between the two models is that whereas a boundaryless career relates

essentially to the career environment, a protean career is more closely linked to

notions of individual adaptability and identity.

It has been proposed that women might be especially well prepared for

contemporary careers (Fondas 1996) as they typically have more experience of

discontinuous labour market experience, and are used to transitioning between

different forms of work over the life course (e.g. part-time and full time, different

roles before and after children). Traditionally unable to achieve the rewards

associated with ‘ideal worker’ behaviours, women have been framed as less invested

in pursuit of the rewards associated with linear careers, such as pay and prestige

(Fondas 1996). These two metaphors provide a valuable lens to consider gender

differences in careers, and how these translate to potential processes of gender

segregation and exclusion.

The next section outlines the key tenets of these models and their conceptual and

empirical limitations, before considering their usefulness for studying female careers

in the IT industry.

54

3.3 CONTEMPORARY CAREERS

The boundaryless career concept is perhaps the most widely known and referenced

contemporary career model (Arthur and Rousseau 1996; Arthur et al. 2005; Sullivan

and Arthur 2006; Lee et al. 2014). This metaphor emphasises a change in both the

psychological contract and in organisational forms and hierarchies, positioning

them as more permeable and providing the opportunity for employees to craft

careers through inter-organisational mobility.

The boundaryless career is frequently framed as the opposite of the organisational

career (Arthur and Rousseau 1996). A summary of the ways in which boundaryless

careers differ from traditional linear careers is provided in Table 3.1 below. In

organisational careers, organisations offer job security and progressive careers in

return for loyalty and commitment, whereas the boundaryless career concept is

predicated on the belief that organisations are no longer willing or able to maintain

that contract. Characterised by temporality, organisations adjust their commitment

to workers offering help to improve individual competencies and ‘employability' in

return for performance (Baruch 2004; Baruch 2006). In turn, emphases are placed

on self-fulfilment, independence through extra-organisational career support,

subjective notions of career success, and a landscape to accommodate greater

adaptability through flatter, less hierarchical, organisational forms (Arthur et al.

2005). In short, free of career boundaries, individuals are expected to take

responsibility for their own career management, seeking psychologically meaningful

work across organisations and occupations, without the negative stigma of failing

associated with linear, organisational careers.

The focus of much of the boundarylessness discourse is on physical mobility across

jobs, functions and organisations, as well as the demise of rigid job structures and

hierarchical career paths (Defillippi and Arthur 1994; Eby 2001; Briscoe and Hall

2006). However, in reality the concept is far broader than this application implies.

55

Table 3.1 Comparison of traditional and boundaryless careers

(Sullivan 1999, p.458)

Arthur and Defillippi (1994) initially described the boundaryless career as possessing

six streams of meaning depicting different aspects of permeability of, and movement

across, organisational boundaries:

The most prominent [meaning] is when a career, like the stereotypical Silicon Valley career,

moves across the boundaries of separate employers. A second meaning is when a career, like

that of an academic or a carpenter, draws validation – and marketability – from outside the

present employer. A third meaning is when a career, like that of a real estate agent, is

sustained by extra-organisational networks or information. A fourth meaning occurs when

traditional organisational career boundaries, notably hierarchical reporting and

advancement principles, are broken. A fifth meaning occurs when a person rejects existing

career opportunities for personal reasons. Perhaps a sixth meaning depends on the

interpretation of the career actor, who may perceive a boundaryless future regardless of

structural constraints. (p.296).

The common thread to all of these meanings is independence from, rather than

dependence on, traditional organisational principles.

Another central concept for the analysis of contemporary careers is the protean

career. The protean career (Hall 1976) is a related but not identical model to the

boundaryless career. The main difference is that while the boundaryless career

centres on mobility, both in physical and psychological form (Arthur and Rousseau

1996), the protean career focuses on the psychological attitude of an individual

towards the management of their own career. To the extent that, as demonstrated

in Table 3.2, individual psychological mobility and success and career progression

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become synonymous, leading to a new type of career contract between the employee

and their employer (Hall and Mirvis 1995). Hall (1996) refers to the higher order

skills and knowledge that are related to the management of self and career as ‘career

meta-competencies'. These meta-competencies include self-knowledge and

adaptability, and tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, and can only be acquired

through interaction with other people. The social interaction and the process of

valuing differences are positioned as essential for the development of a range of

personal abilities that allow for career success (e.g. self-discovery, effective

communication, building interdependent relationships and coping) (Hall 1996). In

summary the protean career could be viewed as a lifelong series of short learning

stages, focused on achieving employability in a context of greater job insecurity.

Table 3.2 New protean career contract

(

Hall and Moss 1998)

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Despite their common features, there are significant differences between the two

metaphors. For protean careers, boundary changes rather than boundarylessness is

central to the analysis of careers (Greenhaus et al. 2008). This approach accepts the

existence of boundaries but contend that boundaries across organisational forms,

projects, functions, for example, are now more permeable and transitions more

common and accepted. In addition, the protean career places greater emphasis on

the process of careers and the subjective definition of career success and satisfaction,

than the boundaryless career construct. This allows for greater consideration of

"concern for seeking a sense of personal meaning and purpose in ones work” (Hall

2002), thereby providing scope to connect to issues of gender, life course and work-

life integration (Direnzo et al. 2015).

Despite their widespread use in careers literature, it can be argued that both the

protean and boundaryless career concepts have significant limitations, both

conceptually and empirically, in their ability to be used for examination of female

careers.

3.3.1 Issues with contemporary career concepts

The metaphors are critiqued in conceptual and empirical terms generally, as well as

the potential they have for understanding female careers more specifically.

One of the key criticisms of the boundaryless concept concerns the positioning of

the boundaryless careers as the opposite of the traditional organisational career.

Staw and Cohen-Charash (2005) have argued the dichotomisation between old and

new careers provides an oversimplified account of changes in career contexts, and

has merely introduced a labour market phenomenon to the career context (Gunz et

al. 2000). By framing the boundaryless career as the opposite of the organisational

career, emphasis is placed on the underlying assumption that organisations are the

main, or even the only, device structuring people’s careers. In doing so, they adopt

a limited perspective towards understanding other boundaries to careers (Gunz et

al. 2000; Bagdadli et al. 2003) which are argued to be as important. In a more recent

elaboration of the boundaryless concept Sullivan and Arthur (2006) sought to

address these concerns by highlighting the interplay between the objective and

58

subjective aspects of careers, claiming that a boundaryless career is “one that involves

physical and/or psychological career mobility” (p.22). They also explicitly

acknowledged that boundarylessness might involve mobility across a range of other

career-relevant boundaries, such as occupational or geographical.

In doing so, however, they raised additional concerns. The first relates to how

psychological career mobility, which Sullivan and Arthur (2006) suggest can coupled

with physical career stability, differs from the typical organisationally bounded

career. Second, despite acknowledgement that that boundarylessness might involve

mobility across several career dimensions, they do not consider key domains that

shape careers, the motivations for crossing boundaries within domains, or the

boundary conditions that may facilitate or hinder career mobility. As Arnold and

Cohen (2008) notes, unless there is complete career immobility across all

boundaries, it is problematic not to classify any career as potentially boundaryless.

Dichotomisation is therefore essential for the conceptualisation of boundaryless

career but undermines its usefulness.

While much is written about these metaphors there is surprisingly little empirical

evidence to support the notion that the organisational career has disappeared

entirely, or even that it is no longer the desired model. As Baruch (2006) argues,

many contemporary organisations still adhere to relatively traditional employment

systems within comparatively stable environments. They maintain considerable

influence over managing or shaping their employees’ careers. For example, Arnold

and Cohen (2008) note that socio-economic conditions such as globalisation and

market competition, have led to a more individualistic approach to careers – as per

the boundaryless and protean career models. At the same time, they note that they

spoke to “countless people who continue to describe their careers in organisational

terms, with implied notions of hierarchical movement, and who see experience in

diverse organisations as essential to developing the credibility, knowledge, and social

capital required to progress” (Arnold and Cohen 2008, p.8). Instead, empirical

studies have shown that most careers are constructed with elements of

characteristics of both traditional careers and contemporary careers and that both

59

organisations and workers still value and retain traditional careers (Guest and Davey

1996; Peiperl et al. 2000; Dany 2003).

Although somewhat dated now, some studies have demonstrated how the type of

career mobility commonly associated with boundarylessness occurred at times, and

in contexts, in which hierarchical careers dominated (for examples, see Hashimoto

and Raisian 1985; Topel and Ward 1992). This would suggest that movement across

organisational boundaries is not fundamentally incompatible with traditional

hierarchical notions of career, as is theorised.

Arguably, these career metaphors should be viewed as ‘ideal-types’, but the literature

has tended not to frame it in this way. Rodrigues and Guest (2010) suggested that

contemporary careers are neither boundaryless, nor bounded, but "should be

understood as located on a permeability continuum across a range of potentially

salient career boundaries."(p.1170) A more useful approach for studies such as the

current one is to consider embeddedness and boundarylessness as co-existing career

dimensions, and address the extent and complexity of boundaries in contemporary

careers.

The extant research has also been considered insufficiently critical of it the impact

of the form of flexibility inherent in contemporary career models. The prominent

discourse positions this flexibility as beneficial to both employees and employers

(Adamson et al. 1998) with Garsten (1999), for example, noting “flexibility discourse

[is] ripe with positive images of versatile organisations employing versatile employees

likewise, challenging the traditional institutions of stable, enduring organisations and

workforces” (p.601). Emphasising networks rather than individual firms, and

empowered ‘enterprising' individuals, employees are assigned excessive agency as

“the main agents in career direction and progression” (Bird 1994, p.337). In this

arrangement, individuals are afforded the freedom to navigate their careers

according to their own values, motivations and definitions of success – as per the

protean orientation. Roper (2010) argues that this is simply the “manifestation of [a]

wider neoliberal discourse” (p.673), underpinned by an ideology where individual

agency shapes careers. In reality, boundaryless careers are often the product of firms

60

seeking to reduce costs through improving organisational flexibility, and in doing

so, risk is transferred from firm to employee in a way that impedes employability of

the individual (Van Buren 2003). In this way, the purported advantages of

boundaryless careers are afforded to only those employees with a high level of

employability based on their knowledge resources (Guest 2004). As such “new

careers...represent losses for many employees [and] present limited growth

opportunities for those outside core function, and can actually restrict an individual’s

freedom to engage in career development” (Hirsch and Shanley 1996, p.229).

Therefore, distinctions are required when discussing the effects of contemporary

careers between voluntary, proactive boundarylessness (for instance when people

choose to move to new opportunities) and reactive involuntary boundarylessness

(which occurs when people are forced to move through organisational restructuring,

delayering, for instance).

Guest (2004) suggests that there are many differences between employees who enjoy

voluntary, proactive boundarylessness and those who suffer reactive, involuntary

boundarylessness.

Although there is substantial evidence that career mobility is affected by the

economic climate – with voluntary turnover increasing during economic expansion,

and declining during contraction (Farber 2010) the research lacks clarity regarding

how those contextual variants impact careers. While Sullivan and Arthur (2006)

acknowledge that some individuals have greater ‘career competencies’ than others,

they do not explore how social and economic forces and institutions shape the career

capacities and mobility of individuals in any great detail. Tomlinson et al. (2017) call

for the exploration of how variances in social characteristics and privilege influence

an individual’s ability to achieve a boundaryless career at various stages in the life

course. Issues of gender, age, ethnicity and family also strongly influence people’s

perceptions of and motivations for crossing career boundaries.

Certainly, a wider criticism levelled at these metaphors concerns its lack of concern

for issues of gender. Contemporary career theories have been judged for focusing on

male, middle class, white participants, to the neglect of the rapidly changing, diverse

labour market (Sullivan 1999; Ituma and Simpson 2009; Sullivan and Baruch 2009)

61

The development and application of both boundaryless and protean metaphors is

framed as ‘gender-neutral’, limiting the ability to adequately capture female career

experiences (Mainiero and Sullivan 2005). Meanwhile the majority of empirical

research exploring using the concepts focuses on male experiences within a narrow

range of occupations, with women and minorities being deviations from dominant

patterns (Pringle and Mallon 2003). Yet many previous studies, (some examples

Powell and Mainiero 1992; Maier 1999; Mainiero and Sullivan 2005) have

demonstrated that men and women enact their careers differently, with educational,

occupational, and work-related choices shaped or constrained by societal norms and

stereotypes. For example, women have been found to face numerous issues in

pursuit of IT careers related to both their gender and their role as mothers, (as

discussed in 2.3 Barriers to women’s entrance and progression in IT work). These

issues are given limited attention in studies of contemporary careers.

Another consequence of the focus on boundarylessness is that boundaries are

neglected as a focus of empirical research, despite calls to bring boundaries back in

(Gunz et al. 2007; Inkson et al. 2012). As Clark (2000) argues, even if (some) career

boundaries are becoming more flexible, this does not mean that they are becoming

any less salient. Different people may perceive boundaries as qualitatively different

according to their context and ascribe varying degrees of physical and psychological

permeability to them. As Inkson (2006) observes, “the crossing of one type of

boundary (e.g., organisational) may inhibit the crossing of others (e.g., occupational,

industry)” (p.55). In this way, a more accurate approach is to consider boundaries

‘reshaped’ rather than removed from contemporary careers.

All of these limitations have led to researchers calling for a more nuanced

elaboration and operationalisation of the concept in which a wider array of potential

boundaries is explored, and the nature and permeability of career boundaries

considered. In this way boundary and boundary crossing is a more appropriate

construct to facilitate the study of contemporary careers, and particularly women’s

careers, as it allows for examination of the interaction of individual agency within a

broader context of structural constraints. This provides scope to examine what

shapes of different workers careers with respect to their own salient career

62

boundaries, and their ability to boundary-cross (Rodrigues and Guest 2010; Inkson

et al. 2012).

In order to understand underrepresentation of women in IT, the relevant domains

that influence and structure careers have to be explored. This allows for

consideration of how different career boundaries may operate in the specific

occupational and organisational context. IT work is held up as prototypical form of

knowledge work, therefore how the nature of this type of work operates to influence

career choices and trajectories, and how this may contribute to understanding

underrepresentation will be reviewed.

3.4 KNOWLEDGE WORK AND CONTEMPORARY CAREER FORMS

The development of boundaryless and protean career theory is particularly

prominent in knowledge-intensive areas of the economy (Tams and Arthur 2010).

Knowledge workers have been described as typical boundaryless career navigators,

due to the high level of technical and industry skills and specific knowledge that

they possess (Arthur and Rousseau 1996), allowing them to benefit from extensive

career and employment opportunities (Pink 2001; Tams and Arthur 2010)

Knowledge work is variably defined in the literature. Jemielniak (2012) proposes it is

work that involves the use of tacit and codified knowledge to generate solutions to

complex problems that are of a non-routine nature. Others have described it as

expert work involving design and technical expertise, idea generation, and creative

problem solving (Blackler 1995; Davenport et al. 1996). While knowledge has always

been a necessary function of society, some authors claim this has now changed in

character, with theoretical knowledge being much more central to economic

activity.

Knowledge workers are argued to experience a radically different employment

relationship than those in traditional employment. Due to their possession of

intellectual capital, it is argued they possess greater power relative to their

employers – representing a shift in the dependency relationship in favour of workers

63

(Robertson and Swan 2004). Researchers have contended that this shift in

dependence has reduced employee commitment (May et al. 2002; Benson and Brown

2007) and undermined traditional employment structures (Reed 1996; Scarbrough

1999; Donnelly 2009a). Castells (2000) suggests they can operate in networked

rather than hierarchical environments, determining when and where they work

(Knell 2000) while organisations face increased dependency as workers take their

codified knowledge with them when they leave (Robertson and Swan 2004). In this

way, knowledge workers are endowed with greater autonomy to pursue career

beyond organisational boundaries (Barley and Kunda 2004), and held up as

exemplars of contemporary career models. It is also due to this revised employment

relationship that authors such as Kelan (2008) have suggest that women may have

better access to career opportunities, as they are able to ‘circumvent’ traditional

constraints on their career progression and use their autonomy to facilitate home

and work reconciliations.

Knowledge work is, to a significant extent, detached from a specific time and place

and can take place in a variety of locations and times. In this way work processes are

largely independent of the time physically spent at work. Working-time autonomy,

which is sometimes called ‘flexitime’ and ‘schedule flexibility’ (Hill et al. 2008) has

the capacity to offer greater spatial and temporal flexibility, which is key for

reconciling work and life/family demands and enabling women’s careers (Eikhof

2016).This provides scope to fit around the preferences of the individual in

combining home and work and improve female career prospects.

Some commentators caution the optimistic narratives attached to both the level of

autonomy afforded to knowledge workers and the extent to which this enables

successful female careers. For although these optimistic discourses emerged

primarily from examination of knowledge workers operating externally to

organisations (for example Barley and Kunda 2004), in reality most are employed

within organisations (Alvesson 2004; Baldry et al. 2007) and therefore their careers

are subject to tensions between elements of contemporary and traditional forms

(Lepak and Snell 2007; Donnelly 2009b). Lepak and Snell (2007) find that workers

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are not always provided with the discretion and latitude that typically accompanies

knowledge work.

Concerning autonomy, Donnelly (2009b) argued that in the context of

organisational relations, the capital used in the production process is derived from

a combination of firm and individual resources, thereby limiting the power of each

party in the relationship. As workers do not possess the full capital, relative

autonomy is constructed through a process of negotiation between the worker and

the organisations, representing a form of ‘hybridisation’ (Donnelly 2009b, p.327) of

the employment relationship. Within this new construct, the autonomy afforded to

workers is determined by their relative power, which, in turn, is shaped by the nature

and type of knowledge they own, the level of demand on organisations for that

knowledge, and the relative seniority of the individual. In this way, it is only through

understanding the specific context and characteristics of an individual worker that

any determination of autonomy (and thus boundarylessness) can be made. This

assessment relates specifically to of knowledge they possess, client demand levels,

and the relative seniority of the individual. The relative power of knowledge workers

in the employment relationship, therefore, can only be determined through

examination of a range of individual and contextual factors. In this way, the temporal

and locational sovereignty available to knowledge workers is shaped by competing

tensions between the knowledge worker, their employer and their clients (Donnelly,

2006).

Some studies have highlighted that rather than enabling female careers, the reality

of knowledge work means that women continue to struggle to maintain and advance

careers. Although spatially and temporally flexible in theory, in practice face-to-face

communication, collaboration and interaction feature prominently in real

employment relations and limit the scope for flexibility (Felstead et al. 2005;

Mayerhofer et al. 2011; Tammelin et al. 2017). Women who use work-life balance

policies to reconcile home and work can continue to suffer career penalties,

signifying the on-going influence of the ‘ideal worker’ norms (McKenna 1997; Peper

et al. 2011) in these contexts. They are often overlooked when employers allocate

prestigious prospects or important clients – reducing their future career prospects

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(Peper et al. 2011; Donnelly 2015). Tammelin, Koivunen and Saari (2017) examined

female knowledge workers use of working-time autonomy. They found that even

though female knowledge workers have working time autonomy in principle, in

practice they rarely used it. Instead, women were seen as reconstructing and

renewing the notion of the ‘ideal worker’ by trading a willingness to be flexible and

to work long hours when needed, but only if the employer allows them autonomy

for their working-time arrangements.

Studies such as those by Goulding and Reed (2010), McKenna (1997) and Stone

(2007) report on women who had started professional careers with a passion for their

job and without concerns about gender issues, but who in their later career stages

became disillusioned and demotivated as a result of the unexpected reality of gender

discrimination, work intensification and the time-pressures of combining work and

modern motherhood. These professionals had been extensively exposed to and

bought into, the view that women should and do have a choice over how, when and

where they work. Consequently, they exercised precisely that choice – by refocusing

away from their careers, or opting out completely (Eikhof 2016).

Many career researchers have argued that a better understanding of the complexity

of issues relating to female knowledge work careers requires an explicit

consideration of gendered implications at the individual, organisational,

occupational and institutional levels. (Sullivan and Mainiero 2008; Eikhof 2016;

Tomlinson et al. 2017). Certainly, ignoring the broader context in which careers take

place fails to capture the exact rationale of female career decisions, and provides

incomplete explanations of female underrepresentation. The social capital and

knowledge resources that drive power in the employment relationship are shaped

by contextual influences and personal characteristics (Donnelly 2015) and therefore

determine capacity to pursue successful careers. Differences in these endowments

may provide an explanation for the heterogeneity of career experiences in IT work

for men and women, and amongst women. The next section proposes a framework

for use in the study in order to capture this detail.

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3.5 PROPOSED ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING

CONTEMPORARY FEMALE CAREERS

This research is concerned with understanding patterns of underrepresentation and

occupational segregation in the IT professions. In order to do so, an understanding

of the personal and contextual factors that enabled some women (and men) to enter,

IT occupations, and maintain and advance their careers while others are

constrained, needs analysis.

A common thread through this analysis is that examination of career decisions

without consideration of the wider context in which they take place provides an

inadequate explanation for career patterns. For example in conflating voluntary,

proactive boundarylessness with reactive, involuntary boundarylessness (Guest

2004). But many of the studies lack clarity regarding how contextual variants impact

careers (Guest 2004; Tomlinson et al. 2017).

This review has highlighted that the careers of women are more relational than those

of men, and so their careers in particular cannot be studied in isolation from their

personal circumstances. These relations change over the life course according to the

varying domestic and work demands and call for a deeper understanding of how

they shape perceptions of opportunities and constraints. It is within this research

space that this study is positioned.

Tomlinson et al. (2017) have proposed a useful framework for the study of flexible

careers which was developed to address many of the criticisms levelled at extant

career studies for ignoring wider contextual factors over the life course. Although

developed to understand the determinants of flexible careers more generally, given

that contemporary IT careers are considered amongst the most flexible the same

categories of institutional, organisational influences and individual factors could be

argued to shape their career mobility and thus determine the success of IT careers.

An adapted version of Tomlinson et al. (2017) is proposed for use as an analytical

framework for this study that incorporates these changes and differentiates more

explicitly between the life stages and the ‘life events’.

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In light of the knowledge work literature that argues that autonomy and power in

careers are influenced by the nature of work and knowledge resources owned, it is

important to more explicitly consider these elements. In addition, career

progression now spans multiple organisations. The characteristics of different

occupations vary, and differentially impact the ability for women to gain acceptance,

requiring incorporation of an additional layer, Occupational Features. This element

focuses on the influence of professional bodies, occupational norms or networks, the

level of technicality and the nature of work undertaken, for example.

Furthermore, while the Institutional Characteristics level of the original framework

was useful for studying flexibility for the purposes of this study more explicit

attention needs to be paid to the impact of social and cultural norms on career

decisions, particularly around combining parenthood and paid employment. This

has been revised to Socio-cultural and Institutional Factors, in particular, issues

around patriarchal expectations or moral rationalities can be considered here. This

is outlined in Figure 3.1.

The advantages of adopting this approach to the study of careers are threefold.

Firstly, it allows for examination of the interactions between individual career

decisions with the various actors – including governments, regulatory bodies,

employers, employer associations, employees and their representatives – that shape

the institutional environments and the organisational contexts in which these

decisions take place. Adopting this approach avoids positioning workers as overly

agentic, which is typical of studies associated with the examination of contemporary

careers. Secondly, this framework also provides the scope for consideration of how

group identities and social categories, such as gender, race and socio-economic

status, shape the decisions of career actors. Lastly, the life course approach explicitly

recognises that an individual’s social grouping (in this case specifically gender) will

influence their ability to access to institutional or organisational support, and, in

turn, their capacity to act and make decisions at key transition points in life. When

these groups are studied separately, the parallel running of careers with other

responsibilities (for example, studying and work, motherhood and work, or elder

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care and work) and interruptions in careers (caused by migration, care work, illness

or economic crisis) are much more evident. Linking career experience and flexibility

with institutional and organisational policies and practices is crucial for

understanding women’s specific work experiences in this industry (Moen and Sweet

2004; Erickson et al.).

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Figure 3.1 Proposed analytical framework

Modified and extended from Tomlinson (2017) framework for the analysis of flexible careers

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3.6 SUMMARY

This chapter reviewed current debates on the changing nature of careers and their

potential significance for understanding contemporary career forms of female IT

workers.

As the influence of traditional career stage models has waned, contemporary models

such as the boundaryless (Arthur and Defillippi 1994) and protean (Hall 1976)

metaphors have emerged. These models sought to reflect the changing employment

relationships in which career ownership and responsibility for career progression

has transferred from employers to the individual workers, providing them with the

autonomy and risk of forging careers across organisational boundaries. This review

has explored the extent to which careers can be considered genuinely boundaryless

or protean and found that these models typically overemphasise agency, while

downplaying the impact of contextual constraints on careers. While organisational

boundaries may be weakening, the critiques examined here suggest that in reality

career decisions and trajectories continue to be shaped by elements of the context

in which they take place.

Despite positive suggestions that contemporary careers would be beneficial for

women in particular, due to freedom from structures guiding linear careers that

typically excluded or disadvantaged women, this chapter has indicated that debate

exists as to the relevance and impact of these contemporary career theories for

women. Some commentators suggest women may be more used to pursuing flexible

and self-driven careers, necessary to reconcile home and work responsibilities. This

view, however, ignores the constraints on careers as a result of their greater domestic

and child caring responsibilities. They are more constrained in their career decisions

by disproportionate domestic obligations alongside factors located in the realm of

work.

Even for knowledge workers, typically held up as career free agents, contextual

constraints limit their ability to be autonomous in career movements. Rather, as the

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majority of knowledge workers’ careers take place within organisations, the

autonomy afforded to them is determined by their relative power, which, in turn, is

shaped by the nature and type of knowledge they own, the level of demand on

organisations for that knowledge, and the relative seniority and social capital of the

individual. How gender interrelates with these factors needs further exploration.

Instead of boundaryless careers, this literature has highlighted the need to adopt a

perspective in which boundaries are viewed as being altered and reshaped, rather

than removed from careers. This allows for reflection on how women and men

differentially negotiate and reshape their careers in relation to contextual

opportunities and constraints over the life course.

An analytical framework for consideration of the multiple levels of boundaries that

may impede career agency has been suggested, extended from Tomlinson et al.

(2017) framework for understanding flexible careers.

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4 RESEARCH DESIGN

This chapter discusses the research design employed in this research. It is presented

in seven sections: (i) study aim and research questions, (ii) research approach, (iii)

sampling method, (iv) data collection, (v) data analysis, (vi) limitations and (vii)

ethical concerns.

4.1 STUDY AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

As outlined in the previous sections, this study was prompted by the persistent

underrepresentation of women in IT and is concerned with understanding how the

career experiences of female and male workers interrelate with contextual influences

to shape patterns of participation in IT occupations. The literature review has

highlighted that current explanations have not adequately addressed the complex

interrelations between gender, career decisions, perceptions of opportunities and

boundaries to career formation and advancement, and the wider context, over the

life course.

In response, this research seeks to build on current explanations for

underrepresentation by taking a gendered lens to the careers of contemporary IT

workers. The overarching research aim is to examine how gender interacts with

personal, organisational and institutional factors in shaping contemporary IT careers

over the life course, in order to identify potential mechanisms of female exclusion or

segregation.

By examining in-depth the career experiences of female and male IT workers, and

by understanding the factors that enhance and/or impede their career progress, the

study aimed to understand why women appear less able than men to access the

industry, or more likely to leave. It sought to map how female careers interact with

the conditions of IT work in ways that differ from those of the men, exploring

possible processes of gender advantage or disadvantage. In particular, the research

examines how gender interacts with other personal, organisational, occupational,

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and socio-cultural and institutional factors, to shape contemporary IT careers over

the life course, to identify potential mechanisms of female exclusion or segregation.

Processes of exclusion and segregation concern the ability for women to enter the

industry, and their ability to retain and advance their careers in ways that are

preferential for them over their life course. The literature review has highlighted

motherhood in particular as a significant factor affecting women’s careers.

This study, therefore, has three areas of interest, firstly, identification of the factors

that (positively and negatively) influenced female entry into the IT industry,

secondly, determination of factors relating to gender and parenthood that assist or

constrain the progression of IT career paths, and, thirdly, the HR policies, practices

and specific gender initiatives used to improve gender representation in the field of

IT. To examine these areas, four broad research questions (RQ) are addressed:

RQ 1: What gender differences in the paths of entry into IT jobs are evident?

RQ 2: What differences do men and women experience in maintaining and

advancing an IT career?

RQ 3: How do the career trajectories of mothers and fathers differ?

RQ 4: How do these findings contribute to an understanding of

underrepresentation and occupational segregation?

Within these four broad research questions, a number of more specific sub-

questions (SRQ) need to be addressed in line with the themes emerging from the

literature review. These are:

RQ 1: What gender differences in the paths of entry into IT jobs are evident?

SRQ 1.1: What prompts and enables men and women to access IT careers?

SRQ 1.2: How do gendered discourses, practices and stereotypes concerning

technology and computing shape discourses of motivations for entering IT

occupations?

SRQ 1.3: How do these findings contribute to better understanding of

persistent female underrepresentation and occupational segregation?

RQ 2: What differences do men and women experience in maintaining and advancing

an IT career?

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SRQ 2.1: Is there any evidence that HR processes and practices typical of IT

companies create processes of exclusion for women in comparison to men?

SRQ 2.2: How do companies frame the issue of female underrepresentation

and what measures do they take to address this issue, if any?

SRQ 2.3: What evidence is available of the adequacy and effectiveness of these

measures on female retention and advancement?

SRQ 2.4: How do these findings contribute to understanding patterns of

female underrepresentation and occupational and vertical segregation?

RQ 3: How do the career trajectories of mothers and fathers differ?

SRQ 3.1: What challenges does IT work to create for men and women to fulfil

their responsibilities as parents?

SRQ 3.2: Is there any evidence that the organisation of work and working

practices typical of IT companies create processes of exclusion for either

mothers or fathers?

SRRQ 3.3: In what ways do mothers and fathers respond to these challenges,

and how do their personal circumstances influence these responses?

SRQ 3.4: In what ways do these differing experiences of challenges, and

varying responses, contribute to an understanding of female

underrepresentation, occupational segregation and vertical segregation?

The final research question, RQ 4, is addressed through drawing together the last

sub-questions of each of the first three research questions (RQ 1.4, 2.4 and 3.4).

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4.2 RESEARCH APPROACH

4.2.1 Rationale for chosen research approach

My epistemological position is interpretivist because the aim is to gain an

understanding of gender differences in career opportunities through exploring the

subjective experiences of the social actors themselves. The objective of this research

is to understand and explore the career experiences of IT workers in the context they

take place, and how these shape perceptions shape career expectations and

decisions. Orlikowski and Baroudi (1991) explain that an interpretive

epistemological approach is beneficial for generating knowledge about a

phenomenon through the examination of persons within their social setting. An

interpretive epistemology is predicated on the assumption that knowledge can only

be created and understood from the perspective of the individual experiencing the

phenomenon. This is consistent with the theoretical framework seeking to account

for individual, organisational, occupational, and social and institutional factors, on

the development of careers in IT work. Key to understanding the implications of

gender on careers, is an examination how the effects are encapsulated in the

“intricacies of individual lives” (Gerson and Horowitz 1992, p.201). Mason (2002)

emphasises the flexibility and sensitivity to social contexts offered by interpretive

methods. They generate rich, exploratory data concerning the interplay between

individual and context, rather than producing rigidly standardised or structured

data, abstracted from ‘real-life' settings. This exploratory potential justifies the

selection of qualitative research methods compared with, for example, using a

questionnaire (Bartholomew et al. 2000).

4.2.2 Outline of research approach

The primary concern in selecting a method for this research was to find a way to

explore, reveal, examine, and understand the meaning of career formation for male

and female IT workers: and what they saw were drivers and inhibitors to this, and

how they recognised and accounted for changes that occurred over their career life

course. While the perceptions and experience of individuals are the primary points

of inquiry, following the analytical framework, an account has to be made of the

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specific organisational, occupational and socio-cultural institutional system in

which they take place. This study adopts a qualitative approach, in line with my

interpretivist epistemology in order to capture the complex and dynamic

interdependencies that occur between individuals’ experiences and perceptions, and

between contextual influences in shaping IT careers.

The research approach was two-pronged. First, an in-depth examination of IT

workers’ experiences and perceptions was required, to determine how they make

linkages between contextual factors and their careers. Secondly, the research

benefited from a more detailed analysis of the contextual environment from the

perspective of employers and other industry stakeholders. This highlighted any

paradoxes or inconsistencies between the intentions and practice, between

discourse and action and how organisational policies and human resource practices

are experienced and interpreted by the workers they target. Further justification for

the research approach of these two elements follows.

Interviews with IT workers

As mentioned, the research questions are primarily concerned with how IT workers

respond to their circumstances and contextual factors in shaping their careers over

the life course. As such there was a need to produce rich, detailed and personal data.

Edited life history, or career history interviews were selected to achieve this goal.

Typically semi-structured interviews have been used to examine career related

phenomena as they allow "a certain degree of standardisation of interview questions

and a certain degree of openness of response by the interviewer” (Wengraf 2000, p.63).

This method underpins the majority of studies in the area of gender and IT.

However, I considered that these did not sufficiently allow for the in-depth

exploration of a wider range of themes and individual agency that the research

questions demanded. A life-history approach provides a more appropriate

methodology for three main reasons. First, this approach offers scope for

representing women’s voices in the construction of `knowledge', something that the

literature review contends is absent from much of existing careers research. Second,

it empowers narrators, enabling them to define what is significant rather than

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responding to a researcher-led agenda. It assumes that the meanings and

importance that the IT workers assigned to their upbringings, environments,

education, demographic characteristics and agency necessarily influenced their

career aspirations and developments. As Stanley and Wise (1993) note, this approach

affords insights into ‘why and how people construct realities in the way that they do’

(p.116). Third, it has emancipatory potential, allowing for the exploration of

consciousness by researcher and researched. This was an important consideration

in this research, allowing the analysis to move beyond a focus on ‘barriers’, and

allowing women’s unique stories and perspectives to emerge.

Due to both the research topic and the limited scale and size of this study, it was

clearly impossible and unnecessary to undertake a review of the full and

comprehensive life history of each individual in order to trace all aspects of an

individual’s life from birth and how these shaped their career outcomes. Rather, it

was appropriate to adopt a topical approach that concentrated on particular aspects

of the respondents’ lives that might best inform the designated areas of inquiry. This

formed an edited life history or a ‘career history’ that does not aim to provide a full

biography of the subjects, but instead examines the most likely influences on the

phenomena being studied. From this point, these interviews will be referred to as

"career history" interviews, to reflect their topical nature.

In line with the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) developed by

Wengraf (2001) the application of this method entailed asking a pertinent yet open-

ended question, which gives the interviewee scope to respond according to their

own sense of importance and relevance, allowing for new concepts to emerge. For

this study, the question was: “Can you tell me how you came to be where you are in

your career?”. The researcher then allows the respondent to take the lead, with no

further questions until their narrative explanations have been exhausted. Once they

finished their account, the researcher uses both notes made during the telling of

their story, and a pre-prepared aide memoire to prompt participants to elaborate on

and explain areas of particular interest and relevance as they emerged. An aide-

memoire comprised of areas of interest, rather than specific questions (as per an

interview guide), was used due to the need to respond more flexibly to the narratives

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presented (Bryman 2004). It was still based on the areas of interest generated by the

research questions, but the use of more open areas of interest allowed for a better

combination of flexibility to respond meaningfully, and explore new areas of

interest, but with enough focus to provide a level of consistency in responses for data

analysis. As Kvale (1996) notes, this is particularly helpful in situations where

outcomes fundamentally depend on individual recall and interpretation (a copy of

the aide-memoire used for the career history interviews is in Appendix 2).

Contextual interviews

The second aspect of the research was concerned with understanding the context in

which these accounts took place. Individual narratives were the primary point of

enquiry in this study, but these accounts gain further richness and critical integrity

by placing them firmly in the broader context in which they occur. Bodies

contributing to institutional and organisation influences comprised two main

groups: (i) organisations in which careers take place, and (ii) other industry

stakeholders (such as unions and professional bodies) which guide or influence

organisational behaviour and also shape social perceptions of the IT industry.

The setting within which careers are enacted has been repeatedly shown to be a

significant factor in career development and advancement. Despite the focus on

contemporary career forms, in reality – as indicated in Chapter 2 - many

organisations still adhere to relatively traditional systems with employers continuing

to exert considerable influence over managing their employees’ careers (Baruch

2006) and workers, even if/when crossing boundaries, still rely on organisations for

career development and advancement. Thus culture, training and development

programmes, and HR policies and practices are likely to exert a significant influence

on the career circumstances of participants both regarding their current role, how

they came to achieve it, and perceptions of future career opportunities (Gallie et al.

1998; Tomlinson et al. 2017). To fully understand how the organisation of work,

employment conditions and gendered interventions shape perceptions of

opportunities and limitations to careers, the organisational context has to be

considered.

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In addition, interviews with additional industry stakeholders, such as unions and

professional bodies, extend the scope for the understanding of this wider context.

This allowed firstly for a more critical appreciation of the output from the

organisational interviews, especially concerning how companies frame the issues of

gender inequality and the measures they use to address these. For example, the

unions perspective on organisational influence on female careers was different from

the perspectives from IT companies themselves. Secondly, it provided scope to

consider additional factors of influence beyond those at the organisational level or

the individual level in a way that the other interviews did not. The professional body,

for instance, provided a deeper consideration of the impact of the

professionalisation of IT work on gender disparity than organisations or individual

IT workers. This allowed for exploration of a wider range of issues that would have

been the case if it was limited to just IT workers and organisations.

Unlike the interviews with the IT workers, there was a more limited remit of inquiry.

In this case, semi-structured interviews were deemed most appropriate as they

allowed for concentration on the themes emerging from both the literature review

and the career history interviews, but still provided scope for rich data gathering.

For organisational interviews, the exact nature of the questions varied from

organisation to organisation and was formulated based on company-specific

research and the job title of the individual interviewee. I carried out online research

into the companies’ general strategic direction and performance, along with any

publicly available information on their HR processes or gender-specific initiative or

interventions before confirming interviews. This was complemented by research on

the interviewee (including LinkedIn profiles, and corporate profiles, for example).

The interview guides were then tailored to their own job roles and responsibilities,

in anticipation of the types of information the interviewee is likely to provide. There

was, of course, consistency between the general themes considered in each

interview. In line with the research questions these interviews explored (i) the

current status of women in the organisation, (ii) the perceived cause of

underrepresentation and measures used to address these, (iii) issues with, and

changes to company processes concerning female recruitment, retention and

advancement (a sample interview protocol for an interview conducted with an HR

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representative of a large software firm is listed in Appendix 3). The industry

stakeholder interviews were even more tailored, with the interview guide adapted to

fit the remit if the specific organisation and their potential contribution to an

examination of the phenomena.

Staging of the interviews

Having decided on the appropriate methods to gain insight from each relevant

group, the order in which this study was to be implemented was considered. I

decided that the industry stakeholder interviews would be carried out first. This

offered two main advantages. Firstly, it allowed me to build on the literature review

and refine contextual understanding before designing the interview guide for the

organisational interviews and the career history interviews. This allowed for more

meaningful questions to be set. Secondly, it provided contacts and networks for the

recruitment of participants for the subsequent interviews (enaction of which is

explored in more detail in 3.4 Sampling).

Once the industry stakeholders had been undertaken, and a proposed aide memoire

developed, a short pilot of the career history interviews was conducted. Three pilot

interviews were conducted with previous colleagues of the researcher who worked

in the IT industry (two female and one male) to test the validity, clarity, and

effectiveness of the careers history interview format and proposed aide-memoire.

These were recorded, but despite discussing privacy and confidentiality

arrangement in advance of the interview two of the participants (one female and one

male) asked for their recordings and transcripts to be deleted and no quotes to be

included in the final study. They were happy for me to use my research notes and

observations, however. Based on this pilot, three main changes were made. The most

significant alteration was a change to the initial question, originally “Can you tell me

how you came to be in IT?”. The respondent's in the pilot study felt that the initial

question was too directed, leading them to restrict their responses to experiences

directly related to IT work. This excluded experience of work that predated joining

the industry (such as education or previous career experiences). This also led to a

confused narrative, with the responses more focused on the more recent stages of

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their careers than was anticipated. Therefore, the initial question was revised to “Can

you tell me how you came to be where you are in your career?”

Furthermore, smaller adjustments were made to the format of the aide memoire to

enable more efficient note taking in line with the typical ordering of responses from

interviews. The last notable change was to ensure I emphasised the necessity of

recording interviews and expectation of ability to use the final transcript before

confirming future interviews. The pilot interview also enabled me to familiarise

myself with the interview procedure, and to refine my interview skills – such as

active listening, restricting input/responses and taking notes. This practice was

invaluable in capturing the depth of data in later interviews.

Once the pilot had been conducted, the career history interviews and the

organisational interviews were undertaken concurrently. As organisations

themselves shape the nature of careers conducted within their own environment,

interviewing representatives of the companies in which the career history

participants were employed would provide a useful triangulation of motivations,

perceptions and experiences in combination with the HR policies and processes that

shape them. Initially, it was proposed that I would carry out a case study approach

to this research, with the organisations as the case unit and organisational

representative and career history interviews conducted with the employees of those

organisations. However, this was altered for two reasons.

The first was a methodological concern. Case studies may have offered the ability to

go into more depth to the expense of breadth concerning examination of how gender

interacts with personal and organisational factors in shaping contemporary IT

careers over the life course. It would undoubtedly be advantageous to clearly

contextualise employee experiences with a single organisational context in this way.

However, if as the literature suggests, recruitment itself forms a process of exclusion,

with companies recruiting according to a narrow definition of ‘fit’ with the company

culture and employment expectations, employee homogeneity is likely to be higher

within organisations compared to between them. With a case study approach, I

would feasibly only be able to examine a small number of organisations. There is

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much value in the scope that stepping outside of organisations and considering a

more extensive range of female careers offers, and the influence of more diverse

personal, organisational and institutional factors is valuable. The second was a

pragmatic consideration. Gaining access to a sufficient number of IT workers

without restricting selection by a company was difficult and locating HR and other

organisational representatives was equally problematic. A significant number of

company representatives refused interviews because they believed information

pertinent to HR systems were sensitive corporate information. From an early stage,

it was clear that a case study approach was likely to be unfeasible. Despite this

limitation, interviews with organisational representatives are still valid and useful.

The organisational interviews can identify themes and consistencies across a range

of organisations of different sizes and purposes. As the nature of the inquiry was to

establish potential barriers and opportunities that could lead to processes of female

exclusion or marginalisation, these insights were used to inform the analysis of

instances in the narrative accounts which intersected with organisational factors.

Carrying out the career history and organisation interviews simultaneously allowed

for refinement of the interview guide for organisations based on the data emerging

from the career history interviews, and for the targeting of specific employees based

on the data emerging from the organisational interviews. For example, one career

history participant drew attention to the influence of employee-specific gender

interventions, of which there was limited information available prior to the

interview with the relevant organisation. As the interviews did not take place

sequentially, questions relating to this theme could be incorporated in the

subsequent organisational interviews. Similarly, data from the organisational

interviews was used to identify potential issues for exploration in the career history

interviews. In this way, refinement of the specific areas of interest was iterative. This

arrangement also allowed for cross recruitment between individuals and

organisations (as explored in more detail 3.4.4 Participant recruitment). This

research process is summarised in Figure 4.1.

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Figure 4.1 Research process

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4.3 SAMPLING METHOD

4.3.1 Sampling for industry stakeholder interviews

Interviews with stakeholders outside of IT companies provided broader contextual

framing of the career history narratives and company information. Participants were

selected on the basis of their influence on and the relevance of their institutional

role in the industry. The contextual interviews undertaken are summarised in the

table below:

Table 4.1 Profile of contextual interview respondents

4.3.2 Sampling for career history interviews

In line with my epistemological position, this research was not designed to be

representative of the population of IT workers as a whole. Therefore, sampling was

not carried out representatively in a statistical sense, but purposefully to provide

illustrations of a wide range of contexts and explore how those differences

influenced the difficulties and opportunities individuals faced in their careers.

When seeking interviews, selection of a specific participant was based on the

occupational and personal demographic characteristics of individuals. A range of

criteria were considered, to ensure that an array of experiences would be

incorporated into the data. These are listed in Table 4.2.

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The primary unit of analysis was “IT worker”. The only criteria that would exclude a

participant from the potential interview was not currently, or recently retired from,

being an IT worker within the IT industry. To both ensure the manageable scope of

this project and provide the most potential for discussion of boundaries, it was

decided that inquiry would focus on IT professionals working within the technology

sector specifically. An alternative would have been the inclusion of either (i) IT

specialists operating in non-technology industries or (ii) non-IT specialists working

within technology firms. This focus was selected as, based on examination of the

current distribution of female IT professionals across industries suggested that

women make up a higher proportion of IT specialists in non-technology companies

than within technology firms. As such, IT workers that held roles aligned to the

Standard Occupational Classification codes for IT occupations (listed in Appendix

4), working in organisations that aligned to the Standard Industrial Classification

codes for technology-related industries (listed in Appendix 5) were sought.

Nonetheless, two interviewees were excluded from the final sample, as after these

took place, it became clear that they did not meet this requirement.

The second level of criteria includes gender, which was the only variable in which

targets for participation were established from the outset of the study. The

examination of female careers was the primary point of inquiry. Men were included,

however, as male experiences could also speak to the factors that influence female

careers. Much of the extant research has noted a dominant male "norm" in IT work

and research. Using both male and female accounts allowed for consideration of how

female experiences differ, or are similar to, male experiences, and how organisational

and institutional factors interact with them in different ways. Nonetheless, as the

primary focus of the research was on women’s experiences, it made sense to include

a higher proportion of female workers. The non-representative nature of the group

of respondents in this way does not invalidate any conclusions about the nature of

the particular groups or the way the groups might differ: however this approach

precludes a statistical generalisation from sample percentages to percentages in the

population (Abbott and Sapsford 1987).

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Table 4.2 Criteria for selection of career history interview participants

As this study was concerned with establishing possible boundaries to IT careers

arising from a range of personal contexts, purposive sampling was used across a

range of demographic data to ensure variety in experiences. The last set of

characteristics was managed on an on-going basis to ensure that individuals with

these characteristics were not over-represented, nor underrepresented in the

sample. The justification for the management of each of these is outlined in Table

4.2.

Concerning overall sample size, two factors determined the number of participants

to be included in the study. First the issue of the quality and quantity of data likely

to be generated from each participant in line with the view that an inverse

relationship exists between the number of participants and the amount of usable

data that can be obtained from each participant (Morse 2000) . It is argued that if

each participant generates a significant amount of relevant data, then fewer

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participants will be required. Findings from the pilot study demonstrated that this

approach generated large amounts of rich, detailed data. Yet, in the interest of using

cases as illustrations of a variety of experiences and contexts, sufficient number of

cases was required. Partington (2002) suggests that participant numbers ultimately

depends on the extent to which additional interviews generate new information.

Eventually reaching a stage where theoretical saturation is reached, i.e. when no new

categories or properties are found, and additional data merely adds to already

identified categories (Partington 2002). The size of this sample was influenced by

both an acknowledgement that the last two interviews generated only two additional

codes, and by pragmatic regard for issues regarding accessibility, practicality and

time constraints (Silverman 2013). The final sample size of sixty-two career history

interviews1 was deemed sufficient to address the research questions. An overview of

the career history respondent is lifted in the Appendix (Appendix 6 for female

respondents, and Appendix 7 for male respondents). A summary of the numbers of

participants against the criteria is in Table 4.3.

1 Exclusive of the two discounted pilot study interviews and two discounted main study interviews, despite the

use of the research notes and observations to contribute to the study,

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Table 4.3 Summary of career history respondents’ demographic characteristics

4.3.3 Sampling for organisational interviews

Company representatives included HR and equality and diversity (E&D)

professionals working within IT companies. These participants were targeted as they

were able to speak to the HR policies and processes, elements of the cultural context,

challenges pertaining to the recruitment, retention and advancement of female IT

workers. HR professionals were able to provide insights as to the career management

processes used, and how these may influence the shaping of careers over the life

course. E&D specialists, in contrast, can speak more specifically to the way in which

companies’ frame, measure and combat gender imbalances in their organisations.

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They were also able to detail gender-specific interventions, such as female top talent

schemes or employee-resource groups, which also shape careers. The inclusion

criteria for these participants was relatively straightforward, in that the interview

subject had to be working in a professional capacity as either an HR or E&D specialist

within an IT company. The full criteria are outlined in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4 Criteria for selection of organisational representative interview participants

The second level criterion was to select an organisational representative from

companies who also employed the career history respondents. As discussed in 4.2.2

Staging of the interviews, despite not forming a case study approach, some

triangulation between the narrative accounts of the IT workers and the

organisational policies and processes which shape the opportunities and issues they

perceive to affect their careers is useful. To facilitate this alignment, recruitment of

company representatives co-occurred with recruitment and interviewing of career

history respondents. Requests were made to stakeholder and career history

participants for referral to HR and E&D, for instance. This was done in conjunction

with direct and targeted approaches where referrals were not possible. However,

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access proved problematic. The number of career history respondents employed at

each of the companies from which organisational representatives were interviewed

is listed in Table 4.5.

Additionally, the sample was managed to ensure representation from companies of

different sizes and product offerings, as they were deemed to influence the nature

and organisation of work, and therefore the wider policies and processes shaping

careers. The last criterion was the offering of E&D initiatives that focused on female

recruitment, retention and advancement. As female careers are the primary focus of

this research, these schemes were considered essential elements of inquiry. As such,

companies who had publicly emphasised their commitment to addressing gender

disparity through the use of these interventions were targeted for interview.

Examination of these firms was vital to understand the mechanisms companies used

to address gender imbalance, but also to use as a counterpoint to companies that

made no similar publicised commitment.

Table 4.5 Profile of HR and E&D Respondents

Again, the size of this sample was influenced by both an acknowledgement that the

final interviews generated few new insights, rather strengthening the existing codes.

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Additionally, pragmatic issues concerning accessibility, practicality and time

constraints (Silverman 2013) limited the scope to carry out further interviews.

4.3.4 Participant recruitment

The methods used to secure interviews with industry stakeholders, IT workers and

organisations were similar. Three different forms of recruitment types were utilised

simultaneously, as outlined in Table 4.6.

Table 4.6 Recruitment mechanisms used

First, personal recruitment was used in which specific individuals were highlighted

as being a good fit with the criteria and/or willing to take part according to either (i)

myself, (ii) previous interviewees or (ii) academic contacts. This form of sampling

was used primarily in the early stages of research in which the need to control the

over or underrepresentation of specific characteristics was minimal. Due to my

previous work in the IT industry, I had a network of contacts on which to draw the

first participants for all three-interview types. They were then able to provide details

for other prospective interviewees then.

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As the process continued, and the requirement for a more diverse range of

experiences, demographic characteristics and organisational contexts developed, I

moved to utilise more purposeful and open recruitment tools, to ensure the

sampling needs were met.

Purposeful sampling was used to identify IT workers, company representatives and

pertinent organisations that possessed a specific set of characteristics that the study

required. For example, there was a lack of freelancers, and so purposeful sampling

was used to highlight via social media and contractor forums male and female

contractors. They were then sent tailored approach emails encouraging their

participation. Resources such as LinkedIn and Facebook were also used to target

recruitment to individuals that possessed characteristics sought in the study.

However, as Rousseau and Fried (2001) note, sampling for specified variables and

within qualitative research can be problematic. Specific criteria were set and able to

be known at the outset. Gender, IT worker status and occupation were easily

established prior to the interview. Some of their deeper characteristics only became

apparent in the course of the interview (e.g. sexual orientation, relationship status,

ethnicity, socio-economic background). So, while these criteria were actively

managed, it was not always possible to ensure the appropriate representation in the

sample (discussed further in 4.7.1 Issues with sampling and participant recruitment)

Lastly, open recruitment was used simultaneously with purposeful sampling. By

using a flyer outlining the research purpose and requesting participants, a larger

range of people in the IT industry who may be able to contribute to the study was

reached (the flyer is included in Appendix 8). As I was targeting a particularly

technologically-aware audience, these were primarily posted to online areas rather

than physical locations. The range of distribution tools used included (but was not

limited to), alumni networks for my previous universities, STEM contact groups,

Meetup groups, Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, via Twitter, contractor-specific

forums on IPSE and Contractor UK. I also attended Women in Technology

conferences and distributed flyers and business cards to encourage potential

interviewees. Qualifying characteristics were established through the circulation of

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an initial email to those who expressed interest and were likely to meet the sampling

criteria.

The next section considers how data was collected from the identified participants.

4.4 DATA COLLECTION

Data collection for the interviews was undertaken in six stages:

1. Initial approach: An email was sent to those that aligned with the criteria for

selection, tailored to their specific circumstances. This contained an overview of the

purpose of the project and the form the interview would take, as well as assurances

relating to privacy and confidentiality arrangements. If required, it also asked for

them to confirm additional demographic features (e.g. employment contract,

parental status) for the purposes of sampling. Finally, it asked the interviewee to

suggest appropriate times for a meeting.

2. Confirmation email: Once they had responded a further email was sent to

arrange meeting details.

3. Reminder email: A few days before the meeting another email to remind them

of the forthcoming interview date, thank them for their involvement and remind

them of the structure of the interview. After the pilot study, emails to those

undertaking career history interviews included a recommendation to think generally

about their careers to date in preparation. This helped to provide structure for their

responses.

4. Interview: Face-to-face interviews were then undertaken with participants at

their place of work or a convenient location nearby, according to their own

preference.

All the interviews were audio recorded unless specifically requested not to. For

instance, two pilot study participants did not wish for their audio recording to be

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retained or transcribed but were happy for me to use my research notes and

observations. Three career history interviewees agreed to have their interviews

recorded, on the condition that the recording was deleted after transcription. As per

the terms of the interview agreement, these wishes were respected. Despite

assurances regarding anonymisation, many of the career history interviewees

expressed concern about having specific aspects of their narratives recorded.

Requests for audio recording to stop were relatively common when recounting

sensitive issues relating to personal health, events of discrimination, negative

perceptions of employers for instance. Collection of this type of data was, therefore,

less accurate, relying on note-taking and detailed observations to record these

critical incidents. There were few similar requests for pauses in the contextual

interviews.

The career history interviews were significantly variable in length. The duration was

affected by the age of the participant, and thus how many career experiences they

had to share, and the openness and willingness of them to talk about their

experiences. The shortest interview was fifty minutes long, and the longest was four

hours long. The typical length was around two to two and a half hours long. In

contrast, the contextual interviews were between forty minutes and an hour and a

half long.

At the end of each interview, brief notes were also made on anything deemed

relevant from the interview as soon as possible. This included any additional

information conveyed outside of the recorded conversation, provided the

respondent hadn't explicitly asked for it to be kept confidential. These were later

revisited when analysing their interview transcript.

5. Follow-up email: A day or two after the interview a follow-up email was sent to

participants thanking them for taking part and asking if they had subsequently

thought of anything further to add to their accounts. Where responses were made,

notes were added to the transcripts to acknowledge the additional information or

changes communicated.

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6. Transcription: All recordings were then transcribed verbatim. The transcripts

were then reviewed and anonymised, with the removal of all data considered to

contribute to the identification of participants while maintaining the integrity of the

data. Career history interviewees were assigned a pseudonym, while contextual

interviewees were assigned a meaningful title related to their job role or

organisation. Changes affected the following aspects (although not all of these were

changed every time): names, company names, specific dates or location, ages (within

the age category to which the original age belonged), the gender of children,

company-specific terminology (to more generalised terms). The anonymised

transcripts were then uploaded into NVivo for review, storage, coding and analysis.

Transcription, anonymisation and NVivo upload were carried out for the

stakeholder interviews and the one remaining pilot interview prior to the

commencement of the career history interviews and the organisation representative

interviews. For these subsequent stages, interviews were transcribed and uploaded

on an on-going basis. I aimed to complete this as quickly after the interviews as was

practicable, in order to retain details of the interview while I did so. During the

transcription stage, I would also highlight areas and quotes of particular interest or

resonance with the interview notes. This was therefore done over a period

concurrent with carrying out further interviews. The data was then ready for

analysis.

4.5 DATA ANALYSIS

A qualitative analysis was employed as the researcher maintained an interpretive

epistemology, and the desire to understand how the social world is interpreted

understood and experienced by women (and in contrast, men) in the IT workforce.

The subjectivity of the individuals' narratives needed to be maintained through the

interpretation and understanding of their views and perceptions. Thematic analysis

was used to identify patterns of meaning through a rigorous process of data

familiarisation, data coding, and theme development and revision. NVivo data

analysis software was used in order to help organise the data, which was particularly

necessary due to the substantive and complex nature of the data. Thematic analysis

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was selected due to the flexibility of its format, which allows for the data to guide

the flow of the research (King 2004), and was particularly reflective of the research

aim.

The approach to the thematic analysis used was adopted from Braun and Clarke’s

(2006) six-phase framework for conducting a thematic analysis, illustrated in Figure

4.2.

Figure 4.2 Braun & Clarke’s six-phase framework for thematic analysis (2006)

1. Familiarization with the data: This phase involved reading and re-reading

the data. As mentioned in the previous section, particularly interesting quotes or

ideas were highlighted through the transcription process. In this stage, however, the

transcripts were read to become immersed and intimately familiar with its content.

2. Coding: Initially I created three separate projects within NVivo: industry

stakeholder, organisations and IT workers. The relevant transcripts were uploaded

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to each project. The first to be uploaded was the industry stakeholder’s interviews.

The transcripts were then coded in line with what King (2004) terms “thematic

template technique". This entails creating a set of common themes and sub-themes

and then attaching sections of the transcript to these codes, to identify broader

patterns in the data. The use of multi-projects, but with the same nodes allowed for

the assembly of both the attitudinal data provided in the career history interviews

and the informative data from the contextual interviews.

In line with the framework for examining careers (Tomlinson et al. 2017), I created

four higher-level initial codes, under the headings (i) socio-cultural - institutional,

(ii) occupational, (iii) organisational and (iv) individual. I added a layer of sub codes

relating to issues identified by the literature reviews and the research questions. The

initial codes are listed in Appendix 9.

The transcripts were then examined, and each relevant section assigned a code from

the scheme. However, the coding process in reality was dynamic. By this, it is meant

that while the initial codes were applied to the transcripts, themes and subthemes

simultaneously emerged from the data to inform the coding scheme. Text that did

not fit into existing constructs in the coding scheme was highlighted and an

appropriate coding label attached. As multiple interviews were coded, patterns

among these emergent themes became evident and were subsequently added to the

coding scheme. Each interview transcript was read and coded until all themes could

be categorised in a construct included in the revised coding scheme. With analysis

iteratively refining the initial codes into third level nodes where necessary and

adding additional codes where appropriate.

3. Themes identification: This phase involved examining the codes and collated

data to identify significant broader patterns of meaning or potential themes. The

initial codes were then arranged under broader themes such as (i) career directions

and expectations, (ii) gender-related career boundaries, (iii) contemporary career

orientation, (iv) motherhood related career limitations. This was done by assigning

relevant nodes to each candidate theme. In this way, the data formed a matrix of

codes and themes.

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4.Theme review: This phase involved sense-checking candidate themes against the

dataset, to determine whether the narrative emerging was a convincing

representation of the wider data and addressed the research questions. The themes

were split, combined, or discarded to ensure that they were an accurate

representation of the important patterns in the data.

5. Defining and naming themes: A detailed analysis of each theme was then

developed, clarifying the scope and focus of each theme and determining an accurate

narrative, which addresses the research questions.

As the coding progressed, the original framework required numerous additions,

regroupings and refinement of themes and a considerable amount of cross-

referencing throughout, before the final structure was reached at the end of the first

analysis stage. While this was in itself an extremely time-consuming process, it was

extremely beneficial in providing a great familiarity with the data. Moreover, the use

of NVivo facilitated this, as the movement of codes and themes was relatively

efficient in contrast to other forms of data management (such as word processing).

The final coding structure was longer but more precise and meaningful. It also

utilised free nodes to deal with interesting and potentially useful or relevant material

that emerged that did not fit into the main coding framework.

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4.6 LIMITATIONS

This section examines some of the issues I encountered undertaking this research

and the impact they may have had on the scope for the study to achieve its aim. I

have also discussed any measures taken to counter these limitations and maximise

the value of my analysis.

4.6.1 Issues with sampling and recruitment of participants

Gaining access to suitable respondents was a significant problem for all three

elements of this study.

Regarding the career history participants, there were three main issues. The lack of

female IT workers was the main point of interest therefore it was perhaps

unsurprising that finding and recruiting them for the study was problematic. Despite

several hundred approaches carried out through personal, purposeful and open

recruitment (as discussed 3.4.4 Participant recruitment), the uptake rate was low.

Stated reasons included: a lack of time, discomfort with speaking about personal life,

fear of identification and, for a small number, a lack of interest in gender issues. As

one woman who declined to be interviewed suggested: "there aren’t many of us, so

we are more easy to identify". This was a particular concern regarding recruiting

women from smaller organisations, but it perhaps an interesting contribution to the

research in of itself. More surprisingly, male IT workers were also difficult to recruit.

Despite large numbers of male IT workers, few wished to be interviewed. Where the

wording on approach letters was adapted to emphasise investigation of

"contemporary careers and gender" rather than on "gender in IT work", recruitment

was more successful. This is perhaps indicative of a certain defensiveness relating to

issues of gender in IT in which men are privileged. A further complication arose from

the preference to align individual IT workers with the companies that were being

interviewed. Despite requesting cross referrals (i.e. workers interviewed were asked

for details of their HR departments, and HR departments were asked to promote the

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study to their workforce), this did not translate into greater participation or

alignment between the career history interviews and the organisation interviews.

Although providing insight relating to the intersection of gender, life stage and age,

a significant limitation of this study is the lack of intersectional analysis with respect

to ethnicity. The majority of the sample was white, with only three participants from

a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) background. Therefore, a meaningful

intersectional analysis of gender, age and race was just not possible. Ethnicity was

initially a managed criterion for career history participants, and I actively pursued

individuals through corporate or LinkedIn profiles who were BAME. However, this

was an even smaller pool from which to recruit, and the uptake rate in response to

targeted approaches was significantly lower than for the sample as a whole. This is a

significant limitation to this study as it is well established that gender and race

intersect in multiple and complex ways concerning career opportunities and

limitations. There was still substantial value in examining gender-specific features

that affect IT careers, as women are a minority. However, the analysis was mindful

that variations in experiences would be linked to other demographic characteristics.

This would provide a potentially fruitful avenue for future refinement of the

approach adopted in this thesis.

4.6.2 Issues with data collection

As with all studies employing interviews, data collection was dependent on the

informants’ ability and readiness to recall significant events and persons that had

made an impact on their life experiences and share them with the researcher.

According to Denzin (1989) this somewhat contrived situation can lead to “… a

deliberate monitoring of the self so that only certain selves are presented” (p.117).

In any retrospective data collection, there is always a risk of a disparity (whether

intentional or unintentional) between the reality and any retrospective recollection

and interpretation of an experience. In recording the recollections of the

respondents’ life experiences, this study incorporates limitations of any self-reported

data. Likewise, the respondents varied in their ability and readiness to share their

personal experiences - a critical requirement for this research. Some participants felt

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comfortable and were open to sharing incredibly detailed and personal information,

while other participants were less inclined to be forthcoming. For example, two

respondents interviewed refused to discuss any substantive detail relating to their

"personal life” and were therefore removed from the data sample.

Selectivity relating to audio recording, transcription and use of the data was

common. Two pilot study participants were happy to be recorded but did not wish

for their transcribed data to be used. They were, however, happy for me to use my

research notes and observations to inform the analysis. A further three interviewees

for the main career history study agreed to have their interviews recorded, on the

condition that the audio recording was deleted after transcription. As per the terms

of the interview agreement, these wishes were respected. More frequently,

interviewees expressed concern about having specific aspects or events of their

narratives recorded and requested ‘pauses’ in the audio recording. This was

common when recounting sensitive issues relating to health, events of

discrimination, or negative aspects of current or former employers, for instance. It

was unfortunate, however, as these were valuable insights for addressing the

research questions yet were less accurately captured as they relied on note-taking

and detailed observations rather than audio recording. I sought to overcome these

issues by taking thorough notes during these stoppage times, and by audio recording

my own recounting of the instances after the interview.

A final issue with data collection concerned a lack of time in interviews. Although

the vast majority of the career history participants were willing to talk to me, as busy

professionals they also guarded their time carefully. Initially, most respondents were

only comfortable with committing around an hour. But for all but one person,

interviews continued well past the hour. Therefore, many had to end the interviews

before having naturally finished talking due to work or domestic commitments. This

naturally leads to questions regarding the completeness of narrative accounts. The

contextual interviews were even more guarded with their time, with the agreement

to interviews predicated on completing them in times ranging from thirty minutes

to an hour. To ensure confidence in my research despite these concerns, I made sure

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that the participant would be happy to respond to an email following up any

outstanding issues.

4.6.3 Issues with data analysis

One of the challenges I found in ordering this set of complex career history

narratives was in organising the emergent data to recognise commonality where it

exists, without stifling important subjective data relating to individual respondents’

lives. Within the scope of the study, it would be impossible to identify common

themes and do justice to each woman's story. It was possible, though, to present the

common themes along with extracts and examples of some individual stories, as

illustrations of how one individuals’ story can be quite idiosyncratic, yet still, offer

valuable insights into the factors influencing women careers in IT work.

While the categorisation by theme as described in the data analysis section above

was helpful in the initial stages in terms of ordering large amounts of qualitative

data, its usefulness for final interpretation was limited. For instance, while women

may have mentioned the same limitation, and this was therefore coded in the same

way, the subjective impact of that limitation may have been substantially different.

The depth of impact of a specific ‘code’ was difficult to capture and required

placement within the whole narrative. It was only by becoming familiar with the

data through re-reading the transcripts and referring back to the audio many times

that I was able to develop a deeper appreciation of what the most important issues

and influences had been for each individual. Ultimately, it was my sense of the

particular issues and concerns of each individual, supported by the thematic analysis

that shaped the presentation of data.

Another problem I faced in analysing and presenting my research was in defining

the extent to which my role was to represent the voices of the participants as opposed

to interpreting what I heard. The narratives I gathered were complex, sometimes

contradictory and often inconsistent, and so difficult to code into neat categories. In

assigning codes from the outset, I was interpreting the data, which was inconsistent

with the aim of representing the interviewee’s own voices. I sought to overcome this

quandary by seeking to pay attention not only to what the individuals told me, but

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also the way in which they formed their narratives. Indeed the aim was to explore

‘why and how people construct realities in the way they do’ (Stanley and Wise 1993,

p.116). So, alongside the interpretive coding, I identified types of narrative or

attitudinal data. This allowed me to consider the boundaries and opportunities

presented in the career history interviews with a sense of how the individuals in the

study placed them in relation to their careers. While much of this data is not

referenced explicitly, it shaped the interpretation of the data used. For example,

women who spoke of constraints related to combining motherhood varied in their

specific concerns depending on whether they considered their careers primarily as

(i) a product of their own agency (i.e. careers as self-defined) or (ii) a product of the

interaction on externally defined factors (i.e. careers as externally defined).

Lastly, I also faced concerns related to the extent to which my own experiences and

background would influence the data collected. I was aware that my previous

experiences as an IT worker were important factors in gaining access to many of the

participants, providing me with credibility and a shared sense of history which

contributed to building relationships of trust and empathy vital to undertaking these

interviews – particularly important in the context of the career history interviews. I

was also aware of the potential I had to influence the accounts and had prepared

myself to manage my behaviour. Yet as a woman and a previous IT worker

researching female IT careers, I experienced a sense of personal involvement in many

of the stories put forth by female workers in particular, especially in instances where

they closely matched my own experiences. In line with Stanley and Wise’s (2003)

dismissal of “the mythology of ‘hygienic research’”. It would be disingenuous to claim

detachment from the research.

While Taylor (2011) suggests that “intimate knowledge of and an emotional

attachment to one’s informants” (p.15) creates a lack objectivity that can influence

both the interview responses and analysis of the narratives. I found that I identified

closely with some of the women that sharing my experiences during the interview

felt like the natural thing to do, in contravention with the history interviewing

approach and the aims of the research. I combated this by making a conscious effort

to curb my contributions, focusing on listening rather than talking. As the interviews

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progressed, I became more proficient at not speaking and providing space for the

participants to continue with their narratives. I was also aware that being too close

to the work could lead to an affective account rather than a critical analysis of the

women’s narratives. In the initial analysis, for instance, I found myself overly drawn

to those accounts with which I felt more affinity and giving them potentially more

weight in the overall narrative. However, through an iterative process of review of

the themes and consideration of how each account related to the overarching theme

or story I was telling, I was able to better identify where this had occurred and

consciously redress the balance.

4.7 ETHICAL CONCERNS

The initial letter of invitation contained an assurance that the participants could

withdraw from the study at any time, and, if they did, all records of interviews and

personal information would be destroyed. These terms were reiterated in the

consent form used for the career history interviews only. A copy of the consent form

is in Appendix 10 and was used to ensure that respondents participated on an

informed and voluntary basis.

All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed, unless specifically requested

otherwise. Respondents were assured that their identities would not be disclosed,

and each was designated a pseudonym to be used in data analysis and reporting

findings. For privacy and confidentiality, all identifying information (such as names

of institutions, places or people) were deleted or altered in the transcriptions.

Further possible identifying features were also changed, such as specific ages, the

gender of children, and technical or company-specific terms.

For a minority of participants, the career history interviews were found to be an

emotional process in which they discussed difficult and personal topics. Where this

emotion was evident, offers to pause or stop the interviews were made to minimise

the emotional impact and place the interviewee in control. No participant opted to

terminate interviews, although two opted to take a short break to collect their

thoughts before proceeding.

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4.8 SUMMARY

This chapter has detailed the philosophical position underpinning this study and the

research strategy and design. It has also outlined the processes involved in

developing the research approach. A pilot study was used to test the effectiveness

and validity of the narrative career history approach for generation of the depth and

breadth of subjective information. Explanations have been provided for refinements

to the research questions made following the pilot project. The procedure by which

the results were recorded, analysed and coded was documented and brief details

provided of issues relating to validity, reliability and flexibility. Finally, the ethical

issues were referenced.

Presentation of the research findings now follows in Chapters 5 to 7. The analysis is

reported in line with the life course elements contained in the analytical framework

(see 3.5 Proposed analytical framework for understanding contemporary female

careers). They are:

(i) School-to-work transitions: Gender differences in education and industry

(ii) Employment opportunities and constraints: Gendered career trajectories in

IT work

(iii) Family and care: Parenthood, career constraints and IT work

A discussion of the findings is contained in Chapter 8., as well as documenting

empirical findings, theoretical contributions and practical recommendations. The

final conclusions and recommendations for future research are outlined in Chapter

9.

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5 SCHOOL TO WORK TRANSITIONS: GENDER DIFFERENCES

IN EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY ENTRY

5.1 INTRODUCTION

Differences in the educational and early career choices of men and women have a

substantial effect on workers career trajectories, and the extant literature has

identified gender differences in uptake of STEM education as a significant

contributing factor to the underrepresentation of women in IT work (see 2.3.2

Gender differences in early exposure and computing education). As such, this chapter

considers the different career opportunities and constraints that men and women

perceived in relation to educational and career choices, and how these influences

shape their school-t0-work transitions and ultimately facilitate or inhibit their

entrance into the IT professions.

In this chapter, the concept of ‘paths of entry’ is used to describe school-to-IT work

transitions. Discussion begins with outlining what is meant by paths of entry in the

context of this study. Next, the educational backgrounds of respondents are

outlined, and attention paid to establishing various contextual influences on

educational selections to determine if there is evidence of gendered discourses

concerning technology. Then the prompts, motivations and timing of the decision

to pursue IT work are analysed to help understand how these influenced the

opportunities available to workers in different occupations and companies. Related

to this, the chapter then examines how industry and organisational structures may

impact the viability of female recruitment and considers how this has changed over

time. Finally, this chapter discusses the extent to which these findings may

contribute to understanding potential processes of exclusion and segregation in IT

work.

The analysis addresses the following specific research questions:

RQ 1: What gender differences in the paths of entry into IT jobs are evident?

SRQ 1.1: What factors prompt and enable women and men to access IT

careers?

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SRQ 1.2: How do gendered discourses, practices and stereotypes concerning

technology and computing shape discourses of motivations for entering IT

occupations?

SRQ 1.3: How do these findings contribute to better understanding of

persistent female underrepresentation and occupational segregation?

This chapter uses the 62 narrative interviews with IT workers2 to establish their

educational backgrounds, qualifications and mode of entry into IT. Of these, 37 were

female and 25 were male. Interview data was supplemented by the use of social

media profiles to fill in date or job title omissions or through follow up enquiries.

Within the career history interviews, employees described their education as part of

the narrative element but were also asked to clarify their motivation for pursuing

specific parts of their education and asked follow-up questions concerning their

choice of job, or points of transition from a different career to IT, for example.

Respondents perceptions of the influences on their school-to-work life stage, and

how these interacted with the organisational and wider institutional context

(relating to education, work availability, for instance) specifically inform this

analysis. This data was viewed in combination with the accounts provided by HR

representatives and E&D representatives, detailing recruitment and training policies

used in IT companies. Finally, the views of stakeholders about broader education

provision and recruitment issues affecting the industry were considered.

5.2 DEFINING PATHS OF ENTRY

This chapter is structured around ‘paths of entry’ into IT work, which denote the

routes used by study participants to access the industry. These encapsulate four

aspects:

(i) Educational choices: Before making career choices, young people typically

pursue a broad compulsory education, with some specialisation through

educational stages in further and into higher education. These selections may

or may not be made with a specific career in mind, but they nonetheless

influence the career opportunities open to them upon completion.

2 An overview of the career history respondents’ demographic data is provided in the Appendix. Appendix 6

for Female, Appendix 7 for Male

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(ii) The decision to pursue an IT role: The prompt, motivation and timing for

the decision to pursue IT work form the next stage on a path of entry.

(iii) Further qualifications/education to enable IT work: Dependent on the life

stage at which the decision to pursue IT work occurs, industry entrance may

be facilitated by the pursuit of additional education or qualification.

(iv) Entrance method: The options open to individuals as to how they may

access IT work, or the specific ‘on-ramp’ they use, are determined by the

interaction of the recruitment methods used by companies with their own

personal characteristics and context. The specific recruitment route used to

access work and the nature of the work obtained (particularly regarding

technicality), forms the last stage of the path of entry.

The majority of the extant literature examining gender and IT careers focuses on

what is considered a standard route of entry. This comprises undertaking

consecutive stages of formal IT qualifications before obtaining a professional IT

position. From an analysis of the narrative accounts with respect to these four

elements, however, there are eight distinct paths of entry used by the career history

respondents. Figure 5.1 provides a summary of the stages comprising these pathways,

along with the percentage figure of each of the male and female samples that entered

via these routes. Table 5.1 provides a more detailed gender and age breakdown of

these pathways, allowing generational patterns to emerge

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Figure 5.1 Paths of entry, by gender

Source: Analysis of career history respondent’s narrative accounts

NB/ Percentages refer to the proportion of the total gender cohort

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Table 5.1 Paths of entry by age and gender

Source: Analysis of career history respondent’s narrative accounts

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While the standard route of entry remains important, amongst this sample (denoted

as Pathway 1) with 64 per cent of men and 27 per cent of women in this utilising this

entry path, what is clear is that there are a number of other routes used to access the

industry and these are rarely considered in the extant literature. There is also greater

variance in the female experiences in this study in comparison to a relatively narrow

range in the male cohort, which is essential to understand in light of low numbers

of women entering via the ‘normal’ route.

One of the aspects that created the most significant variance in these pathways

between the male and female IT specialists was the nature and timing of the decision

to pursue an IT career. Many of the male respondents noted how working with

technology was an early interest and that led to them undertaking IT-related

education which, in turn, led onto pursuit of IT work. What is notable in the career

history accounts is that women, in contrast, typically developed an interest in

technology and IT work after having already been employed in alternative roles.

While 32 per cent of the male sample had undertaken a non-IT-related role before

joining the industry, 48 per cent of women had. These variances raise questions in

relation to how and why different worker they opted for occupations in IT.

As such, the influential factors on men’s and women’s educational selections evident

in the career histories are examined first, to determine if they are reflective of the

findings of earlier studies which suggest girls lack early access to IT and are

disenfranchised at school level by gendered stereotypes concerning IT.

5.3 EDUCATION BACKGROUND AND DIFFERENCES BY GENDER

Extant research suggests that girls and young women are disincentivised from

pursuing IT-related education for a variety of reasons, resulting in a small amount

of qualified female labour for companies to recruit (for a summary see 2.3.2 Gender

differences in early exposure and computing education). Therefore, this section

focuses on the educational background of current IT workers to identify whether

their formal education is consistent with what would be expected of those in

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professional IT occupations, and what the key events and influences were that

shaped and directed their educational choices in order to identify active processes

of inclusion or exclusion for women in respect to IT and STEM education.

5.3.1 Overview of educational levels and subject specialities

In line with prior research into IT workers, this cohort has a higher than average

level of education and qualification. ONS statistics suggest that 68 per cent of female

IT specialists and 69 per cent of male IT specialist were educated to a Higher

Education level in the UK in 2016, in comparison to the population as a whole (at 39

per cent and 45 per cent respectively) (Tech Partnership 2016). The findings of this

study are broadly consistent with this expectation, demonstrating a high level of

education amongst the respondents. Table 5.2 documents the highest level of

educational award held by each of the study participants. Only nine per cent of the

participants did not hold least a bachelors degree (four females and two males).

Amongst the younger cohort of workers (45 and below) possession of a degree was

more ubiquitous, none of the 33 respondents aged below 45 did not hold at least a

bachelors degree. This is consistent with the broader expansion of higher education,

while the older cohort had a more varied range of formal qualifications (or lack

thereof) – especially within the group of female IT specialists.

There was more variety in the qualification levels of women in the sample. 17 per

cent of the female sample held a postgraduate qualification in comparison to only

eight per cent of the male sample. Surprisingly however, given the standard

educational levels, there were also a few instances of both men and women entering

the industry without qualifications beyond GCSE’s, with four women and two men

entering the industry without at least a bachelors degree. Those who held HND and

HNC awards obtained them once in employment and were provided with financial

support or time allowances by their employers.

Although rare, these instances are important to highlight as they challenge

dominant discourses of underrepresentation linked to poor female educational

uptake of IT and STEM. Not only were IT degrees not required but possession of a

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degree was obviously not a barrier to entrance. It is notable, however, that these

instances occurred in the older cohorts (age 46 and above), and, as will be explored

in more detail in subsequent analysis, they entered into more routine entry level

positions.

Table 5.2 Highest formal educational award held by respondents

Source: Analysis of career history respondent’s narrative accounts

[1] General Certificate of Secondary Education: typically taken at age 16

[2] Advanced Level Qualification: typically taken at 18

[3] Higher National Certificate: a semi vocational / semi-professional qualification roughly equivalent to one

year of university and a Certificate of Higher Education but being less than that of a Higher National Diploma

(HND). Studied full-time, the qualification takes typically one year or two years part-time.

[4] Higher National Diploma: semi vocational / semi-professional qualification, usually studied full-time, in 2 to

3 academic years’ [that] can be studied part-time. It is equivalent to the first two years of a three-year degree

(with honours), and it is at the same level of the 2nd year of an ordinary bachelors degree or to the Diploma of

Higher Education

Examining the subjects studied, it is also clear that despite being a sample of IT

workers, not all individuals in this study held either a STEM or IT specific

qualification as would be expected. Table 5.3 shows there are interesting gender and

generational patterns in the subject-specific education histories of the sample.

Computing and IT specialisms are more prevalent amongst the younger cohorts, as

would be expected due to their relatively recent inception and expansion. As

mentioned in several of the accounts, IT as a specific discipline was just not available

for older workers at the point they made their educational choices. Consistent with

Margolis and Fishers (2002) observation that typically computer science is grouped

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with either maths or engineering within educational contexts, older participants in

this study noted computing related subjects were closely aligned with engineering

and maths, with computing usually forming a joint degree or a subset of another

STEM degree. For example, within this sample Electrical Engineering and

Computing, and Electronics and Information Sciences were titles of degrees held by

older workers: but when asked about their choices to combine IT with other

subjects, one participant noted:

Well you had to [combine subjects}, computing wasn’t offered as a standalone degree

Gerald (M, 60-65)

Over time, IT emerged as an independent discipline, and younger workers were able

to select a specific IT degree, typically Computer Science, which the majority of

young male workers opted to pursue: 68 per cent of the male sample held an IT-

related degree, compared to 30 per cent of women. These gender differences are

particularly evident if a comparison is made between male and female workers aged

20 through to 45. All but one male in this group possessed an IT-related degree (92

per cent of that age group), in comparison to only 40 per cent of that age group in

the female cohort. When the analysis is expanded to include other STEM subjects,

62 per cent of women had their highest degree in a STEM subject, which is closer to

the 84 per cent of males that also had a STEM-related qualification. The main

implication of this analysis is that it is possible to work in professional IT

occupations without holding either a STEM or an IT degree, in a challenge to many

of the explanations for underrepresentation predicated on a shrinking educational

pipeline (see 2.3.1 The Leaky Pipeline).

Furthermore, in contrast to the male focus on computing, the option to combine IT

with other degrees remained popular among women. Of the 38 per cent of women

and 68 per cent of men of the sample that opted for Computing as the primary

degree subject area (as listed in Table 5.3), most of the men selected straightforward

computer science at university. In contrast women, and some other men looked to

combine with other interest areas. A list of the specific degree’s they pursued is

included in Table 5.4.

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Table 5.3 Primary subject area of highest educational award held

Source: Analysis of career history respondent’s narrative accounts

NB/ the numbers in brackets represent qualifications in that subject are that are not at least degree level (e.g.

HNC and HND’s). Those holding qualifications at GCSE level or below are counted as none, as they lack the

depth to count as a subject specialism.

Table 5.4 Computer related degree titles, by gender

Source: Analysis of career history respondent’s narrative accounts

There was limited evidence that an IT or STEM-specific degree may not be required

for entry into the IT professions. There is a genuine need for numerical and ‘hard’

technical skills in some occupations. However, it is important to draw attention to

this variance as appears overlooked in discussions of employment in the IT industry.

Moreover, assumptions could be made that these entrances were all into less

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technical occupations. This was not the case, however, as some technical IT workers

held non-STEM degrees.

Nonetheless, given that those women and men without STEM qualifications,

eventually ended up in the IT professions, there is value in examining why those

interests and aptitudes were not developed or explored earlier. This helps to

determine if their experiences are in some way illustrative of exclusionary processes

that could be contributing to on-going underrepresentation or occupational

segregation of women. The key influences identified within the narrative accounts

will be examined to address this.

5.3.2 Influences on educational choices

In response to the initial question regarding how they came to be where they are in

their career, the majority of the respondents did not dwell on early stages of

education, instead positioning their degree as the ‘jumping off’ point for their

careers. The main exceptions to this were cases of younger worker, for whom

educational experiences forms a greater proportion of their working history. These

workers used their A-levels to demarcate the ‘beginning’ of their career stories.

Within all of the narrative accounts, respondents assigned much agency to their

educational choices. Personal interests, abilities and preferences were assigned

principal importance in educational decisions within the initial narrative discourses,

both by male and female participants. Additional influences, in contrast, tended to

emerge more frequently upon follow-up questioning in the latter stages of the

interviews. Accounts detailed specific influences and contextual factors, which

influenced these decisions to varying effects. These are (i) perceptions related to

gender and technology, (ii) access and support for the use of technology at home,

(iii) familial influence on educational choices, (iv) access and support for taking

STEM in educational environments and (iv) awareness of career information. Not all

of these influences were considered important by all respondents, and where

differences emerged these are identified and explored in relation to gender,

generation and occupation type. The narratives have been examined to determine

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why women were not developing the same level of interests that led them to IT and

STEM education as evident for men.

Perceptions of gender and technology

In contrast to the findings of previous studies that have noted how women lacked

confidence in STEM subjects, had unpleasant educational experiences with

technology or did not enjoy the curricula, these issues were broadly absent from the

accounts of women in this study. This was the case even where they had not selected

STEM subjects yet routinely utilise the same STEM skills in their current careers. In

none of the female (or male) accounts was a sense of actively avoiding IT subjects

because it was perceived as “geeky” or unattractive articulated. Instead, failure to

undertake IT or STEM-related subjects was attributed to a preference for other

subjects or a lack of ‘preference’ or aptitude for STEM-related subjects. That is not

to say that the respondents ignored the gender differences in educational

environments. Both men and women who had studied STEM at school and

university were cognizant of the gender disparity in participation at each

educational stage and made frequent reference to this. Despite the majority of

respondents noting gender discrepancies regarding those undertaking STEM topics

more broadly, and IT subjects more specifically, their accounts did not suggest this

has given them pause to reflect on how these broader structural issues may have

affected their own choices.

Inherent in these stated preferences, however, were gender differences. Men

typically noted a preference for STEM subjects, whereas many women ‘preferred’

non-STEM. Within the accounts of women who had pursued STEM and IT, the

existence of wider gender norms was indirectly highlighted in their positioning of

themselves as “odd” or “unusual” in possessing interests – as if they were not the

‘natural’ preserve of women. There was a certain sense of pride conveyed by women

who had pursued STEM-related subjects, in pursuing a non-gender stereotypical

education choice or path. This is arguably evidence of a coping mechanism to deal

with being a minority. In identifying as different in having a preference for

stereotypical masculine interests, these women can distance themselves from their

femininity to align more with the dominant male group. The fact that this is so

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embedded in women’s narratives is perhaps more reflective of the depth of gender

differences they have experienced over the course of their careers.

Double maths at A-level, psychics and chemistry, which was kind of where I first encountered

this women thing, because I was the first girl in the history of the school to do double maths A-

level, which was quite spooky really.

Janet (F, 45-50)

Access to and knowledge about subjects naturally influence preferences. Men who

had selected IT subjects at school, for instance, did so because they had access to

technology and support to develop an interest in it. While female IT specialists often

expressed the view that they had no inclination or interest in computing or

technology in their earlier years, the male accounts suggested interest in and

experience with computing was developed from school age, echoing previous studies

(Margolis and Fisher 2002; Woodfield 2002). What was different in the accounts was

the level of access and support in using technology provided in the reports, both at

home and school.

Access and support in use of technology at home

It was primarily through the male accounts where stories emerged of being provided

with access to technology and support from parents, grandparents or family friends,

in use of them, prompting an on-going interest in IT. Typically a linear narrative was

drawn between these instances and their pursuit of IT education and interests. These

recollections are exemplified by extracts below:

I think the ZX81 was out, and I got one of those, and a friend of the family had one, and I think

he told me to hang fire and get a ZX Spectrum because that was coming out… I used to play

games on it, but then I quickly got interested in programming it…

Luke (M, 40-45)

So I got involved with computers when the ZX81 came out. That was my first computer... I just

got involved playing with that and making my own version of Space Invaders. So it was out of

curiosity and problem solving, and that’s really what I enjoy about it… make things do things

that you wouldn't normally expect it to do.

David (M, 55-60)

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What is particularly informative about the quotes provided above is in the

combination of being offered not only access to computers but also support to

develop confidence with it through ‘playing around’. Many male participants

discussed family support for developing broader interests in technology, such as

encouragement to ‘tinker’ or ‘play’ with technology. Some further examples include:

I started in IT because my dad was in IT. He used to bring back bits of kit, IT stuff that he

would buy for work, in theory, and then would end up at home…we used to play around

writing code, playing games. And I think the first ones were pretty early on so 1979, kind of

before there really were too many home PCs.

Steven (M, 45-50)

So my dad would always be fixing stuff...like TV’s, lamps, the washing machine…and he would

always be like “give us a hand with this”. I liked working out how things work, putting it all

together…. when computers came out I got an old Amstrad and did the same with that…and

programming is an extension of that really

Tommy (M, 40-45)

Family influence is not just limited to parents, however. Three of the male accounts

highlighted how it was time spent with their grandfathers that exposed them to

working with technology and gadgets by fixing or rewiring goods which led to a

fascination with technology and computing as these disciplines evolved. In contrast,

the accounts of only two women recognised this same form of support. Leila

highlighted how her father’s and uncle’s background in electrical engineering

exposed her to the value of understanding how things work, while Jane emphasised

how her Dad’s passion for IT was passed on through the provision of computers and

the encouragement to play around with it

...So my dad and my uncle they used to work with circuit boards and the IC components,

playing around…I found this really fascinating... my uncle he just opened the box and showed

me how to replace some of the IC components and I was just like ‘wow’, it’s amazing

Leila (F, 30-35)

When [home computing] was all starting, [my Dad] convinced my mother that computers were

going to be the future...So it’s no coincidence that all three of us work in IT. He went from

ZX81, which I took to school, and took apart for show and tell, I put it back together… to the

Sinclair Spectrum through to building his own computers…we all got indoctrinated along the

way

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Jane (F, 45-50)

It is interesting how alike these accounts are from the male and the female workers.

Encouragement to both access technology, but also seek to understand how it works

rather than simply approaching it from an end user perspective appeared important

in these instances, regardless of gender. It is interesting to note, however, that all of

the role models that provided the support in the use of technology were male (dad,

granddad, brother, male friend), yet again reinforcing connections between

technology and masculinity.

It would be expected that if that access had been provided to women, but they just

did not elect to capitalise on it, then more of the accounts would be as reflective as

the one submitted by Rebecca, who identifies a personal failure to engage with

technology despite her brother’s encouragement as slightly ironic given her work as

an IT professional:

He was amazing with [the computer] he used to do all these amazing games, from scratch…and

he kept trying to show me how to do them but no, I just wasn’t interested. I wanted to be out

talking to people instead…and now he is an accountant and I’m the one in IT!

Rebecca (F, 25-30)

This excerpt provides insights into how computing was aligned with the geeky and

introverted stereotype. By juxtaposing interest in computers with ‘talking to people’

a sense of the embeddedness of antisocial stereotypes emerges. The fact that she

repeats ‘amazing’ indicates that she did not find the output (i.e. the games) off-

putting, but rather the stereotypical expectations of what was expected to achieve

this (i.e. to be antisocial).

Family influence on educational choices

Margolis and Fisher’s (2003) study of university students found that support for girls

concerning computing and IT tended to occur in relation formal education stages,

while boys were more likely to receive support to play around with technology. In

line with this finding, familial support for IT or STEM-related educational choices

was far more evident across the female accounts in comparison to the ‘hobby’ based

support males reported. In a challenge to some of the previous research which

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suggested that girls were less encouraged to undertake IT or STEM-related subjects

by parents, the career histories indicated that parents of both men and women were

perceived as wholly supportive of them undertaking STEM subjects. They were

considered by parents as ‘sensible’ choices: highly valued in the workplace. This was

articulated in comparison to some of the expressed interests of female participants:

such as art, business or media studies. In some cases, these influences translated into

pressures to pursue certain subjects (or away from other subjects), but these cases

were rare and affected few men or women. No account, either from those who did

study STEM or those who did not, suggested that they received pressure to move

away from IT or STEM subjects. Five of the technical women, particularly those from

the older cohorts, reflected that they were ‘lucky’ to have had the parental support

for their choice of STEM subjects. Examples are below:

So I think in some ways I think I was just so lucky with my dad's attitude to be honest, because

he didn't pressurise me one way or another [in studying maths and science] … it was always

just maths, science, that was what I was good at, that was what I liked. So that's what I did.

Janet (F, 45-50)

I was in the really lucky position, my parents believed passionately in education, and they

believed passionately in not interfering. So my choice of subjects was entirely mine, but it was

apparent really quite early that I did have a love of, and a talent for the sciences.

Sue (F, 60-65)

In contrast, neither familial support nor luck is referenced in male accounts when

discussing educational selections. The five women who noted this did so apparently

in some way to justify why they were able to make these choices, implying it was not

the case for other women. During provision of their own narratives, women

explicitly referenced familial influence more often3, while men tended to reflect on

these factors in the more structured questioning stage of the interviews. This may

be because the men did not receive this type of support or guidance, or that it was

not perceived by them to be as valuable or influential to their career narratives as it

was for women.

3 Interviewees were initially asked an open question – the answer to which formed what is considered their ‘own

narratives’. Follow up questions were then asked, forming the ‘questioning stage’

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Many influences have been found to be subtle, shaping personal preferences and

abilities in unacknowledged ways. For instance, while most of the respondents did

not link their father’s career experiences with the educational decisions they made,

a high number of the interviewees (particularly amongst the females) had fathers

who worked in STEM fields. These parents were able to provide access to a

combination of knowledge about work, support for STEM education, access to

relevant resources (such as computers) and/or insight about the prospects of

working in this type of field.

Access and support for STEM in educational environments

Many men highlighted access to computing in school as one of the critical drivers of

their interest in technology and computers. In some accounts, this was further

enabled by the support of a teacher to foster and develop this interest. Again,

however, this was more clearly demarcated along gender lines, with only two women

suggesting they had received similar support or influence.

Many of these accounts have to be contextualised in light of both educational and

technology changes over the cohorts’ careers. For the period in which the majority

of the respondents were educated, computers constituted a limited and dedicated

resource within schools and colleges, both in terms of physical resources and in

relation to expertise. The restriction in access to computing is applicable even to

relatively young participants, as Bethany notes:

I don’t think I’m particularly old, but when I was at school we had a handful of computers in

one room and a couple in the library…You had to really want to use them and seek them out,

they weren’t a part of other subjects. We had to do like one class in how to use them, typing

etc. It wasn’t like now where they are embedded in everything…and I had more interesting

things to do at school than spend lunchtimes in the library with a bunch of weird

Bethany (F, 30-35)

As James recalls, access to computers was also often limited to specific times and for

certain students – a theme replicated across many male and female accounts:

So, I had the key to the computer room, I was one of the few students who could access the

computer room, so I used to go in there at lunchtime, play on the computers and write some

programmes…I used to play war games on it, you know, with maps, and Russians and the

Americans, and that was fun.

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James (M, 45-50)

Such restrictions are perhaps understandable as computers represented a

substantial investment for schools and colleges, even more so in the past, and

access was limited to protect these expensive assets. Yet as the selection of IT

educational subjects, especially at school age, was frequently attributed to interests

developed through informal contact with computers in both home and school

environments, these limitations on resources creates gendered implications. For

most of the women in this study, this early access did not form part of their

narrative. While few explicitly stated they had a lack of access at school due to

their gender, beyond the general tendency for their educational environment to

have few computers, there was an absence of the positive references to access

observed in the male histories.

This could be because where access is limited, either by teachers or by a dominant

user group (“a bunch of weird guys”) there is scope for gender bias to inform those

decisions. It is perhaps telling that two of the male accounts noted the impact of

having a supportive teacher on their decision to pursue IT – important in an era

where formal IT education was negligible – while no similar recollections were in

the female narratives. For example, Tony discusses the influence of his teachers on

developing his interest in computing and led to him selecting computer studies at

A-level as a result:

We had two teachers; there were these BBC computers we used to use and a Commodore PC,

big things. One of the teachers was really good, he was an electronics, physics expert… so he

was really good, he’d help you. One of the things I did for my A level was to build a train set

and control it from a BBC computer… I couldn’t have done that without him

Tony (M, 40-45)

Gender expectations in relation to STEM subjects more generally formed a more

prevalent constraint noted in female accounts. For instance, Janet suggested she

received little support at school for pursuit of maths, despite demonstrating aptitude

in her O-Levels4:

4 Exams taken at age 16, equivalent of GCSE’s

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I didn't get encouragement from teachers, they encouraged the boys, they didn't encourage

me. They told me how hard it was …I feel like IT's in the boy column because it's in the

engineering column, the logic column, the maths column, which is where they send the boys.

Janet (F, 45-50)

Of note is that a high proportion of women who finally pursued technical

occupations received a single-sex education, with eight of the 17 women in ‘technical’

occupations having attended a single sex school. Those that did mentioned a sense

of freedom from the gendered expectations associated with STEM subjects in a

single sex educational context compared with a co-educational one.

It meant that nobody told me it was inappropriate to do what I was doing. I was

probably…well I was at a probably geeky school for geeks…but there was nobody there saying

you shouldn't do science, it's not female. So although fewer girls took it [than other subjects] I

had no problem with that.

Cathy (F, 45-50)

This supports an existing finding by researchers such as Schneeweis and Zweimuller

(2012) that finds girls will be more likely to select more technical and traditionally

male-dominated subjects at a higher rate in single-sex contexts, free of gender

stereotyping. However, as none of the participants experienced both environments,

it is difficult to contrast the perceptions and realities in each context.

Furthermore, the availability and scheduling of qualifications constrained the ability

of individuals to pursue their own interests. Three of the male participants all aged

34 and above, noted that their schools did not offer IT A-levels, due to either a lack

of computing resources available or a lack of qualified IT teachers of sufficient

expertise to carry out A-level standard teaching. Moreover, schedule conflicts

guided educational choices and it was felt that these were developed accommodate

subjects with a typically natural ‘fit’, such as mathematics and core sciences, for

example. Some of the narrative accounts discussed how their schools did not

accommodate their preference for pursuit of a 'less traditional' combination of

subjects (spanning both humanities and science subjects). In one example, the

participant noted how she was less able to pursue a combination of STEM and non-

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STEM A-Levels due to scheduling constraints and perceived this to represent a

separation of students into either maths or humanities groups:

I wanted to do maths, English lit, and economics [at A-Level}. But they told me that they

scheduled to meet the popular needs...I ended up with biology instead of English lit, as none of

the more ‘arty’ subjects fitted with the schedule. It’s like I was put in the science-y box

because I wanted maths. I couldn’t do both.

Olivia (F, 35-40)

The perception of schedules as a way to reinforce inherent dichotomisation

between those with STEM interests and those with ‘artier’ interests is curious. This

perception of a binary approach to education was repeated across many of the

accounts, primarily from women. Many women who ended up in technical IT

occupations noted how their early interests and choices were aligned with less

‘technical’ subjects such as art, history, anthropology, and languages; which

suggests they were either unable to explore both sets of interests, or contextually

and socially inclined towards pursuit of those which may be considered more

female-friendly.

So I filled in all the [careers service survey] answers, and it came back and it was a bit

confusing... I think it’s because I have quite diverse interests it couldn’t handle it! When I sat

down to talk through it, the teacher was really focused on [the options] that he knew about,

well, and I don’t know for sure, but I think ones he thought girls would be better for…I was

pushed towards management stuff really.

Hannah (F, 35-40)

Awareness of career opportunities

Related the extract above, an interesting omission in almost all of the accounts

related to careers advice received while in school. Some participants referenced the

fact that this service existed, but in none of the narrative accounts was the

provision of careers advice considered an influential factor in their own

educational decisions. Again, this has to be contextualised: for many of the

respondents, the period at which this advice would have been required was when

IT was an emerging field and careers information would have been severely

limited. While the men in this study appeared unaffected by the lack or otherwise

of careers advice provision, some of the women perceived the advice given as

actively unhelpful and gendered.

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I find it quite strange that no one at my school suggested that I do engineering, because I was

looking at math’s and physics and I'm sure we did get career advice, but no one ever

mentioned that I should think about engineering. And it is quite similar to maths and

physics, so I feel like someone should have said that to me.

Lily (F, 20-25)

I was completely unaware of most career choices and options…the careers advisor just pulled

out this book and pointed at the ones they thought we could do…very scientific eh…but it was

sexist. Like they pointed at actuary and management consultant for me, and software

developer and mechanical engineer for my [male] friend…but we were studying the same stuff

Hannah (F, 35-40)

Neither of these women attributed their ultimate educational selections to these

experiences, but they are reflective of a perception that careers advice is gendered.

It could be argued that for the older workers this type of sex-stereotypical advice was

commonplace, simply replicating wider social norms of that period. What is perhaps

more surprising is that one of the experiences occurred to a younger woman, of just

twenty-three – suggesting that it has been far from eradicated.

It is important to note that many of the factors identified in previous research as

putting girls off IT and IT education are evident in the accounts of those that had

successfully created IT careers. Although only acknowledged to a limited extent in

many of their narratives, career stories indirectly reflected (often by omission) these

gendered discourses of technology. Educational influences and early experiences not

only shaped the educational endowments individuals possessed which facilitate

movement into higher education or the labour market, but also influenced their

ability to access IT work the next point for discussion.

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5.4 SELECTING IT WORK

For many of the men interviewed an interest in IT work and computing was

developed during their early education, resulting from access and support in its use

either at home or in educational settings. Selection of computer science (or related)

degrees was simply considered an expression of their personal interests and abilities,

and in doing so the decision to pursue an IT career was made before university. What

is clear from the career histories is that this is not similarly the case for many of the

women, and some of the men.

Most of the women did not discover an interest in IT at a young age (as established

in the previous section) and therefore did not possess the same rationale for pursuit

of IT specific education as men (see Table 5.3 Primary subject area of highest

educational award held). Rather, their interest in undertaking IT work emerged later,

typically after experiencing first hand contact with either technology itself or with

IT workers. Examples of what could be termed ‘critical decision points’ for pursuit of

IT work provided in the sample include: (i) through contact with IT during pursuit

of degree courses, (ii) upon-graduation from non-IT degrees, (iii) working in non-IT

functions within IT companies and (iv) working with IT functions within non-IT

companies. Some illustrative quotes of each stage are provided in Table 5.5.

Professional engagements with IT work in this way prompted the decision to

transition careers and pursue IT occupations. Although the quotes contained in

Table 5.5 are all from female members of the sample, this ‘late coming’ was similarly

replicated with four of the male respondents. These workers pursued non-IT-related

education and/or work, developing an interest in IT work through these alternative

engagements. Nonetheless, as women pursued IT degrees at a lower rate, the cases

of female workers present more interesting insights.

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Table 5.5 Illustrative examples of prompts for the decisions to pursue IT work

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What is evident in these quotes is that there is a range of reasons for pursuing IT

careers – not just possession of an interest in technology per se. Prior studies (for

example, see Margolis and Fisher 2002; Woodfield 2002) have noted different

motivations in technology careers demonstrated by men and women, broadly

arguing that that women are more interested in how technology can be used to

achieve change while men are interested in technology in of itself. Yet the quotes

above indicate that a further distinction needs to be added to understand careers:

between interest in technology, both technology in of itself and the use of

technology, and interest in IT work. Seren, for example, emphasises the conditions

of the work rather than anything more specific that is ‘interesting’ about the work

itself. Sylvia was inclined to find IT work because a manager suggested it may be a

good fit with her existing abilities. Both of these women ended up in technical

occupations, working closely with technology itself. In addition, a large proportion

of female participants (and three males) suggested they had ‘fallen’ into IT work

rather than being directly motivated by IT work, or technology, itself. For instance,

Sandra sought to take on more managerial responsibilities in order to progress her

career in finance, and was allocated to a managerial role that just happened to be an

IT department. She has subsequently remained in IT occupations, albeit in less-

technical roles. For all these women their prime motivation was IT work or the IT

occupation, not technology itself. They sought or found a specific role that ‘happened

to be in an IT company’. IT work for these individuals considered their entrance into

the industry as the product of ‘logical’ moves, as they found they possessed some

aptitude for the day-to-day tasks through contact with IT.

Likewise, when looking to apply the distinctions between motivation/interest in

either ‘technology’ or ‘use of technology’ as a motivator for IT careers, gender binary

distinctions are far from clear. Where interest in technology is provided as a

motivating factor, both male and female workers used these terms in close

association, in which an interest in the development of technology itself could not

easily be divorced from the purposes to which it will be applied in the accounts. As

an example, Tommy noted in an earlier extract how he would help his grandfather

take TV’s and computers apart, sparking an interest in technology. Expanding upon

this to explain his choice of IT work, he noted:

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I really enjoyed [programming], getting in there, problem solving, being able to make

computers do what you want them to. That said I’m not one of those techies that gets off on

just pissing about in there. I need a purpose, to actually be doing something worthwhile,

achieving something with them, otherwise what’s the point?

Tommy (M, 40-45)

There were exceptions where sheer technicality remains a dominant motivator for

some, albeit a minority. Yet this is not an entirely male experience. For two of the

women and three of the men, motivation for undertaking IT was less to do with what

computers could achieve in terms of application, but rather the technical processes

underpinning them. Janet for example (in Table 5.5) emphasises it was the

application of logic that drove her, while Stuart discusses his interest in the hardware

side due to its more technical focus.

I wanted to work in the systems rather than the application team, so what that means is I

didn’t want to develop, write programs for the end user, I wanted to look after the equipment

[because] I suppose it’s more technical. There was also more money in it …it’s more about

how the whole stuff works rather than making it work for you...

Stuart (M, 55-60)

Nonetheless, a blurring between technology and use of technology was more

common in the data. Acknowledgment is required that these responses may have

been given because either the distinction is not clear or important to them, or

alternatively, because they have framed their responses in a way to make a layperson

(the interviewer) understand the technology more easily.

What is clear is that there are multiple motivations for pursuit of IT work. In seeking

to further clarify the gender patterns across these different motivations, a broad

classification has been made of the accounts in this study. Drawing together the

respondents’ stated and implied motivations, three categories have emerged in line

with the discussion above.

The three categories are:

(i) Technology driven: motivated to enter IT work by an interest in the work

itself, technology or what technology can do.

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(ii) Fit driven: motivated to enter IT work because of a perceived fit between

the IT role and one’s personal attributes or skills or fit between the IT role

and career goals (i.e. offers more senior role).

(iii) Conditions driven: motivated to enter IT work because of the conditions

of the industry, such as high pay, growth opportunities, security, travel

etc.

The categorisation used has been developed from coding the stated motivations and

reviewing transcripts to check for fit with whole career history narratives. These are

intended to be illustrative and not generalizable, with Table 5.6 displaying the

gender breakdown of respondents in each category and what proportion of each

gender is associated with each category.

Table 5.6 Motivation for pursing IT careers, by gender

Source: Analysis of respondent’s narrative accounts, 2017

NB/ Five of the respondents (three male and two females) could not be allocated into one of these groups, as

they opted not to discuss their motivations in accordance with the coding’s utilised, therefore they have been

omitted from this analysis.

It is clear that for a large proportion of this workforce it was the nature of the specific

IT role and the conditions of the industry which prompted their interest, not because

it was the technology sector per se. This raises questions about the value of placing

such policy emphasis on getting young girls interested in IT education on the basis

of technology itself as a solution to female underrepresentation.

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For those that claimed to be motivated by the conditions of the industry, both male

and female, the most common reason stated was the high levels of remuneration

available. Despite a gender pay gap ranging from 7 per cent for IT Operations

Technicians up to 25 per cent for those working as IT Project/Programme Managers

(Tech Partnership 2015a), pay inequality was not raised by any female participants

as diminishing financial motivation. This may just be due to a lack of information,

or a reflection of female acceptance of the inevitability of a gender pay gap.

Importantly, the narrative accounts highlighted how different influences could

contribute to shaping perceptions of IT work and enable women to both develop an

interest in and have the confidence to pursue it. Referring back to the illustrative

quotes in Table 5.5, some of these influences are clear. Having access to technology

and/or working with IT teams is a vital component of making these transitions from

other career paths. For those at university when IT careers were considered,

computer provision and access was vital. However, in line with the previous

discussion concerning blurring of lines between technology and use of technology,

for many of these women career motivation was drawn not only from having access

to computers but also having a specific purpose for which to use it. Georgia

underlined this when she described using IT to create streamlined business

processes in her industrial placement year. These experiences stand contrast to the

‘tinkering’ experiences characteristic of male accounts that developed technology

interests.

For those working in other careers when observation of IT or IT workers in practice

creates awareness, it is through the encouragement and flexibility of their employers

that they really exploit the opportunity to gather knowledge. For instance, Bethany

discusses how she worked closely with the implementation team of a new client

relationship management (CRM) tool, despite it not being in her job description.

The IT team she worked with identified her aptitude in this area and relayed this to

her manager who then pushed her to pursue IT work.

[The CRM consultant team] had told [my manager] that I was a natural with this

stuff, so I got to spend more time with them…One of the guys was lovely, really

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encouraging…also helped with applying for IT jobs in the end, because I had no idea

where to start

Bethany (F, 30-35)

She goes on to credit this managers assistance with applications to IT companies,

and his network of contacts for her successful entrance into the field. Other accounts

similarly reflect the importance of having others ‘spot’ talent or aptitude in these

experiences (see Sylvia and Liza in Table 5.5.) and encouraging them to pursue

opportunities. For some this is the management in their existing role, for others it is

championing by an IT worker which supports those transitioning careers.

5.5 SEEKING FURTHER IT QUALIFICATIONS

Once a decision has been made to pursue IT work, the individual then has to make

an assessment of whether their skills and experience would allow them entry into

the field. There were a number of influences shaping the extent to which individuals

perceived entrance to IT professions to be feasible. These included:

(i) The type of IT work sought,

(ii) The level and relevance of their current educational background for that

role,

(iii) The amount of support they have for industry entry (e.g. their network of

contacts).

Assessments by participants as to whether additional qualifications were required

for certain roles were informed by the formal requirements in job applications

and/or established through contacts with existing IT workers.

Those, mainly male, respondents who had decided to pursue an IT career prior to

university, opted to pursue an appropriate degree to allow for industry entry. For

those seeking more technical work (such as programmers, developers and

architects) possession of a STEM education was generally seen as a prerequisite for

obtaining IT work. Transitioning to the IT industry with this background was not

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considered problematic, even for those who had little exposure to computing

beyond that contained in degree courses or obtained through work experiences.

For those with a non-STEM background, the shift to technical work was seen as

much more difficult – both for men and women. Moreover, the vast majority of those

with non-STEM backgrounds did not indicate that technical work would be their

preference. Rather they sought out roles such as project management, service

management and consulting, which were more aligned with their perception of their

own existing skills and abilities. There was a notable exception to this trend, the case

of Hannah, who had become interested in IT work through work experience shortly

after graduating. Although she would have preferred to have developed more

technical skills and move into software development, she felt constrained by a

combination of the affordability of education and the lack of universally-recognized

IT qualifications outside of the higher education system:

R: In all honesty, I just applied for graduate [recruitment schemes at IT] companies that took

an economics degree. A lot of them didn’t. I knew I wouldn’t get on a really technical one, but

looking back I might have enjoyed being more technical

I: Did you think about getting another, IT-focused qualification?

R: For about a minute [laughs] I couldn’t afford another degree, not that I’d have wanted to

do another three years really, and I don’t know any other tech qualifications that are widely

recognised, do you?

Hannah (F, 35-40)

She took a financially pragmatic approach, seeking entrance into IT companies with

the expectation that movement to technical occupations would be possible later in

her career, made easier with the support of company acquired skills and experience.

Examining her work history however, this transition did not occur, and she remains

in less-technical roles. In contrast, for those at pre-degree or undertaking degree

stages, there was an ability to adapt their education to facilitate their later entry to

the IT industry. For instance, Seren developed an interest in IT work through paid

employment after abandoning her initial art degree. Based on this experience she

opted to return to university and complete and IT-related degree, facilitated by a

foundation year programme:

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So I went back to university and did like a foundation year in engineering and computing...

But from that I got into [a Russell Group] University to do a computer science degree, and

that's how it all started.

Seren (F, 35-40)

Janet similarly used a masters ‘conversion’ course to enable the transition to IT-

education. What is noteworthy about these accounts in relation to additional

(postgraduate) education, is that possession of a lower level IT educational award is

not a prerequisite for pursuit of a higher qualification, contrary to the assumption

underpinning pipeline approaches to underrepresentation. While the respondents

noted that acceptance onto computer science degrees typically required possession

of numerical or ‘technical’ A-level, such as maths and core sciences – thus reinforcing

the crossover between IT and STEM qualifications - this was not always the case. For

instance, Seren’s non-technical A-levels and negligible computing experience did

not appear to limit her ability to complete a university course in computing and

engineering albeit at a foundation level, and she continued into the industry in a

technical occupation. In another example, Lucy had pursued an engineering degree,

and had very limited exposure to IT either pre- or during university. However,

following a short period of using computer aided design (CAD) during her

engineering degree she was inspired to pursue a master’s degree in computing, and

was accepted to, and funded for, an Information Systems masters course.

While direct transitions between non-STEM and IT education were in the minority

across the accounts, it demonstrates that there is an extent of flexibility to switch

between IT, STEM and non-STEM education, but only if the recruiting educational

institutions facilitate and support these transitions. The existence of foundation

courses, conversion courses, funding opportunities and flexibility toward

prerequisite requirements for IT courses, facilitated female entry into the sector and

mitigated constraints associated with non-STEM education. This offers

opportunities to reconnect women with the ‘leaky pipeline’, possibilities rarely

considered in other studies.

Moreover, as is alluded to in several accounts (including that of Hannah above), the

absence of formal IT qualifications associated with a dominant professional

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framework means that companies are reliant upon Higher Educational institutions

to provide skills. That is not to say that IT-related qualifications do not exist, but

simply that they are not widely recognised and as such considered of limited value:

You need a degree to get your foot in the door, but then it’s experience not qualifications that

people judge you on. They don’t care if you have a whatever [qualification] in software

development…they want to see you have done it successfully here and here and here, you

know.

Ethan (M, 30-35)

This limits the options available to those lacking the relevant skills to pursue

additional education outside of the formal system, but for whom returning to higher

education is too costly or otherwise unfeasible.

For those that did not have a relevant education, or in the case of three workers no

higher education qualification at all, there was a greater reliance upon their work

experience and network of contacts to facilitate their entry. Contact with IT

professionals over the course of their working lives not only prompted consideration

of IT careers, but also could provide them with knowledge and peer advocates that

could ease their recruitment into the industry. Passing their names on to those

recruiting or providing a positive reference for an application was viewed as

particularly valuable in IT given its heavy reliance on informal networks for work

allocation (discussed in the next chapter, see 6.3.2 Processes of work allocation). All

workers in this study stressed that formal qualifications and certifications were less

valuable that having someone with high reputational capital ‘vouch’ for you. In light

of this support, many of the workers did not consider it necessary to return to

education or seek out further experience before targeting an IT role.

Again, the majority of non-IT qualified respondents noted how it was “a gamble” or

“luck” that they were able to access IT work. Yet as the next section considers, this

luck is liable to have been aided by the recruitment process of the employing

organisations.

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5.6 METHOD OF ENTRY

Variances in the motivation and timing for pursuit of IT work and the resultant

differences in educational endowments create implications for the viability of

different modes of entry into the industry. Across the narratives and the company

interviews, three primary ‘modes of entry’ emerged: (i) apprenticeships, (ii) graduate

recruitment5, or (iii) experienced hire6. Table 5.7 outlines the methods of entry by

gender and age group.

Table 5.7 Mode of entry by age and gender

Source: Analysis of respondent’s narrative accounts

Both workers that used the apprenticeship route were male. They had already

developed an early interest in computing as a hobby, and then used available IT-

related courses to develop that interest into formal qualifications equivalent to A-

levels, albeit at lower grade levels than the majority of university courses may have

required. Sam pursued a BTEC in Information Technology, while Adam completed

a computer studies A-level before applying for a Level-4 Apprenticeship7, which is

comparable to a foundation degree (British Computing Society 2017). Nonetheless,

the main driver behind selection of an apprenticeship was the capacity to gain

practical experience while earning, rather than learning in a formal environment.

The main routes of entry, however, are through either graduate entry or recruitment

into a professional role as an experienced hire. There appear to be some notable

5 The term ‘graduate recruitment’ relates to circumstances where the worker entered via a graduate specific

recruitment programme. 6 The term ‘experienced hire’ refers to circumstances where the worker entered via either an entry level position

that did not form part of a specific graduate programme, or via a non-entry level position. 7 The IT apprenticeships available and their academic equivalencies are listed in Appendix 11.

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gender differences in entry patterns, although this sample is designed to be

illustrative rather than generalizable. Most obviously, a higher proportion of women

entered as experienced hires than men, at 62 per cent and 56 per cent respectively.

While lower numbers of both men and women entered as graduates, at 41 per cent

for women and 36 per cent for men.

Looking at generational differences, a higher number of both younger women and

men (35 and younger) entered as graduates, while older age groups had a greater

tendency to enter as experienced hires - although there were some gender

differences. Women in the middle age group (36-50) were far more likely to enter as

experienced hires than as graduate hires, at 75 per cent and 25 per cent of that age

group respectively. For men of the 36-50 age group, the comparative figures are56

per cent as experienced hires and 44 per cent entry via graduate hires. Despite the

older age group (51 and above) being a much smaller sample, again the tendency is

for both men and women to enter as experienced hires.

There are a number contributing factors from the accounts that help explain these

patterns. Where the decision to pursue an IT role occurred over the course of

undertaking other work experience in alternative careers, it could prove too late to

apply as a ‘graduate’. The majority of large IT companies’ schemes required a person

to have graduated within two to three years of applying for the scheme in order to

be eligible. The majority of women entering post professional work experience in

this study were, therefore, ineligible for entry via the graduate scheme. Rather, they

were required to enter by the ‘experienced hire’ route. This entailed either applying

directly for IT job roles, or by utilizing a personal network of contacts gained through

these initial working experiences.

I was kept in head office [of a retail chain], and I looked after the UK HR systems. And that

was it. And then I was hooked onto IT, we implemented Oracle to replace it, and that’s when

I met [my future manager], and I thought I’d quite like to do a consultancy, more money, so I

left. So I phoned up [the manager] and yeah, joined [Small Consultancy]

Ruth (F, 35-40)

Again, the encouragement and support offered by networks of contacts was

highlighted as vital for the successful recruitment into the industry. The commonly

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held view was that graduate recruits were advantaged over experienced hires in their

introduction to the industry. Perceptions of those that entered into professional

roles were that graduates received a larger amount of training and support, and

greater visibility to management, in comparison to experienced hires. Sylvia suggest

that graduates are provided not only with formal skills training, but also information

about how the organisation operates and clearer paths of development, not similarly

offered to experienced hires, arguing:

[I]f you've come in on the graduate programme, they spend a lot of time saying, 'this is how

they're structured, this is how we work…'we expect you after x-amount of time to be up to this

level, after a further amount of time you climb to the next level'. [Experienced hires] didn't

get, although we were promised it, we got nothing.

Sylvia (F, 45-50)

Furthermore, graduates were seen to be awarded a period of grace in which they

could build their skills without the expectation that they would be client-billable. In

contrast, those entering as experienced hires felt that they were not supported in the

same way, receiving limited training, and were expected to be billable from the

outset.

Generationally the justifications for this perceived preferential treatment varied. For

the older cohort it was perceived that as graduates they were viewed as the ‘best and

brightest’ upon entry into a workplace, where many of the other entry-level jobs were

seen as routine or lower skilled (for instance data entry or technician). For more

recent cohorts, the formalisation of the graduate programme allowed for companies

to provide a comprehensive initial training programmes, and the entrants were able

develop a network of contacts quickly with other graduates, and with those involved

with supporting the scheme, such as line manager or subject specialists.

The scope to enter the industry as either a graduate or as an experienced hire was

influenced by their educational background. Table 5.8 outlines the mode of entry

used by those with different educational subject types.

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Table 5.8 Mode of entry by degree subject.

Source: Analysis of respondent’s narrative accounts

For those with an IT or STEM related degree, the main entry route was via designated

graduate placements or programs, usually on a ‘technical’ track. This was the entry

route used by the majority of male respondents, especially those aged 35 and below.

In contrast, as with Hannah previously, those who did not have a STEM degree

frequently did not apply for technical roles, instead seeking roles as business

analysts, programme managers, technical sales or consultants. For the vast majority

of this group their exclusion from technical roles was not considered an issue, as

they expressed a preference for less technical roles and entered on those graduate

tracks. Intriguingly however, companies retained flexibility to transition those

applying for one track to the other. In the case of Georgia, for example, she

considered her lack of technical skills and her non-STEM degree to be prohibiting

her from entry via a technical consulting programme. Instead she applied for a more

business-orientated programme. Although not specifically applying for technical

roles, upon selection she was allocated to a technical stream:

I: It was technical, so you went straight into technical with no technical background?

R: No [background]. And then I was coding SQL!

Georgia (F, 35-40)

This demonstrates the type of flexibility that recruiting managers can exert in

allocating to graduate programmes. Many of graduate programmes recruit to broad

technical or less technical ‘routes’, with the main criteria being general skills and fit’

with company culture, while specific job or role allocation undertaken later. This

experience is evident in Bella’s narrative, for instance. Additionally, other examples

note a lack of specificity in recruitment activities.

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I applied for a role in [to the company] quite generally - and the role was probably described a

bit inaccurate for what it actually is…it's a bit of surprise really.

Bella (F, 25-30)

[T]hey were hiring a number of graduates but there wasn't a graduate scheme as such… The

job I applied for, I didn't actually get but then they passed my name to one of their colleagues

who said, "Oh, we've got this other job. It's just a one-off, one role from how you interviewed.

For the other job, we think you might be suitable." And I got that one.

Susan (F, 40-45)

Examples such as these highlight the power that organisations retain in relation to

shaping careers, undermining concepts of individual agency in these early stages of

careers. They also demonstrate that many of the prerequisites for hiring

programmes are not fixed, but rather open to subjective interpretation and

application by recruiting managers as gatekeepers. Given the importance of entering

as an experienced hire for those without STEM degrees of relevant computing

experience, these perceptions have interesting gender implications. Furthermore, it

is clear that the nature of organisational structure, along with recruitment and

training processes create an environment that can either facilitate or restrict these

paths of entry. This is where attention now turns.

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5.7 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES AND PATHS OF ENTRY

Prior studies have already highlighted the influential effects of organisational

structures and processes on the creation of opportunities for female employment

(for example Ahuja 2002; Riemenschneider et al. 2006; Armstrong et al. 2007;

Cahusac and Kanji 2014). Moreover, the previous section has highlighted the way

paths of entry were facilitated by characteristics of organisations, such as

recruitment criteria and methods.

This section examines the ways in the organisational structures have interacted with

wider social and institutional changes in the course of respondents’ careers to either

enable or constrain their entrance via the pathways described in previous sections.

It then considers evidence from career history respondents, company

representatives and other stakeholders, that broader changes are altering these

conditions and reducing scope for entrance via these routes.

5.7.1 Conditions facilitating alternative paths of entry in this study

Many of the entrants via alternative routes were in the older cohorts, above 45, and

they entered the industry during the late 1970s and through to 1990s. There is

evidence in this study to suggest that the ability to enter via alternative routes,

primarily without an IT or specific STEM degree, was shaped by several social and

institutional features.

One of the most important was the rapid expansion of the IT industry at this point,

in conjunction with the availability of a limited number of graduates generally, and

virtually no formal IT-specific education. The majority of respondents who accessed

the industry at that time did so through large, multinational organisations. The few

that worked directly for small companies in their first employment possessed STEM

degrees and/or experience of computing. As such, their employers were typically

large, multi-layered and bureaucratically organised. The entrance of those without

formal computing skills was enabled through recruitment into entry-level jobs,

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characterised by routine or less-skilled work. Few external and formal educational

routes existed that provided technical, IT specific training. IT companies therefore

had to provide substantial training to create a workforce with the skills they

required. New employees were not expected to possess computing skills: companies

anticipated the need to provide training regardless of technicality of role. Therefore,

they presented roles to which intelligent individuals could be employed but offered

training and support for vertical progression through the hierarchy.

The industry was argued by stakeholders to have been reliant on recruiting highly

technical graduates for the core technical aspects of IT work in the absence of

dedicated IT training pathways and these core roles continued to be filled by

overwhelmingly male STEM graduates. Although the career histories were

suggestive of a continuing preference for male graduates in these roles, some women

with a STEM background noted how an openness to women prompted by the

disparity between a higher education system that still created limited numbers of

STEM graduates, and the IT industry’s growing demands.

More often, participants in this study entered into the industry via relatively routine

and standardised roles, such as data entry, basic programming or systems

maintenance roles, and many of the older respondents in this study, both males and

females describe the jobs entered into as relatively simple or routine. Although

comparatively low-skill by current graduate standards, they provided a platform to

acquire computing skills and opportunities for quick progression. Tony and Gemma

recollections were indicative of the routine nature of these roles:

I got the job, and that was basically operating printers…you tend to move round sections, I

was operating printers, doing all the statements, bank statements and things like that. But

you move on, and I did, to the tape area, hard disk area, changing discs, changing the old reel

tapes, sending them out to BACS, clearings, things like that.

Tony (M, 40-45)

Essentially, you had a bit of porcelain tile that you covered in layers of metal, basically, and

then you etched away parts of that to a pattern, soldered on tips, so that the chips could be

soldered on later. …And, about 18 months, so after two years they junked the project,

overtaken by technology, and I moved on

Gemma (F, 50-55)

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For Jane, she had initially taken a job as a media librarian after applying despite the

fact she ‘didn’t know what it was when I went up for the interview’. She progressed

quickly to batch scheduling, and onto helpdesk work before going for a junior

systems programmer role:

I’d come up through the ranks, I knew everything there was to know about what it was they

were trying to do, and the real experience that they wanted for this,

Jane (F, 45-50)

Due to the training investment, it may be that employers were greatly incentivised

to foster worker commitment through the establishment of these formal career

paths through the organisation and a relatively stable pay hierarchy. Accounts of

older workers referred to the ‘stages’ and ‘steps’ of their early careers in a different

way than they speak to the more complex movements characteristic of recent forms

of their careers. Moreover, many noted how they felt that time allowances and

provision for training upon entry had been generous, and a standard pay and

progression structure was in place to encourage development:

It was always, you started off as a technical manager, despite whether you had any ability for

that or not, and then you went on to be a sales manager, because that was the really grown

up thing to do. Then, you could progress up the management chain, and that was the only

career path, really.

Gemma (F, 50-55)

In terms of actually, achieving, you know, if you didn't screw up, if you did a good job, then

career progression would just happen. You would gain experience, more junior people would

come in below you, and it was kind of automatic, actually.

Luke (M, 40-45)

Moreover, examples in this study illustrate that for older workers, employment

tenure was high – with four of the older study participants remaining with the same

company for between 15 and 20 years.

A body representing IT employers highlighted the combination of these supportive

routes in and the shortage of graduate labour generally and STEM labour in

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particular as fostering an ‘openness’ to recruitment that was beneficial for female

representation:

We have a lot of [older] IT women because they’d come in, they’d spent their children’s years

doing data entry, they’d discovered they had an aptitude for computing and then they’d been

able to move up. Because it was a new discipline…there were no preconceptions about what,

who should or shouldn’t be doing it. In fact, keyboard work was essentially seen as women’s

work, so women who had an aptitude could naturally float out of that…[and] they’d move into

management jobs...

(Employer Representative Body, 2015)

While this may have helped some women enter, it is not to say that all IT

occupations were equally accessible for women as for men. Gendered assumptions

around technology and technical ability as a masculine attribute were prevalent.

Many of the older female participants, for example, noted how they had more

negative experiences related to gender earlier in their careers than would be

considered acceptable now. So, while entry-level positions existed that were

considered viable options for women, it was not always easy or desirable to pursue

career options in the IT industry. Yet some women did, and many of the

respondents, both female and male, attribute long and satisfying IT careers to the

accessibility of opportunities in these early stages. However, there are some

indications that these routes are narrowing.

5.7.2 Changes reducing viability of alternative pathways

Wider social and economic changes have occurred that have altered the conditions

that facilitated these alternative paths of entry. These changes include (i) the

establishment of a formal IT education as the standard pathway into ICT

occupations, (ii) social changes creating a broader market of graduates and, (iii)

reduction in entry-level positions and removal of structured career paths. These will

now be examined in turn.

The formation of an IT-specific educational pathway from pre-GCSE level through

to higher education has created a wide range of courses that seek to develop IT-

specific skills sets and abilities. Previously companies were reliant on recruiting

those with more general STEM degrees for highly technical roles and providing the

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IT-specific training, they now were able to recruit workers with a specific skill set –

namely computer science degrees. Moreover, the opening up of the higher education

sector has created a broader market of graduates from which companies are able to

select. These changes occurred in tandem with what one respondent suggested was

a broader shift in the perceived role of higher education. Instead of being providers

of education, universities and colleges are now considered by companies to be

providers of skills, as these two quotes selected from the stakeholder interviews

indicate:

…The university sector is being pushed much more towards a training environment rather

than an education environment…so university courses are being rewritten to be closer to

industry needs, which I think is obviously positive for employers.

(Employer Representative Body, 2015)

R: [Companies are now] expecting to take people – if you like, off the shelf…have them “plug

and play … they will be expecting people to come in with IT qualifications…whereas I know

people were coming in in the mid-eighties to [a large telecommunications company] and they

were coming in with arts degrees and then being assessed and then trained.

(ICT Union, 2015)

These changes have a number of implications for use of the ‘alternative’ entry routes

identified in this chapter.

While there have previously been divisions between graduates and non-graduates in

terms of recruitment, the substantial expansion of the UK higher education industry

has created an incentive for companies to set more firm prerequisites when

recruiting for any roles. Therefore, despite the pressures of significant industry

growth creating demands on workforce capacity, IT companies can restrict

applications to those from only graduates, and within that only those with relevant

or technical degrees, focused approach to recruitment:

I think one of the reasons is that the entry pathway has got very narrow because it has

become run by the box-ticking, the right GCSEs, the right A Levels, so the pipeline has

tightened very much.

(Employer Representative Body, 2015)

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This has two implications on those entry routes. In terms of influence on

recruitment, the availability of a larger graduate workforce calls for companies to

implement further processes of refinement in setting recruitment prerequisites. To

make the recruitment process more manageable and reduce the associated costs and

time in processing larger numbers of graduate applications, companies require

adherence with more specific entry conditions. For instance, companies request all

applicants for technical roles have both a relevant STEM degree and demonstrable

interest in computing. While the logic is understandable, this limits the scope to

enter without a STEM degree - this is particularly exclusionary for women who make

up a small proportion of qualifiers from these subjects. Claims from a number of the

company representatives through this study suggest that IT employers are seeking

to address diversity concerns through ‘opening up’ recruitment requirements, by

relaxing the educational requirements to simply ‘a 2:1 degree’ rather than prescribing

subject areas and investing more in apprenticeships and internship programmes.

I know that in the big companies there was a recognition – the pool was getting so small, the

demographic had shifted so much that this pool where they’d all fished for white males, with

IT degrees, had just disappeared. It was really clear that you had to do something!

(IT Professional Body, 2016)

Yet evidence suggests this is limited to roles that would be considered less technical.

Possession of a STEM degree and demonstration of an interest in technology were

identified as continuing requirements for most technical roles. Flexibility in entry

prerequisites was mainly applied to less technical occupations. As such, women are

more likely to find successful entrance through less-technical openings. Rather than

addressing underrepresentation, this could be argued to reinforce occupational

segregation of women into less technical roles.

A second implication is that in moving the responsibility for training predominantly

to external bodies, employers have reduced their own training provision and

adjusted the employer-employee relationship so that they are not willing to train

those who enter without the appropriate skills. This is part of wider structural trends

in contemporary employment (see 3.4 Knowledge work and career forms for more

details) including a flattening of organisational structures, and the associated

removal of formal pathways through the organisation. In relation to alternative

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routes of entry, this reduces the organisational incentive and capacity to recruit

workers who have not received the ‘correct’ external training, namely IT or STEM

degrees. As companies are afforded greater external flexibility from the occupational

labour market, they become less reliant on, and therefore less committed to, a strong

internal labour market. Companies no longer offer support for vertical progression,

and employees no longer offer employer commitment. Companies have little

incentive to provide more than firm-specific training, perhaps explaining the

perception across the respondent’s interviews that formal company training

provision has been reduced:

I think, when I first joined the company, you had an objective, which you were never measured

on, but I think managers looked at it, that you should do 22 days of training a year.

Everybody would be quite shocked if you tried to do 22 days of training now.

Gemma (F, 50-55)

Broader structural changes have also reduced the availability of entry-level positions

with potential for vertical progression, which characterised many of the alternative

pathways in the narrative accounts. The main reasons for this are interrelated and

concern structural changes within organisations and technological developments.

As many of the older respondents reflected, the jobs to which they were initially

recruited are no longer there. This is typically due to technological changes which

has resulted in the routine and lower skilled jobs either being redundant or, if not,

either offshored or automated. While this naturally removes the valuable on-ramps

used by those entering outside of the dominant pathway, it also has broader

implications for training - as Tony considers:

…We’re automating everything …There’ll still be a core of people needed for various things,

but the main thing that I’m relying on at the moment is the fact that people aren’t being

trained in the same way, so…they don’t understand the tasks behind that automation.

Tony (M, 40-45)

In this way, companies are recruiting knowledge workers from the outset, rather than

creating them internally. Employees are not expected to build up their

understanding of technologies in the same way, rather they are recruited for specific

skills and expected to apply those for the benefit of the company from the outset

(“plug and play” graduates). Positions that remain onshore do so in most cases

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because they are customer facing, are vital to the companies’ core activities and/or

highly technically skilled, as exemplified in this quote:

I think the lack of roles really for me in [the large IT company] in terms of development stuff

seemed to get less and less every year as it gets more offshore. So I've ended up working a lot

more in the public sector where they've got security issues where you can't offshore

everything.

Seren (F, 35-40)

Where occupational markets replace internal labour markets, greater instability for

some workers emerges. This is reflected in a comparison of the career histories of

older and younger workers. For while the tenures of older workers are actually fairly

high (despite frequent moves in role and project terms) in this sample, the tenures

of younger workers are much shorter and characterised by consistent movement and

change, in line with studies highlighting a turnover culture amongst IT workers

(Moore and Burke 2002; Bennett Thatcher et al. 2014; Joseph et al. 2015).

In respect to the broadening of degree-related entry requirements, upon

interrogation of this practice, this tended to occur only in terms of the programmes

that would be considered less technical anyway. As one recruiting manager from a

midsize IT company articulates:

I: Do you take people with non-technical degrees as technical, if they can demonstrate [a

strong interest and aptitude for technology]?

R: Erm, potentially, yes. Would their application reach us [as line management] - maybe not.

We've never had a written policy, or even an unwritten policy, or rejecting people if they don't

have what we consider to be a suitable degree...Have we ever recruited somebody into a

technical role who's an English graduate - no.

This approach could result in a bolstering of the ‘technical’ and ‘periphery’

dichotomisation in IT roles, rather than an undermining of it, which Simard and

Gilmartin (2010) suggest enhances masculine dominance of technology rather than

tackling it.

Formal IT-related apprenticeship schemes are of fairly recent inception and are

widely regarded by industry stakeholders and companies as providing positive

opportunities for redressing the gender imbalance.

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There are some opportunities now that are opening up for around apprentices and that may be

an opportunity to change the diversity mix a bit.

(Union Representative)

We never used to talk about apprentices and now that’s absolutely the buzzword. The

government’s obsessed with it and I think that should be very positive for the tech sector.

Young people that are interested in software/developer roles at levels 3 & 4 should have some

knowledge or experience in coding

(Professional body for IT)

While internships and apprenticeships would ostensibly offer opportunities for girls

and young women to enter without having pursued an IT qualification, which is a

positive development, the findings of this study suggest that it is often the process

of undertaking a degree or work experiences which provides the catalyst for interest

in IT to come to the fore. Women therefore come to it an older life stage than would

fit with the apprenticeship and internship model, limiting its potential usefulness

for tackling the gender disparity. As many of the stakeholders have argued, if IT

employers are serious about tackling female underrepresentation, they have to seek

out girls, to “go where they are” in recruitment efforts, rather than waiting for them

to discover IT instead.

The extent to which the changes that lead to a narrowing of these alternative

pathways can be offset by positive development remains to be seen. But as a

representative of a body of IT employers suggests:

[The women that entered in the 1970s} are all retiring now and they’re not being replaced

because there isn’t this porous entry level for women or for anyone

(Employer Representative Body, 2015)

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5.8 SUMMARY

Examination of the career histories of male and female IT workers has identified a

range of ‘paths of entry’ into the industry that are used by men and women. While

there is heterogeneity between the genders, there is also more variance between the

accounts of women. In contrast to much of the policy and practitioner literature,

which focuses on the ‘educational’ pipeline as a major contributor to female

underrepresentation, this study suggests that women have been successfully using

other routes to access the IT professions. While these alternatives may be more

accessible to those focusing on less-technical occupations, some men and women

have similarly used them to access more technical occupations. These cases

challenge the current rhetoric claiming the necessity of a STEM-education to be an

IT professional.

While the majority of men discovered an early interest in computing, facilitated by

access to and support for using the computer, many of the female accounts discussed

the pursuit of IT work as a product of professional contacts with it. While limited

support has been found to suggest women in this industry were negatively

influenced away from computers or technology in their early years, most female

accounts lacked evidence of the active support and access to computers, which

characterised the male accounts in use of computers. Authors such as Woodfield

(2000) have emphasised a gender difference between men, who are perceived as

motivated by technology in of itself, as a technical concept, and women who are

driven by what technology can do. This study has found fewer binary distinctions

along gender lines in this respect, with the technology and its use being inextricably

linked in most of the accounts.

This chapter has, however, highlighted a further important distinction between

being attracted to the IT professions because of technology (either as a means to an

end or a focus of interest in of itself) and an attraction to IT work for the conditions

and fit it provides with one’s own working preferences and abilities. Arguably, for

many of the women, seeing what ‘IT occupations’ entailed, and what a specific role

achieved and how they would fit with that, was more influential on their career

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choices than an abstract concept of an IT career. The nature of this prompt may

explain why they joined the industry later in their careers, as it was only at that point

this type of first-hand access was feasible.

Transitions into IT education or professional IT occupations from other career paths

outlined in these accounts have been facilitated by many socio-cultural and

institutional, occupational, organisational and personal factors. These influences

have been summarised in Table 5.8, in line with the framework employed for this

study. These factors interact however, to create circumstances that allow for greater

opportunities or constraints in entering IT work.

For instance, the growth of the industry created demand for graduate level, typically

STEM, workers. Due to the absence of IT formal educational provision companies

developed robust training programmes and used flexible recruitment methods to fill

workforce demands. Work was constructed of a wider range of occupation types,

providing entry-level positions that created a basis to develop skills and progress.

For female graduates at this point, these elements in combination allowed them

entry. It is only through interaction of these elements that patterns of participation

can be understood.

The expansion of the higher education sector and greater provision of IT-specific

education removes the impetus for companies to adopt a flexible approach to

recruitment. There are a high number of ‘plug and play’ qualified graduates available

to them, albeit almost all male. Reduction in company training provisions and

processes of offshoring and automation have reduced scope for all but the most

highly qualified to enter as experienced hires. Although companies claim to be

opening up recruitment in response to diversity challenges, examples in this study

suggest that this is done in a limited way and actually reproduces occupational

segregation, rather than tackling it. The openness is typically restricted to less

technical occupations, with the more technical roles still requiring formal STEM-

degrees and some experience with computing, for instance. Women are therefore

more easily filtered into the less technical roles and, in light of training reduction,

may find it very hard to transition to technical roles later even if the opportunity

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arose. In a telling reflection, several of the female participants in this study noted

that they would be unable to gain access to IT work if they were seeking to enter

now.

The next chapter moves to consider how those women who have managed to access

the IT industry successfully may experience gendered career constraints in the

course of developing their careers, and how companies’ practices and processes may

be helping or hindering female IT workers.

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Table 5.9 Summary of the contextual influences shaping female entrance into the IT industry, arranged according to the proposed analytical framework

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6 EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS:

GENDERED CAREER TRAJECTORIES IN IT

6.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter considers the potential constraints female IT workers encounter in

maintaining and advancing their careers in comparison to men, how they respond

to these, and in what ways this may contribute to understanding low female

representation in certain occupations and more senior levels.

It begins by reflecting on how the nature and organisation of work have shaped the

definitions of career maintenance and career advancement in IT work, before

considering to what extent this is reflective of contemporary career forms. The

discussion then moves to consider how organisational processes and practices

interrelate with socio-economic and institutional factors, occupational

characteristics and individual contexts to enable or restrict career development in

different ways for different workers. This chapter focuses primarily on direct gender

issues, as constraints relating to reconciling family and care with IT work will be

explored more explicitly in the last empirical chapter. The last section examines

how companies have sought to promote female inclusion through provision of both

specific adaptions to HR policies and processes and through gender-specific-

interventions. Consideration of the efficacy of these measures is undertaken, along

with a broader reflection of how their specific aims and composition frames issues

of female underrepresentation and what effect this has on workers’ perceptions of

gender issues in IT. Finally, this chapter discusses the extent to which these findings

contribute to understanding persistent female underrepresentation in IT work. In

doing so, it addresses the following specific research questions:

RQ 2: What differences do men and women experience in maintaining and advancing

an IT career?

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SRQ 2.1: Is there any evidence that HR processes and practices typical of IT

companies create processes of exclusion for women in comparison to men?

SRQ 2.2: How do companies frame the issue of female underrepresentation

and what measures do they take to address this issue, if any?

SRQ 2.3: What evidence is available of the adequacy and effectiveness of these

measures on female retention and advancement?

SRQ 2.4: How do these findings contribute to understanding patterns of

female underrepresentation and segregation?

This chapter uses the 62 narrative interviews with female and male career history

respondents to establish their perceptions of career risk and opportunities over their

life course, and how their personal circumstances interrelate with their experiences

of their organisational context. Within the interviews, participants described their

career histories and then were asked follow-up questions relating to their career

movements, their career plans and also asked about how they believed that their

personal circumstances and organisational contexts had influenced their careers.

This data is analysed in conjunction with the accounts provided by HR

representatives and E&D representatives, detailing HR policies and processes and

gender-specific interventions used in IT companies. Supplementary details relating

to the efficacy of interventions or issues with HR policies and processes have been

extracted from other contextual interviews.

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6.2 CAREER TRAJECTORIES IN IT WORK

Much debate existed as to the nature of IT careers in relation to traditional and

contemporary career forms. The narrative accounts of career history respondents

have provided evidence to support the existence of career forms characterised by an

amalgamation of elements of traditional and contemporary careers. This evidence

relates to (i) the use of both objective and subjective measures when discussing

career success and (ii) career development as both internal and external to

organisations

6.2.1 Measures of career success

Career success was defined in terms aligned with both traditional and contemporary

forms – measured by objective and subjective indicators of success and illustrated in

different preferences for the nature of career development.

Relevant measures of success varied according to whether individuals were

considering their own career, or those of others. When reflecting on their own

careers, measures of career success included the successful balancing of home and

work responsibilities, undertaking challenging work and earning relatively high

wages or enough to be ‘comfortable’. For those that had achieved vertical

progression, reference was also made to their position as an indicator of success. In

contrast, when discussing career success as a more abstract concept, greater

emphasis was paid to traditional notions of success, underpinned by characteristics

aligned to the ‘ideal worker’ norm. Perhaps tellingly, this was particularly evident in

the narratives of younger workers who may be argued to be objective:

So what do you think makes someone successful in [this company]?

R: Really hard working. Not really worrying about hours worked. Because I feel a lot of people

here they work stupid hours sometimes…Like, maybe not enjoying it, but really knowing that

you need to do it

Adam (M, 20-25)

so for me it comes as someone that wants the best outcome, wants to see things done, wants

to...is willing to work hard in order to strive and meet the targets they have set. Yeah, someone

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that’s willing to go out there and keep trying and doesn’t really back down or stop for minor

inconveniences.

Sam (M, 20-25)

Vertical promotion and high pay were similarly articulated to be an important

measure of career success. Two respondents suggested that the complexity of

constant movement, and the lack of objective benchmarks to compare with

colleagues actually reinforced the power of hierarchies, for as one woman notes,

“[job] bands, are the simplest way of measuring success” in a climate in which

everything is new or changes.

Yet, for many of the respondents, both male and female, vertical promotion was not

considered desirable. This is consistent with much of the contemporary careers

literature, in which the boundaryless and protean metaphors emphasise the

movement away from linear upward career trajectories (Arthur and Defillippi 1994;

Hall 2002). For all freelance contractors, career development was comprised entirely

of lateral progressions – moves to more interesting or challenging projects, projects

that offered greater pay (independent of seniority or role change). Alternatively,

these moves could represent meeting another subjective measure of development

for the individual, such as working with a new technology.

While lateral progression was the primary focus for these workers, they did not turn

down promotions where they were offered, or where they were encouraged to apply.

Across the study, there was only one instance in which the encouragement of a

manager to put in a formal application for promotion - with assurances it would be

successful - was actively avoided. This was the case of Seren, who commented that

she had been earmarked for promotion several times, but had resisted efforts to

move upwards, until it became a financial imperative because she liked what she was

doing and did not want to take on managerial responsibilities:

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It's just not the same job, and they don't seem to realise that at all. They just think oh, it's just

the next step, but it's just an entirely different job. I did it for about a year and a half or two

years in the end, just because I needed to get a promotion for the money

Seren (F, 35-40)

For many in technical occupations, who were primarily motivated by use of

technology as an end of itself, (see 5.4 Selecting IT work) taking on managerial

responsibilities was deemed unappealing as it fundamentally altered the nature of

their work. Progression at the lower levels was acceptable, as it meant access to more

interesting work through accumulation of greater reputation in technical terms.

Seren maintains the lack of technical career paths within organisations disincentives

efforts to obtain vertical promotion amongst her network of technical workers and

incentivises them to pursue freelance work.

Pay rises were not automatically aligned with role changes, whereby upward

movements may not be associated with a change in pay bands, resulting in limited,

or marginal, wage increases for additional responsibilities. Companies tended to

have separate, although related, job grades and pay grades so while lateral

progressions were viable within organisations, it was considered harder to achieve

significant pay increases in this way:

I could stay and do lots more and be very successful, but it wouldn't be reflected in salary and

it wouldn't be reflected in me being able to get any kind of promotion because there was no

technical promotion.

Cathy (F, 45-50)

Freelance, in contrast, was seen as offering pay commensurate with their perceived

skills and expertise but as discussed in subsequent sections, the ability to pursue

freelance work is linked to an array of contextual factors, explaining why this was

not a move all workers made.

6.2.2 Framing of career development

The interview data shows that career trajectories and pace of progress varied

extensively between workers. What was consistent was the reporting of careers

demarcated according to projects: respondents recounted their career history in

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terms of project roles, responsibilities and career transitions, in addition to

organisational roles and movements. As a result, three distinct forms of career

transitions can be defined (i) lateral movements, (ii) lateral progressions and (iii)

vertical progressions. The categorisation of these types, along with examples, has

been outlined in Table 6.1. While there were crossovers between vertical

progressions and lateral progressions, and between lateral progressions and lateral

movements in a small number of cases8, typically the respondents were clear as to

whether a transition signified change with no associated career progression or

represented a vertical or a lateral progression. While career advancement was

associated primarily with vertical and lateral progressions, career maintenance can

be seen as primarily associated with ensuring lateral movements (i.e. as long as you

are being assigned to projects you retain employment). Although experienced in

different combinations by different workers over the life course, careers in this

industry were made up of a series of these different types of movements, which

collectively shaped their career trajectory. Figure 6.1 provides a graphic comparison

of these two types of career with an example of a typical career history within this

study.

In this way the sequence and nature of the career paths demonstrate elements of

both traditional and contemporary career forms. There was considerable

heterogeneity in number of different types of movements and organisational tenure

(for example) within gender groups, as well as between them. Consistently, however,

advancement was related to the internal organisational hierarchy, via vertical

progressions, but also beyond organisations – rendering boundaries between

internal and external labour markets relatively indistinct. All but the youngest

workers maintained that they always had “an eye on” opportunities in other

companies. Most workers stated or implied a lack of commitment to their current

employers, and relatedly many of the HR interviewees were accepting of an

inevitable loss of employees to alternative opportunities outside of the organisation.

8 Where the distinction was not clear, follow-up clarification was requested. It was only in cases where no response was received that it remained unclear

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Table 6.1 Types of career transitions identified within the career histories

Despite this purported freedom to look across employers, the narratives suggest

making this transition was viable only to those with substantial amounts of

reputational and skills capital. Organisations were considered essential to the

development of this capital, through provision of access to resources over the life

course, thus undermining suggestions that IT workers are autonomous career agents

at all points in their career.

6.2.3 Continuing reliance on organisations for career development

While many of the older workers acknowledged the routine nature of many of their

initial positions into the industry, all but the youngest of workers in this study

emphasised the bespoke, non-routine, problem solving nature of their work –

regardless of role technicality. Their roles as described use specific skills and

expertise that was developed over time, specific to a relatively narrow occupational

area (e.g. a specific product or project type) and not easily transferred, requiring use

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of codified and tacit expertise. As argued in the literature review, this knowledge

should, in theory, grant them greater autonomy and power in the employment

relationship.

Figure 6.1 Shape of ‘typical’ career paths in IT work

Particularly in early stages of their careers, individuals are heavily reliant on their

organisational membership for access to opportunities that allow them to build

human and reputational capital, necessary to develop careers across organisational

boundaries. All workers had started their careers as employees of organisations,

typically larger IT companies, and most continued to be employees as opposed to

working as freelance contractors. There was interdependency between organisations

and employees in relation to reputation management. Employers require employees

to maintain the reputation of the company to ensure future revenues, while the good

reputation of a company becomes attached to those who work for them, and can be

used to secure better opportunities externally, as emphasised by John:

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Once you have [a multinational IT company] on your CV, people know what you’re about,

they know you are good…. Put in a couple of years and you can move around more

John (M, 50-55)

Networks of contacts were also developed primarily though company employment,

with access to a larger number of colleagues and clients viewed as the prime

mechanism for creating the breadth and depth of personal network to later pursue

other career opportunities. Although many workers also used occupational-based

and personal networks that spanned multiple companies to find roles and

opportunities, this type of network was associated with having reached a certain

level of status within organisations whereby you were viewed as a valued resource.

This pressure to establish reputational capital though vertical promotion reinforced

the hierarchical structure. Meanwhile the ability to transfer to previous clients was

constrained by both competition clauses in contracts, but also by the need to

maintain networks with previous employers for future work.

In these ways, careers were subject to the tensions between expressions of autonomy

and agency, and the adherence to organisational policies and processes required in

order to progress vertically. The way in which these tensions are affected by the

intersection between personal characteristics, specifically of gender, contextual

factors (as per the analytical framework model, see 3.5. Proposed analytical

framework for understanding contemporary female careers) and the organisational

policies and processes is the focus of the next section.

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6.3 HR POLICIES AND PRACTICES: ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT,

PROJECT-WORKING AND GENDERED CAREER CONSTRAINTS

6.3.1 Organisation of work and ‘ideal worker’ norms

In line with the ‘projectification’ literature, career histories in this study reflected

work characterised by the ebb and flow of cyclical work lifecycles. Employees are

expected to accommodate these changing demands by being available to work

intensively for periods whenever and wherever project and client demands required.

Neither male nor female respondents questioned the legitimacy of these availability

and flexibility expectations. They were framed, by both workers and employing

companies, as an inherent part or ‘necessary evil’ of working in IT occupations. IT

professionals received higher autonomy in the ‘low periods’, interesting work and

relatively high pay in return. Like this, these expectations were legitimised within

the organisation culture, making them ‘invisible’ – and creating difficulties for

individual workers to push back against.

This is in line with Acker’s (2006b) contention that work is typically organised

around the ‘ideal worker’ image of an archetypal male who has no caring

responsibilities, which allows him to commit fully to his work. The necessity of

adherence to these expectations for success in vertical and lateral progressions was

reflected strongly in the accounts from IT professionals. In doing so, they created

additional difficulties for female IT workers due to their disproportionate caring

responsibilities.

In addition, these ‘ideal worker’ norms can reinforce sex stereotyping and gendered

discourses relating to women and technology, which are similarly embedded in

these processes and emerge from the career narratives, specifically in terms of

technical competence and management potential. These elements all reduce the

perceived power of women in the employer-employee relationship relative to men,

reducing scope for autonomy and increasing employer constraints for female IT

workers, albeit to varying degrees.

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Contextual factors shape access to power and in turn autonomy and ability to

negotiate constraints. These processes occur in relation to (i) work allocation, (ii)

performance management and, (iii) promotional mechanisms.

6.3.2 Processes of work allocation

Gaining access to the best project opportunities allows for both lateral progression

and, in gaining visibility to senior management, better access to opportunities for

vertical progression.

Within organisational contexts, work is allocated through a combination of formal

mechanisms and through informal networks. IT workers were expected to both

respond to organisation allocations, adapting their circumstances to accommodate

those needs, as well as proactively seek out projects. This combination of

responsiveness and autonomy related to project allocation was framed positively,

providing scope to develop careers according to subjective career preferences. The

extent to which workers can, or do, use each of these mechanisms for access to work

fluctuates over the life course and adjusts in line with nature or role, organisational

seniority, reputational and human capital, and the characteristics of their specific

occupations.

As workers developed skills and a series of informal networks, they developed

greater scope to identify and move to projects with less dependence on formal

allocation mechanisms. The occupational characteristics heavily influenced the

form of work allocation used. For example, Elissa (40-45), described herself as a

technical ‘fire-fighter’, in that she is deployed to projects that get into trouble.

Allocation for her is determined by the project needs with little scope to negotiate,

regardless of her high reputational and skills capital.

In a similar way the possession of niche skills or a ‘tight’ job title or role can limit

project choice. While considered as a form of security in other contexts (such as

negotiating maternity leave, see: 7.2.1 Parental Leave), these workers are considered

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irreplaceable so long as their skills are required, but the number of projects they can

work on is also seen as limited. In contrast, those with broader skills (such as project

management, or consultancy skills) are less restricted in the nature of projects they

can undertake.

For workers in early stages of career, there is greater reliance on the formal

mechanisms for work allocation. Transitions at early career stages were

characterised by less agency, instead articulated as being ‘put on’ or ‘assigned to’

projects or clients, in comparison to the agentic reports of movements in later career

stages. Therefore, in early career, line managers retain greater control over access to

projects and thus determine career progression. In developing greater capital over

the life course, or via vertical progression, workers develop greater power in the

hierarchical relationship, increasing both the organisations dependency on them

and increasing potential opportunities beyond the firm. Allocation becomes less of

a unilateral process

So they wanted me to go to [a public sector organisation] but it wasn’t going anywhere. So I

just said [to my line manager], have you got anything else? And I went to [a retail company]

instead. Much better.

Tommy (M, 40-45)

This is not to claim that greater power means freedom from hierarchical control,

however. Workers still required management sign off for movements within

business groups. For example, when asked the process for moving projects in a

previous employer, a large software and service firm, Olivia noted the negotiation

aspect with line manager having final approval:

Well it was a balance. You could find a project and have a word; you know, see if there is scope

and fit with your skills. If it was someone you knew they would usually want you, but it has to

be approved obviously. The practice manager holds the budget and tracks where everyone is.

It’s a negotiation really, but if you really want something they try and accommodate unless

they’re an arse.

Olivia (F, 35-40)

The type of organisation also has an effect. Workers in smaller companies tended to

have less scope for choice and were required to undertake roles in line with demands

of a relatively limited number of clients.

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With a view to gender, these patterns create implications for career trajectories of

women. Although none of the reports from female IT workers suggested that they

had been excluded from specific projects because of their gender (either informally

or formally) it was accepted that workers would find it more difficult to exert

autonomy over allocation if they possessed, or were perceived to possess, lower skills

and reputational capital and/or were excluded or marginalised in informal networks.

Examples from the female narratives suggested that this might be the case for some

women.

A small number of women in the sample felt that their performance was judged more

harshly within the formal appraisal and promotional system because of their gender

(discussed in more detail in 6.3.3. Performance management). This was a particular

issue for women operating in more technical areas, as it was frequently technical

specific skills that were felt to be more difficult for women to gain credit for

demonstrating. Where performance is rated lower than for male counterparts,

women are similarly less likely to be allocated to what was termed “high profile”

projects. Yet these were the opportunities that provided greater reputational capital

and visibility to senior manager – enabling further vertical and lateral progressions.

Although no accounts directly reference failure to be allocated work on the basis of

their gender, arguably they are unlikely to be aware of it, as it is not a formalised

process. Stereotypical assumptions about women, and female skills and abilities,

have been shown to permeated interactions with line managers for some of the

women, however. As in the case of Sandra in the following excerpt:

[My boss] if I’m brutally honest, he’s just a misogynist, there’s just no other word for it. So I’d

say to him, for example, “I think we should look at another supplier for that particular

contract there” … “Well that’s a ridiculous idea,” he said, so we left it two days, my male

colleague said exactly the same thing, no different, and got “great idea, I think we should do

that” and that just typified him…

Sandra (F, 45-50)

Sandra continues to recall how she was awarded a lower performance rating over

this period in comparison to her previous ratings, affecting her reputation and

promotional possibilities later on. She moved jobs shortly afterwards.

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Although respondents referenced the formal allocation systems, the ability to

identify and be successfully recruited onto the most interesting, visible, or high-

value projects, was broadly considered a product of informal networking. All of the

accounts documented at least one instance where a project role or job role had been

awarded on the basis of a personal contact. This occurred both within organisations,

as with Gemma below or between organisations using occupational or client-based

networks.

I did, initially, apply to [the large IT firm] when I was a graduate, didn’t get a place, and then

got one later through nepotism. Which I think, despite what everybody says, is how people get

their jobs

Gemma (F, 50-55)

So how did you go about finding the role you currently have?

R: It was through somebody I know who recommended me…it was relatively easy to get a hold

of.

Keith (M, 50-55)

Although acknowledging that formally the IT companies they worked for operate

open competitions for project assignments and jobs, both male and female workers

noted a preference for hiring people either that they knew and had worked with

previously or were referred to them by trusted colleagues. These recommendations

were considered especially vital in relation to high value or visibility projects.

I: So do you think reputation is particularly important [in your firm], or in this industry?

R: I'm going to say yes I do. I think it's…if you've done a good job people remember and the

next time they need a good job doing they need a job doing and they need it to be done now.

Then they're going to go to the people who they know are going to do the job, rather than the

unknowns. Janet (F, 45-50)

In theory, this should allow women to circumvent formal systems of work allocation

that may side-line them. Yet, indications are that there are potential processes of

exclusion contained within this process. Indeed Acker (2006) argues that informal

processes of allocation are similarly producers of inequality, because they filter out

those not deemed suitable for particular roles according to the dominant, masculine,

culture and discourse. Again, few women in this study perceived themselves as

directly disadvantaged by the informal work allocation model. Most women sought

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to emphasise how male colleagues treated them no differently to and they felt

accepted and valued by their colleagues. Networking was viewed as a personal

strength by most of the women, and therefore they did not attach any perceived

disadvantage to the use of it in work allocation of work. Yet evidence gathered from

the male accounts indicates that the reliance on informal networks may well lead to

women missing out due to a lack of equal inclusion in the two influential peer

networks. These issues have been summarised in Figure 6.2.

Figure 6.2 Contributing elements of female exclusion from informal networks

IT professionals maintained multiple networks of contacts. The first, and typically

largest, is their professional network. When discussing whom they would

recommend for jobs, they privileged colleagues who were perceived as committed,

competent, knowledgeable, and supportive. Activities such as helping others with

on-the-job learning, demonstrating technical competence and the willingness to

stay behind, work long-hours to complete a task by a deadline signalled these traits.

The second network is the personal network. These are people that workers choose

to spend time with, have personal connections with or consider friends. Workers

managed complex decisions about whom they passed different information to, and

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who they link their reputation to through recommendations for work, and this was

determined by the space the person occupied within these two distinct but

overlapping networks. While the personal network determines who may hear about

opportunities/developments and general work-related conversation, it is only those

contacts that are contained within the intersection of those groups that will typically

be actively recommended for roles: i.e. those perceived as the most competent

members of their personal network.

The majority of the workers’ histories reported instances where teams sought to

work together repeatedly due to mutual friendship and professional respect. Despite

being within the personal network, if individuals were not also considered

competent, capable and knowledgeable, workers prioritised professional

competence over friendship when making workplace recommendations:

There are people I like, and there are people I would recommend, and they are not always the

same. If someone is fun, a good guy, but a bit crap at his job then I'll go for a drink with him,

but I'm not going to risk my reputation by putting him forward for a role professionally

Oliver (M, 30-35)

In relation to the personal network, there was great variance between women in the

extent to which they felt comfortable in taking part in masculine dominated

personal networks. As the minority, it was expected that women would ‘fit’ with the

culture and activities of these masculine personal networks. The majority of women

considered themselves happy to do so, and pointed to their experience in navigating

masculine environments, for example in educational environment (see 5.3.2

Influences on educational choices). Only four women mentioned discomfort at

masculine dominated social situations, but suggested they adopted an ‘eye-rolling’

acceptance of ‘the inevitable laddishness’, framed as a natural consequence of the

gender composition of the workforce, rather than anything offensive or

exclusionary. Despite suggestions that these experiences do not affect them, or their

careers, it is important to highlight that they nonetheless felt compelled to mention

it over the course of the interviews. This implies they had attached some value to it.

Two women noted how it might be men who feel more awkward at a woman’s

presence in their masculine environment, resulting in a need to adjust the ‘normal’

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environment to accommodate them. This raises questions as to the authenticity of

their personal interactions, and the extent to which friendships can be formed for

women. When responding to a question about whether she felt she needed to prove

herself more because she is a woman, she discusses making judgements about the

intentions of the person before highlighting potential issues, Bella alludes to the

complexity of dynamics at play with colleagues:

I know some of the other guys here, [some male colleagues] have daughters, roughly my age,

and it must be a bit weird for them…you know if we go out for a drink or to an event and they

are talking the typical laddie stuff, and I’m there. ... I just think it probably feels more weird to

them that me. Maybe it’s me inventing that? Maybe their language changes slightly, I don’t

know….I almost want to go it’s fine - you can swear!

Bella (F, 25-30)

The excerpt above also highlights the need for women to reassure men and in doing

so validate the behaviours in order to gain acceptance, which may be difficult for

others that feel less comfortable in those environments. In of itself this validation

also points to an ‘othering’ of women that is not explicitly referenced in the

narratives.

Gaining acceptance into the professional networks also presents gender-related

difficulties. In the vast majority of accounts, women considered their performance

to be judged by peers with relative objectivity with respect to their gender. Yet a

significant number of women mentioned instances over their life course where they

felt they either had their expertise overlooked or perceived the need to work harder

than their male colleagues to achieve equal recognition as capable and competent.

In one such case a woman conducting client meetings found their professional

authority undermined, with questions from clients and managers routinely targeted

toward their less senior/competent male colleagues. There are many instances in

which persistent gender stereotypes of women (and men) were evident in the

interviews with both male and female respondents and the with the HR company

representatives. For instance, many senior workers noted the value in supposed

female interpersonal and communication skills. Certainly, the view that having a

female presence would counteract the ‘macho’ or ‘geeky’ atmosphere in a project or

a team was widely held. Although framed positively, these perceptions are

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nonetheless self-limiting within a specific construction of women’s supposed

dispositions. Despite female respondents commonly framing these instances as

small, irrelevant and atypical, these incidents fundamentally discredit and downplay

women’s technical competence, and can contribute to undermining self-confidence

and creating self-doubt and frustration. As one woman eloquently states:

It matters, they matter…they seem stupid… but [these incidents] work their way into your

brain and you start questioning your own judgement, you start doubting yourself

Bethany, (F, 30-35)

A small but vocal minority of women in technical occupations believed that gender

continues to negatively influence the assessment of skills, aptitudes and legitimacy

in IT work. There was a sense that it was necessary to ‘compensate ‘for their gender

and be better than their male colleagues to receive equal credit:

R…so [if my male colleagues] do it in a day, I have to show I can do it in half a day…. it's not

really about being better, it's definitely not about being as good, in all honesty, it's about

making [management and clients] think you are amazing…but men don't have to do

that…they are just "here's what you asked me to do"…it's harder if you are a woman, that's

just a fact

Olivia (F, 35-40)

When probed about why she felt that was, she laughingly, attributes it to three

interrelated aspects. The first is that men still don’t “trust” women with computers,

implying that notions of technical competence remain distant from female

identities. She also mentions that “they just want to prove they are better than a girl”

– seemingly positioning men as threatened by women’s entry into their domain.

Lastly, she alludes to Trauth’s (2002) notion of being “odd girl out” by stating: “we

also just get more scrutiny - we stand out”.

While the institutional environment and organisational policies have endeavoured

to stamp out many of these processes of gender discrimination, Rebecca sharply

notes that in doing so the underlying gender issues have not been eradicated, but

rather rendered less visible. Talking specifically of her perception that the technical

teams she works with do not respect female IT professionals in the same way as male:

Of course, they don't say it at work anymore, they just wouldn't…. but it doesn’t mean they

don’t think it and make decisions on the basis of these stupid ideas…that women aren’t as

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good as them, or that you won’t be around for as long…But when their guard is down [in

social situations] you see it. They do and say stuff, and you just know that is what they are

thinking all the time. It's disconcerting.

Rebecca (F, 25-30)

Women in early career, occupying junior positions, tended to be more vocal in

identifying issues. Those operating in senior positions considered themselves to

have ‘proven’ their abilities and gained greater inclusion in both networks. For them,

gender was more commonly framed as a non-issue. It could be that women’s lack of

acknowledgement of these issues is a defensive strategy, in which they are able to

align with the environment by ignoring processes that would seek to other them.

Yet, there is the real potential for these issues to permeate networks and exclude

women regardless of their explicit acknowledgement of them.

6.3.3 Performance management

Achieving high performance ratings was considered essential for vertical career

advancement and, to varying degrees, career maintenance within organisations.

Results from the performance management system are used to either support

promotional applications, requests for pay increases and/or to identify those

deemed at risk of removal. Beyond vertical progression, the workers’ narratives in

this study have also demonstrated that they can influence opportunities for lateral

progressions by signalling competence to management. Some women raised

concerns, albeit a minority, that the calculation of these performance ratings was

disadvantageous for women due to both the measures themselves, as well as issues

with the application of these processes.

The narrative accounts recorded that the exact format and content of the appraisal

system varied between companies; but broadly performance was tracked through

regular formal appraisal mechanisms. Both the narrative accounts and the company

representatives highlighted that this process was typically more formalised and

consistently undertaken in larger organisations, which utilised online systems to

capture a self-assessment and, usually, included some form of 360-degree element

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garnering feedback from peers, subordinates and supervisors. In some cases, this

also included contributions from outside the organisation, such as client managers,

depending on the business area and role. For most appraisal schemes, employees

were assigned an overall rating score, used to both track performance over time and

for comparison with colleagues.

Performance is judged against a combination of objective measures (such as billable

hours, figures of upsell, training hours completed, for example) and subjective

measures (leadership, development, teamwork, commitment, and impact, for

example), with the exact combination varying across the organisations interviewed.

Evidence in the narrative accounts suggests that positive performance reviews were

only achieved if individuals met the expectations attached to the ‘ideal worker’

norm, reinforced through continued reliance on visibility and billability. It may be

due to the inherent difficulties in measuring performance within the realm of

knowledge work that supports continuing reliance on measures typically associated

with traditional careers. Employees are often working with novel, bespoke, or non-

tangible working processes. In combination with the locational and temporal

flexibility characteristic of contemporary project-work, establishing measures of

performance is complex.

Being seen to ‘put in the hours’ and adjust your schedule to accommodate the needs

of the project and the client were considered as essential to avoid a low performance

review. When questioned on why he works long hours, typically until around 8-9pm

most nights, one male respondent argues, “You have to stay until the boss leaves if

you want to move [up]”. Asked to elaborate as to how this translates into better

progression opportunities he claims:

Well, when [the client] goes back to [the IT company] and say "oh so and so's good", we want

him again, it gets you noticed… it's an easy way to show you are working hard.

Ethan (M, 30-35)

Both physical and virtual presence was seen as signal of commitment and high

performance. As reported, there was a need to be seen around the workplace or to

be logged in online all hours in order to demonstrate commitment irrespective to

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whether or not the work really demanded it. While all but four (three female and

one male) IT professionals demonstrated an acceptance or willingness to adjust their

domestic situations to meet project lifecycles, many resented having to participate

in unnecessary working hours simply to ‘be seen to be’ doing so. Nevertheless, some

were prepared to do so in order to receive credit needed to maintain or progress

their careers,

I tend to come in late and leave late…There's no point coming in a seven am [on this project]

because the client’s not here then. They get in at nine am, and so if you head off at four, four

thirty or whatever and it just looks like you are leaving early as no-one knows you've been

here since seven

Ethan (M, 30-35)

Reputational visibility, in comparison, was linked to taking on prestigious or

valuable projects or demonstrating technical excellence. Closely linked to

managerial visibility undertaking these opportunities were considered essential to

achieve the type of performance rating that would enable future promotions. Yet,

access to projects that would bolster reputation could prove challenging for women,

examined in the previous section. This was argued by several of the participants to

have resulted in a culture in which being seen to do important work was more

important than doing good work. When Elissa (40-45) discussed what she perceived

as ‘fast-tracking’ an IT career, she noted how people are disincentivised to prevent

problems as “you don't get recognised as much for stopping something going horribly

wrong because it doesn't have the visibility and it's very difficult to make that visible”.

The expectation of long hours is similarly reflected in the primacy of ‘billable hours’

within the performance management system. The accounts noted the heavy

weighting provided to billable hours within performance management systems,

including those attached to redundancy:

If you have the billable hours, you know - up there [holds hand above head] it won’t matter

about the other [performance indicators], ‘cos really that’s their bottom line. If you’re

bringing money in and the client’s happy no-one cares about the rest

Bethany (F, 30-35)

At [my previous company] billable hours were weighted at twice any other indicator. So if you

had been on the bench for a while you were screwed. Even if you had been doing great

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development work, or training others or any other good stuff…and that shows what they

really value, I think.

Harry (M, 30-35)

While always important, a renewed emphasis on the number of client billable hours

as an indicator of performance was observed and linked to structural changes in

organisations. Automation and offshoring have removed a large number of internal

roles, with justification for roles to remain on shore often connected to the necessity

of client interaction.

Interestingly, the respondents did not consider criteria such as billable hours as a

gendered measure, male or female. Those that did reference it viewed it as an

“objective” criterion that was actually beneficial for women due its objectivity. For

as Bethany reasons, criteria that is not open to interpretation by managers is

preferable:

But [billable hours] is a good way to measure…its straightforward, isn’t it? No room for

interpretation there - so and so’s got so many, and so and so’s got less. I don’t have a problem

with it

Bethany (F, 30-35)

Yet, measures such as visibility and billable hours are arguably constructed around

gender norms that make them far from gender neutral and objective. Firstly, as

Harry previously alluded to (see p.171), billability is not entirely within the control of

the individual. There was a prominent discourse in the accounts, which emphasised

the need for workers to take control of their own careers and pursue projects

agentically. Nonetheless it is ultimately up to the line manager and project manager

to allocate or approve resources onto a project: project selection does not fall entirely

to the individual worker (as discussed in relation to 6.3.2 Processes of work

allocation). Greater challenges in gaining access to project opportunities limit the

ability to meet billable targets. These also affect working mothers (examined in more

detail in the next chapter).

The primacy of billability also affected the incentive for companies to perform

appraisals in two of the cases. A male participant, Tommy (40-45) mentioned that

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smaller companies tended to have less formalised, comprehensive, and less

consistently applied performance management systems. Management, under

pressure to maintain their economic margins, were reluctant to have employees

forgo billable hours for performance management processes, emphasising the need

”to fit around the project requirements”. In his case he could not recollect when he

had completed one, underlining the lack of import attached to it.

Concerns were also raised as to the perceived failure of the appraisal mechanism to

account for, and accurately measure the broad set of skills used within an IT role. It

was suggested that this led to the undervaluing of with which women are more

stereotypically associated, and inaccurately reflect the overall contribution of

women. Three less technical female participants suggested that the appraisal process

did not adequately capture “softer” skills. As one participant suggested:

…. Well [softer skills] don't get discussed at the [performance reviews] and I think I lose out

because of it…there are guys I work with who can't put a normal sentence together, but I love

people…but no-one cares about that side of it. It's all about the hard techie stuff, the tangible

stuff, not about how good a relationship I have with other teams that meant they did this for

us, or that for us…that doesn't get measured

Hannah (F, 35-40)

In failing to measure these skills, it is hard to argue that they are valued by

organisations.

The impact of informality, which already influences work allocation, was also

considered to affect the performance management system. For those with

experience of small companies, it was a common perception that HR processes were

less formal and allowed performance management to be measured informally.

Of course, this also provides scope for bias to be ‘informally’ incorporated into these

assessments, and there were few processes of moderation of scores/reports between

line managers and between workers to track this. However, as these smaller

companies offered fewer opportunities to advance both vertically and laterally

internally, appraisals were considered much less important than developing strong

reputations for securing career opportunities.

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Within larger companies the measurement of performance through a 360-degree

appraisal system similarly allowed for incorporation of a contributor’s personal

views and gender prejudices. The subjective opinions of the line manager were

considered particularly impactful, as they take responsibility for overseeing the

process. When discussing her rate of progression in a large firm, Gemma reasons

that the system is fundamentally flawed:

But I think the appraisal system has always been broken because, whatever anybody says, it

depends entirely on what your manager feels about you in an emotional sense.

Gemma (F, 50-55)

This is despite the company she worked for having one of the more robust systems

in this study, as a panel of managers and HR moderated the results. Her perception

was still that it was undermined by personal relationships.

Further complexity arises from measuring performance in project-based work. The

views of project managers, client managers and team members are considered

alongside those of line managers, thereby incorporating the gender expectations,

stereotypes and assumptions of multiple (male) sources. It also creates a complex

situation where people are forced to assess those that they may be reliant on for

work allocation and future feedback on their own assessments. IT workers, who are

seeking to both use their networks and seek reciprocal positive feedback from them,

require a calculated approach to the appraisal system. Manipulation of the appraisal

system in this way further undermines objectivity and could compound the

disadvantage faced by those already lacking reputational capital and networks,

characteristically younger workers and women.

6.3.4 Promotional processes

Access to projects that facilitate visibility, and successful performance management

scores were required in order to pursue vertical promotion. In this way, promotional

mechanisms were underpinned by the same requirements: inclusion in networks,

reputational and physical visibility, and billability. Restricted in ability to meet these

needs, women therefore face more limited promotional prospects.

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The nature of promotion and its associated challenges altered according to the stage

of careers. Both men and women who worked for larger IT organisations in the early

stages of their careers considered promotion within junior levels as fundamentally

an automatic process based on time served (as outlined briefly in section 5.5.1

Conditions facilitating female recruitment). Notably, the fundamental job role does

not alter with these promotions; rather they represent changes in job title.

Progressing in these early stages was considered easy, and this is likely due to the

benefits that employees progression has for employers. Employees are billed out to

clients at higher rates if they are perceived as operating at a higher level according

to internal rankings. In making the process of promotion through the junior grades

relatively easy, companies can backfill graduate level roles but gain higher revenue

for billing out those with a year or two of experience. Thus, it is mutually beneficial.

Reaching more senior levels, however, may make client-facing resources more

difficult to bill out, as they are comparatively expensive. Companies need to

maintain a range of grade levels in order to maximise their scope for revenue, and

therefore they are invested in limiting promotions after a certain grade point.

Those who had, or wished to achieve, vertical progression perceived promotion to

management levels as more difficult. It was framed as highly competitive, requiring

a lot of time and effort to complete the activities required to secure advancement.

As such, individuals who did not perceive themselves as likely to succeed often did

not make the attempt as a result, in effect self-selecting themselves out vertical

progression. The criteria for promotion to managerial positions was considered by

employees to be a relatively clear and standardised format, with a formal

promotional case submitted and line manager support required. Gendered issues

arise from the expectations attached to the criteria for assessment of many of these

promotional cases. Firstly, three of the more senior respondents (two female and

one male) noted that their promotional cases required them to prove their ability to

undertake responsibilities at the level that they were applying for, before officially

doing so. In this sense, IT workers were expected to take on responsibilities above

and beyond their current role without being paid for it, and before being considered

eligible for promotion. Even though you may be working at that level there is no set

timeline or guarantee of promotion to that level. Such was the frustration of Jade

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(40-45), who wished to apply for promotion to senior management, but needed

experience of working at that higher level in place to support her promotion case,

but was struggling to get it:

I shouldn't be in [this level] job, I should be in [the next level up]. But then you have to wait

for an opportunity to open up at [that higher level]

Jade (F, 40-45)

When asked how she felt about doing the tasks of a senior role without being

guaranteed a title and pay that reflected that, she highlights that she might be forced

to look in other business areas (i.e. make a lateral move) to allow vertical

progression.

Yeah, then you need to move; sometimes you have to move sideways to get into a role that

has got that potential

Jade (F, 40-45)

Again the necessity of visibility was emphasised, for while line managers generally

made recommendations for promotions, senior managers were responsible for

approving them. Without visibility and reputation amongst higher-level managers

across business groups to support the written case and performance reviews, this

approval was more challenging to obtain. As has been extensively discussed this

could prove more problematic for women than men. The successful formalisation of

this promotion is predicated on assessment of performance in these higher-level

roles. Yet, it is clear that women face additional challenges in accessing these

opportunities and may be constrained in achieving this positive assessment.

Women’s disadvantage in relation to gender stereotypes was associated with both

managerial competence and confidence. Although there were no explicit references

to gender discrimination in promotion in the accounts, many narratives reflected

negative portrayals of female senior figures by both men and women. A number of

respondents referred to senior women as ‘bitches’, ‘bitchy’ or ‘mean’, or pointed to

specific instances in which women were considered overbearing or bossy. Although

an objective assessment of these situations is not possible (they may well have been),

there were few such derogatory terms targeted toward senior men, despite forming

a much larger proportion of the managerial workforce. It is certainly suggestive of a

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lack of acceptance of those women’s management style. Managerial roles were

closely associated with confidence across the accounts, but the way confidence is

communicated was identified as problematic. Three female respondents felt that

they possessed confidence but that their way of communicating it was different to

that employed by men, and therefore they were not perceived as confident. Upon

being asked about her experience of the shortage of women in senior management,

Hannah responded with frustration at a lack of interpretation of her perceived self-

efficacy and self-confidence by companies because it was not the “kind of confidence”

IT companies are looking for:

I keep hearing that women aren’t confident. But I don’t feel ‘unconfident’…I’m not sure what I

am supposed to be more confident in doing? Maybe they just don’t like this kind of

confidence, or don’t really value those things I have confidence in… I don’t know.

Proposing that it is only “manly confidence” that gets noticed, she argues hers is more

“quiet confidence” that is not liable to get her a promotion when competing against

the “willy waggling” of her male peers. Notions of confidence are closely related to

masculine stereotyped behaviours (brashness, self-promotion, technical skills) yet

different from the confidence attached to ‘geeks’.

The preceding sections have outlined how the HR polices and processes in IT

companies can form impediments to women’s career development. Now the

discussion moves to considering how companies specifically frame the issue of

female underrepresentation, how this links to these processes, and to what extent

monitoring of gender and implementation of female specific interventions can be

considered adequate and effective.

6.4 FEMALE SPECIFIC INTERVENTIONS

In order to understand how underrepresentation is framed by IT firms, and the

rationale for development of policies for addressing it, HR and Equality & Diversity

(E&D) representatives were interviewed from a variety of different companies. Table

6.2 provides a detailed breakdown of the number and positions of representatives

interviewed from each company, along with the number of respondents within the

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sample that worked for those companies. The type of gender-specific employment

support initiatives used in those programmes is also included.

6.4.1 Monitoring of gender issues in IT firms

All of the companies interviewed, both large and small, were acutely aware of the

low numbers of women in the sector and in technical occupations more specifically.

They all tracked overall gender representation within their organisations. Many HR

and E&D representatives did not appear to monitor gender at a lower level to provide

a deeper understanding of the issue (such as business unit or division). Although

there was significant variance between the companies interviewed as to the data

held relating to gender diversity.

The majority of the representatives discussed low female representation in their own

organisations using overarching male/female percentages in relation to the

company workforce. This imprecise approach ignores differences between those in

core and support services. As the female representation in support services such as

HR, finance and administration tend to be higher than within the IT professionals

specifically, this could result in a more positive messages about gender than the real

trends in occupational segregation (between IT professions and non, and within IT

occupations) warrant. In contrast vertical segregation and the increasing gender

disparity at each subsequent level of the hierarchy was widely acknowledged and

monitored by all companies.

While gender figures related to recruitment were closely monitored and tracked

within the companies interviewed, there was limited evidence that mobility and

turnover by gender were being examined. This is despite previous studies suggesting

that retention, mobility and advancement are more significant issues for women in

IT than men. According to the interviews with HR and E&D representatives, none

of the IT companies held information as to where workers went upon leaving their

company. Therefore, they would be unable to establish whether company leavers

remained in the industry, or not, and why that may be.

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Table 6.2 Summary of employment support initiatives used in support of female employment

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Despite a lack of concrete data around attrition, four of the company HR and E&D

representatives stressed their belief that women were leaving at significantly higher

rates than men. The large telecommunications firm quoted above had recently hired

a more proactive head of E&D, who underlined gender patterns in attrition as a gap

in their understanding. They were in the process of establishing mechanisms to

monitor this, but they were not in place at the time of interview. Only two companies

in this study made it known that they collected any attrition data for gender

monitoring, and both restricted external disseminations. One of these firms noted

that despite collection taking place, this was done centrally with internal

dissemination restricted to within business units. This resulted in a curious situation

whereby the E&D team did not have access to data regarding the retention issues it

believed to be present, as explained below:

I: Do you conduct exit interviews and collate that data for analysis by gender

R: There's a central function: we don't do that. We do encourage some lines of business to do

that…especially when we've got obvious attrition problems or retention issues…But those are

normally kept at a business level… it is a problem because ultimately, we need the data. So that

doesn't feel as if you're doing a very good job (E&D, Company 1, Multinational Software and Services Firm)

The lack of resources to the E&D divisions raises questions as to how committed this

company is to address gender imbalances. The majority of the company

representatives interviewed stated that they did have some access to relevant gender

data, for instance employee tenure and grade level by gender. However, they

reported that the information was considered too commercially sensitive to make

available to this study. For instance, in discussing tracking of the gender divide

across business units in Company 1, the E&D representative was aware that the

company did not release that information, despite not knowing the justification:

We do store the numbers, so we know the male/female split… I think [this] is one of those

companies who doesn’t like to give out certain bits of information…[it] is a bit guarded with

some of the numbers that it gives out... We just don’t do that [here]. I don’t know the reason

why that is, but it’s always been like that

(E&D, Company 1, Multinational Software and Services Firm)

I’m not allowed to tell you the numbers: I can only tell you percentages.

(E&D, Company 2, Telecoms Firm)

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Given that the gender disparity is acute across the technology industry and is widely

acknowledged, this seems a puzzling approach. If the numbers show improvements,

it may be expected that respondents would have been more forthcoming.

Smaller companies tended to be more informal and lacked the incentives and

resources to carry out detailed assessments of employment patterns or implement

female specific employment programmes. Instead, they focused their efforts to

redress gender imbalances on improvements to their recruitment activities (see 5.7

Organisational structures and paths of entry). Larger companies typically held more

detailed information regarding recruitment, headcount and demographic

breakdown across functions and business groups, than they do regarding career

movement and attrition. Arguably this is why they developed female-specific

interventions designed to address concerns related primarily to recruitment and

advancement. Two forms of intervention were used. Educational outreach

programmes focused on increasing interest in IT education and careers amongst

school- and college-age women and were designed to expand the educational

pipeline feeding the industry. In contrast, female employment support initiatives

were developed to help career development amongst existing female workers, in

order to address vertical segregation directly, and retention indirectly.

The use of these programmes signals to employees, to the industry and to broader

society the importance the company attaches to gender underrepresentation. The

aims and composition of them, in addition, sends messages about the causes of

inequality that are then consciously or subconsciously interpreted by the employees.

It inherently conveys what actions are required, and by whom, to rectify this

imbalance. These shape the organisational dynamics and, to an extent, the socio-

cultural and institutional context in which women make individual decisions

relating to their careers. How the aims, composition and access requirements for

these programmes may affect female IT careers, and send messages about

underrepresentation more generally, will now be explored. As this study concerns

female employment, the main focus is on the employment support initiatives.

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6.4.2 Educational outreach programmes

Upon being questioned about their firms’ approach to improving gender

representation, most of the HR and E&D professionals moved to highlight their

participation in ‘educational outreach’ schemes as demonstration of commitment to

redressing the balance. Aligned with the leaky pipeline metaphor for explaining

underrepresentation, these types of activities seek to ensure a solid pipeline through

school IT education to the IT professions that 'leaks' as few women as possible -

securing a deeper pool of future potential workers. Typically, these schemes involve

undertaking short courses or one-off events involving practical computing activities

with school- or college-age children to create both an interest in computing and an

awareness of different IT-related careers.

However, companies did not track the efficacy of these schemes, for instance

concerning the translation of participation into IT educational uptake, or career

entry. Also, efforts to target these programmes towards girls have yielded missteps

in their reinforcement of stereotypical gendered assumptions. Their role as an

effective mechanism through which companies can signal their commitment to

pursuing gender equality is clear. However, few companies only used educational

outreach to address gender inequality. Typically, organisations that undertook

educational outreach activities did so in conjunction with other female employment

support initiatives, which will be discussed in more detail in the next section.

However, a considerable amount of time within the interviews with company

representatives and other relevant bodies was dedicated to discussions of these

programmes as a vital means to redress gender imbalance, and their importance was

emphasised heavily and mostly uncritically.

6.4.3 Female employment support initiatives: Aims and composition

More importantly in relation to the aims of this study, IT employers also implement

supplementary programmes and policies to assist women in navigating

organisational structures: designed to improve the participation and representation

of women. These schemes can be broadly classified into either company-led or

employee-led. Company-led schemes are formal programmes for the development

of female talent and are fully resourced, organised and controlled by the company.

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In contrast, employee-led schemes are organised or controlled by employees on a

voluntary basis, although they may benefit from some assistance from the company

regarding administration, founding or resourcing.

Company-Led Schemes

‘Top Talent' or leadership development programmes were widely heralded as the

principal mechanism used to tackle the vertical segregation of women. Designed to

support women identified as "high potential" in obtaining the necessary skills,

experience and confidence to ensure their promotion from mid-management to

senior levels. Table 6.1 shows that four companies use these programmes. In two of

these, both men and women were eligible for this scheme while the remaining two

were female-only schemes. Despite some being non-gender specific, both types of

development scheme have been included here, as they were highlighted as being

crucial to female retention by workers and HR/E&D representatives from

companies.

Concerning access, managers were asked to periodically nominate women operating

at levels considered ‘just' below the senior or executive level, who were considered

to have ‘potential’ for executive leadership. The senior leadership team reviews these

nominations and, once approved, participants receive additional training and

development support in a structured programme. Company representatives

highlighted that this support is ‘tailored’ to the specific individuals, although from

the narratives of those that had undertaken it seemed relatively structured. There

was a combination of formal mentoring, dedicated personal development training

sessions and access to specific work opportunities across the organisations designed

to ‘stretch' the individual. Their inclusion in this scheme is also designed to create

more visibility to senior leadership, and thus create greater networking

opportunities. Within two of these programmes, a mentoring scheme which actively

paired senior leaders (who are typically male) with those on the scheme in a formal

mentor/mentee relationship. Considered a vital way to improve the visibility of up-

and-coming female leaders to top executives, it was held up as an advocacy model

to support promotional cases of women and expose them to the most strategic work

at the company.

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Two of the companies interviewed also offered more general female development

programmes. Their remit was slightly different from that of "top talent" and

leadership specific schemes, although the activities utilised were remarkably similar.

Access to these schemes was open to women at lower management levels when

compared to the top talent schemes, and the nomination and approval process less

thorough: requiring only line management approval. Again, these programmes

included formal training elements around specific skills (e.g. presentation skills,

career planning) or personal development (e.g. confidence building, networking),

although arguably these were less tailored, and designed to be wider reaching in

comparison to those for leadership programmes. Mentoring was similarly identified

as being a valuable part of this programme, although in these instances it was framed

as career planning support, rather than a mechanism to provide advantages

associated with advocacy, visibility and access to strategic opportunities.

The last program used was that of mentoring, designed for mid- to senior-level

managers through formal cross-company mentoring schemes. This involved

companies committing to a mentoring network and supporting employees in

seeking out a mentor in her industry from another organisation within this network.

Both companies and participants suggested that external mentors can be a valuable

source of industry knowledge and support for women, use of which not only

strengthens the knowledge of their own mentees - allowing them to advance faster

- but also filters back to the organisation itself. Specific access requirements for this

programme were not always clear, but one participant suggested management

recommendation was required, while another maintained it was self-referral with

line manager approval.

Employee–Led Schemes

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are voluntary, employee-led groups that are

formed around certain traits or characteristics associated with dimensions of

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diversity9 and lead activities for the benefit of their members. While in all instances

in this study, these groups received some form of resourcing support from the

employing company, for instance providing a budget or allowing the use of facilities,

the activities are selected and organised by the members themselves. Female specific

ERG’s tended to be one of the most available interventions.

As a founding member of a women’s ERG at a large software and services firm

discusses, these are less formal than the company-led programmes:

the [ERG] is designed to be more like a ‘club' or ‘community' that provides the opportunity for

participants to develop themselves… assigning internal and external mentors, providing

networking opportunities, motivational speaker presentations, and internal skills-based

presentations/workshops. They choose what we do: they decide what they need.

(ERG Member, Software and Services Company)

Establishment of these groups was done through the creation of a business case,

supported in some way by the senior leadership team. For three of the five

companies, this required the sponsorship of at least one senior executive, while full

senior leadership signoff was need for the remaining two. If this is approved then

they have some access to funding, usually handled through either the HR

department (or the E&D team if this is external to the HR department). In theory

group members can benefit from targeted training tailored to the goals and needs of

the group (e.g. leadership, building confidence, applying for promotion), peer

support and focused mentoring schemes. These groups are, as with the formal

networks, open to all employees that wish to become involved with them. There is

no nomination or application process. Credited with benefiting employees through

the provision of this targeted support, they arguably also benefit IT firms. Companies

have access to diversity and recruitment insight via these groups to report back to

management, yet with a low administrative burden and cost compared to formal

development programmes.

9 These typically include specific groups linked to gender, ethnic origin, sexual preference or gender identity, and caring responsibilities (i.e. parenting/elder relative care), rather than special interest groups, for example.

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We also have a Women’s Network. We have a Family and Carers' Network. We have a

LGBTQ Network as well. The Women’s Network is an opportunity to share issues and

priorities and concerns and views on a peer-to-peer basis. And that's a sort of mechanism

through which we can polish and refine the Women Leadership Programme as well.

(E&D, Multinational Software and Services Firm)

These employee advantages were emphasised in the HR and E&D interviews, while

the company benefits were not similarly referenced.

6.4.4 Female employment initiatives: Measurement, efficacy and

limitations

In offering any gender specific support scheme, company-led or employee-led, the

perception was that the company was signalling an awareness of female

underrepresentation, which was considered positive by workers.

Yet, underpinning the introduction of both company- led and employee-led

measures is a paradigm in which women viewed are failing to advance because they

do not align with the ‘ideal worker’ norms inherent in the work allocation,

performance management and promotional processes that are in place (see 6.3 HR

policies and practices: Organisational context, project-working and gendered career

constraints). In focusing their attention on providing assistance in improving

aspects of women’s performance, they are signalling that the fundamental cause of

low female advancement is that women themselves are not performing well enough.

With these schemes, organisations are seeking to ‘fix’ women, helping them to

better-fit organisational structures and processes, rather than changing the

structures to better accommodate women.

The extent to which companies were perceived to have transitioned this ‘awareness’

into meaningful, effective actions tackling the problem depended largely on the

personal experiences of the individual worker, in line with Acker’s (2006) contention

that these types of interventions are subject to individual and subjective

interpretation. This study found that whether women (and men) considered these

schemes to be appropriate, worthwhile and effective was determined by whether

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they perceived women or the organisational structures to be the primary issue. It

was also affected by the extent to which these schemes addressed the issues, as they

perceived it. There was large variance in how effective company and employee-

programmes were considered to be in the career history accounts - and these

differences will now be examined along with overview if other limitations to their

usefulness.

For women who perceived there to be structural inequalities that restrict their career

opportunities as a woman, any attempts to provide programmes (company- or

employee-led) that framed gender imbalances as a product of the ‘failure' of

women’s behaviours proved frustrating. For these four women, programmes were

described as misplaced, patronising, or insulting in their attempts to improve

women while failing to challenge those structures.

Why do women need extra presentation skills training? It's so patronising. I know how to

present; I don't know how to have a baby and have it not fuck up my career!

Gretchen (F, 35-40)

The frustration is clear in this statement. Rather than providing extra training, she

advocated that greater attention should be paid to making greater allowances in

promotional mechanisms for career breaks and flexible working which were

considered to have hindered her own career progression but felt that companies had

little inclination to carry out these types of substantive changes. A more significant

number of women were not fundamentally opposed to the existence of gender-

specific programmes but were dismissive of this content and scope of most of the

schemes to achieve the change they were supposed to. Employee-led schemes

received particular criticism in this respect, with over half of the interviewees

considered these ineffective in providing career advancement support. Company led

schemes, on the other hand were more positively received.

Six women expressed concern over the divisive nature of gender-specific initiatives

and the impact this had on the way women are viewed as professional equals by the

male colleagues. Separating women into a group deemed worthy of additional help

was considered by a small but passionate group of female workers as reinforcing

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within men the idea that female IT workers are not as competent or capable as they

are. They regarded this as not only unnecessary, but also detrimental to securing

women’s place in IT, as it positioned them as weaker or less able than their male

peers.

The highest engagement with both forms of female specific scheme came, perhaps

paradoxically, from those women who also did not perceive organisations to be

contributing towards systemic gender disadvantage. The views of these women were

that the organisations did not discriminate against women, but women made

different choices and behaved differently which led to the gender disparity in career

advancement rates. Low promotion rates of women were attributed to a

combination of lower female confidence and the choice to prioritize home over paid

employment. The ‘relative confidence’ argument was pervasive; the following

anecdote concisely articulates the predominant view outlining a lack of female

confidence. It was relayed no less than nine times, almost verbatim, across the

narrative interviews.

…Typically, you look at a job interview and you look at the criteria and there'll be five items

and, you know, a woman will go, oh, I can do that one, that one, that one, that one, but I can't

do that one, I can't apply for it. Whereas a guy would typically go, oh, I can do that, I'll apply

for it

Sandra (F, 40-45)

Seven instances originated from women and two from men. It was also mentioned

in three supporting company interviews. It relates to the relative confidence level of

women and was widely used as an example of why women require additional support

for promotion.

This is an indicative example of a strong narrative focused on the need for women

to undertake additional confidence training, despite being proposed by the same

women who had already demonstrated instances of high confidence in their

individual career histories. Four of these women had already disclosed instances in

which they had demonstrated a willingness and ability to negotiate salary, pursue

jobs they were not fully qualified for but that they knew that they could do, or put

themselves forward for promotion. Thus, there appears to be a contradiction

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between actions and perceptions regarding women’s relative lack of confidence and

the assumption that men have higher confidence. Indeed, two of the male accounts

noted how they did not view themselves as confident. Regardless of this incongruity,

women who subscribed to these perceptions, saw this type of training schemes

targeted at women as helpful and engaged with them willingly. In this perspective,

mechanisms that supposedly enabled women to overcome their personal or

professional shortcomings were considered to ‘level the playing field' by equipping

women with the skills that men were already perceived to have.

The differing experiences, opportunities and constraints faced by mothers and non-

mothers in relation to their choices to prioritise home over career was argued to

form a more substantial basis for explaining different career patterns in comparison

to advancement rates. The predominant discourse was that women could not

advance because they chose to take time out, or work less, in order to have children.

This perspective, perhaps unsurprisingly, was especially prevalent in the narratives

of women without children. Jane did not have children, and neatly embodied the

agency perspective characteristic of narrative accounts:

you've got a jigsaw puzzle and sometimes the pieces labelled work are bigger than the pieces

labelled not work, and sometimes it's the other way around. And it's your choice as to how

you fit that jigsaw together...And when I hear the, oh, I can't do this, and I can't do that. Yes,

you can, you just choose not to.

Jane (F, 45-50)

This view was expressed less explicitly in the narratives of men, who were generally

empathetic with the issues of reconciling care with pursuing a career, albeit from a

more privileged position and without assuming any responsibility for challenging

cultural norms.

Beyond these general issues with the implementation of gender specific schemes,

there were also limitations attached to the different forms of interventions.

Company-led schemes

Of the positive perspectives related to gender specific interventions, the majority

related to company led programmes. A small but passionate number of women who

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had undertaken the training considered it very helpful and viewed it as a significant

investment in them as employees by the organisation. This was especially true of the

top talent programmes, which provided a high level of senior management exposure

and group training with other senior women. Jade was one such individual, and

considered her inclusion on the course as very beneficial for her career prospects in

terms of confidence building and networking exposure and exposure to

opportunities:

….it really re-energised me, gave me something I needed back in me ...And now I’ve got a

network of people I can tap into.

Jade (F, 40-45)

However, there were several specific criticisms levelled at these forms of

intervention by participants, which were perceived to limit their usefulness in

improving female career prospects. Three women mentioned the disconnect

between the realities of their lives, namely the burden of their domestic roles, and

the idealised version of a senior IT worker proposed as a role model through

leadership development programmes. This is linked to the mechanism for

recruitment, in which managers nominate women ‘with potential’. Potential is an

ideological category in the same way that merit is and is socially constructed

according to the dominant masculine norms. Therefore, women who get nominated

are those that are already meeting the performance expectations of the, primarily

male, senior management. To complete leadership or ‘top talent' schemes, women

already have to have access to roles that demonstrated leadership potential (i.e. they

have already experienced significant vertical progression). As such, it could be

argued that these courses simply reproduce the masculine norms already in

evidence. Women who have caring responsibilities therefore fail to have access to

these schemes, and also struggle to find relatable role models emerging from these

schemes.

The exclusivity of this system of recruitment, in particular onto the “top talent”

programmes, was widely considered to undermine their capacity to change the

fundamentally disadvantageous conditions of work. In providing the tools for a

select few women to overcome the masculine structures, these schemes were viewed

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as reducing the scope to challenge the wider inequalities through reinforcement of

the meritocracy.

Regardless of these ideological concerns, some women considered that they would

still undertake these schemes if they were offered the opportunity, despite their view

that they do not help the majority of women, as Olivia illustrates below:

I do find it irritating, we aren't confident, don't negotiate blah blah blah…well actually we do

all that, we just don't get the rewards…if I was nominated I would do it though. I don't believe

in it, but you do get seen more, I hate to admit it, but it does open doors…

Olivia (F, 35-40)

Although claiming not to believe in these programmes she simultaneously admits

that they seem to work. She continues on to clarify that while she doesn’t believe

they help the wider community of female IT workers, she concedes that on an

individual level they help a few women get noticed which she believes is the vital

factors in achieving promotion. This selection criterion means that women who were

already more likely to be successful (e.g. single, childless, confident, in management)

benefit, rather than other women (e.g. single parents, primary caregivers, dual career

couples) that are most disadvantaged by the working structures. As Rebecca

expresses:

…. If you are lucky maybe you get a place on the [female development programme], but that

helps what, a handful of us women, what about the rest?

Rebecca (F, 25-30)

Rebecca’s assessment here proposes that not only are the schemes felt to not address

issues such as the gender pay gap and the long hours' culture but that they can be

used by companies to suppress, or at least distract effectively, women from having

discussions around those - in her opinion, more important - issues. In this way,

companies are prioritising the messaging aspect of these schemes. Yet in some case

line managers can restrict access despite having been allocated to the programmes.

In one instance the cost for resourcing these courses is shared between the business

unit and a centralised function. Managers are therefore able to override access to the

programmes on the grounds of cost.

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Exclusivity is a criticism that the E&D officer in a Telecoms company acknowledges

is a drawback of offering any form of restrictive scheme, although maintaining it is

a ‘starting point’

We had some feedback [for a course] saying, ‘This is so great” and so great to see [the

company] making such a visible sign...but how do other women get on? Why is it only [this

group], why is only for that seniority? Why is only blah, blah, blah?’ And we got back and said,

‘Well, we have to start somewhere,’

(E&D, Telecoms Company)

This perspective provides some balance; however, it is worthy of mention that none

of the other interviewees expressed similar intentions to ‘rollout’ schemes further to

cover a wider range of women. Therefore, criticism levelled at the exclusivity of these

programmes could be considered somewhat justified.

Furthermore, the demands of these programmes require significant additional time

and energy beyond those associated not only with their day-to-day job but also those

training and networking activities necessary to maintain employability.

The last concern is that there is little empirical analysis detailing the effectiveness of

these programmes, providing no objective basis on which to assess their impact on

female careers and determine whether they are helping or hindering women. As a

representative of one of the companies offering the most comprehensive range of

gender specific interventions notes, evidence of these programmes ability to

improve female representation across the industry is limited:

Amongst all the things that we do with selecting high-performance women and getting them

mentors and sponsors and putting them through quite specific programmes— Positive

intervention if you want to call it anything, in spite of it all – we’re still running at 100 miles an

hour to stand still.

Limitations to employee specific schemes

Employee specific schemes were awarded even more negativity in the assessments

made by the respondents. Widely considered to lack investment or commitment by

employers, they were seen as lacking impact that constituted "quick fixes”. Although

led by employees, these were facilitated, funded and promoted by companies, and

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so regarded as being used to detract from dealing with structural issues that

disadvantage women:

…So they know it's harder as a woman [to advance], but it's ok - you can join the [women’s

network] and then it will all be fine! Not. It just seems like the company can get away with a

lot because they have these things] in place, but they don't really do anything. We still get paid

less, we still aren’t seen as good as men and all that…They just give you somewhere to bitch

with other women.

Rebecca (F, 25-30)

As with the company-led schemes, some women also felt disconnected from the role

models identified in the ERG’s. Part-timers in particular felt they could not identify

with the experiences of more senior women who participated in these groups. For

instance, one part-timer noted that the information she gained through

participation in an ERG group did not signal the possibility for potential career

opportunities for someone with her type of working arrangements and caring

responsibilities:

…Actually, the over-riding message I took away from [an ERG talk] was that there were lots of

inspiring women who'd made it really high up, but who had househusbands- there was a real

lack of role models at my level, working part-time, who are saying, yes, I'm making this work

Kirsty (F, 35-40)

The main advantages of participation were viewed as the capacity for networking.

Again, these offerings were not measured in any of the organisations and therefore

their impact on the retention and promotion of women was unknown.

This section has examined the company framing of underrepresentation and

explored the perceived efficacy of their remedial tools. The discussion now considers

how both the opportunities and risks identified in this chapter interrelate with the

gender specific initiatives to create potential processes of exclusion and

marginalisation of women, and what impact this has had on the lived experience of

IT workers.

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6.5 CONTRIBUTION TO UNDERSTANDING UNDEREPRESENTATION

It is clear from this analysis that the women face more potential challenges in

developing their IT careers in comparison to men. The challenges are linked to

accessing opportunities for both lateral and vertical progression within ‘hybrid’

career paths.

These are linked to both traditional notions of success and transitions. Others are

linked to movements to achieve subjective notions of success and the nature of

careers, which combine elements of traditional and contemporary career forms, has

highlighted these tensions. Far from finding the contemporary aspects more

inclusive, the necessity for workers to complete activities that women may find

themselves more excluded or restricted in doing, creates additional challenges for

women. For instance, the issues associated with linear careers is well explored, but

this has shown that women similarly face difficulties accessing the informal

networks that would enable them to forge careers free of organisational boundaries

– restricting their career mobility.

This is largely attributed to what could be considered the perceived power

differential that some women hold in comparison to men. Due to the persistence of

sex stereotypes and ‘ideal worker’ norms women are perceived by employers to be

less valuable, and therefore their ability to exert control over work allocation or

pursue their own subjective notions of success is more limited. While it may be the

case that some women are unable to meet these expectations, it is the prescriptive

nature of them that affects women more systemically. They also permeate informal

networks and create challenges for women in establishing themselves within

influential peer groups.

In additional, reports in these interviews suggest that those workers who are

perceived as less competent or committed, such as women, are penalised when they

cannot meet those expectations with formal allocation to less preferential clients,

locations and/or ‘encouraged' to move to alternative roles. Their peers are less likely

to provide information on the best opportunities as their reputation is linked to the

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recommendations they make, So the roles these workers can access, are ones

considered less valuable or preferable – thus offering less visibility, skills

development and opportunities for further career progression.

This can help explain segregation in two ways. Firstly, limited scope to access the

best opportunities limits vertical progression opportunities and thus contributes to

vertical occupational segregation of women. Secondly, as women suffer more

instances where it is their technical abilities that are questioned or undermined, this

process is liable to be more restrictive for women working in more technical

occupations.

Yet there is significant heterogeneity in the experiences of women (and men) in this

study. Some women felt unaffected by gender constraints. These were typically more

senior women in less technical occupations, although two in technical occupations

also dismissed the notion of gender barriers. However, these women also typically

did not have children, or were not the primary childcarers if they did. They were,

therefore limited by constraints related directly to gender and as such arguably the

women most likely to advance regardless of these programmes.

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6.6 SUMMARY

Contemporary and traditional elements of careers characterised the career paths of

IT workers in this study, indicating hybrid career forms in action. Concepts of career

success comprised elements of subjectivity and objectivity, and the career

movements used to support these were both lateral and vertical.

While being able to financially provide was consistently highlighted, their ability to

balance home and work lives was also a vital measure of their own success, especially

amongst the younger cohorts, along with their access to interesting, challenging and

rewarding work. However, when asked to describe characteristics of other successful

people in the industry, they reverted to more traditional metrics, focusing on pay,

progression and availability to the company, alongside contemporary measures such

as professional respect and peer recognition. Unfortunately, evidence here shows

that women in this study continue to struggle to achieve the same level of ‘success’

in relation to most of these measures.

The vast majority of women interviewed saw no issues in relation to their gender in

terms of progressing their careers. Yet there are illustrative examples in the study to

suggest that certain HR policies and workplace practices continue to disadvantage

women. In particular, the constant need for flexibility and adaption linked to

project-work was legitimised by both male and female workers. This support of ‘ideal

worker’ norms persisted, and little scope was provided to consider the masculine

underpinning of these expectations.

Yet this inherently created more potential constraints for women than for men, and

these affected both vertical and lateral forms of career advancement. An overview of

the potential career constraints for women in terms of both forms of progression

have been outlined in Table 6.3 and arranged according to the multiple contextual

levels of the analytical framework proposed for this study.

This study has highlighted that despite companies introducing some measures

designed specifically to address female underrepresentation, some women continue

to perceive gender differences in their approach to the interrelated areas of

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appraisals, promotions and work allocation. Skills that are traditionally viewed as

feminine continue to be undervalued or not measured while masculine skills are

prized. However, this is dependent on the specific role and management continue

to be gatekeepers to opportunities. Complexity derived from project-based working,

and the influence of multi-tier management means the gender bias can be

introduced in a range of different ways through these processes. The divorce of pay

and roles from grade in larger organisations makes it difficult for women to compete,

along with the lack of consistency of a formal process and dominance of billable

hours and continuing reliance on physical and virtual presence to indicate

commitment. These all create the perception, to varying extents, that women are

less capable, committed and valuable to the organisation. In doing so it limits their

scope to exert autonomy in the employer-employee relationship relative to their

male peers.

These accounts have suggested that not all women are subject to the same

opportunities and constraints. Moreover, even when they do experience the same

type of constraint, this does not mean the extent to which this influences their

perceived career options is the same. As outlined in Table 6.3, the nature of the

occupation, and the individual-level factors (such as income, or caring role) affect

the shaping effect the constraint may have on their careers.

Companies’ commitment to equality and diversity is signalled through their

development of gender specific initiatives. Yet these may reinforce gendered

structures rather than tackling them. By focusing on female development and ‘top

talent’ type programmes, companies are implying that women are the problem.

Supporting them with mentoring, confidence building, and networking is a way of

assisting them to fit with the dominant structures, rather than amending the

structure to fit their needs.

A consequence of the nomination method is that a small subset of women is

privileged through use of these mechanisms, and these are typically those women

that are aligned with masculine notions of ‘talent’ and so would be best placed to

advance regardless of these programmes. This may explain why women who benefit

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from them are positive about the experience, and in turn laud their companies’

commitment to women. Those that are not a part of them, however, have more

reservations about the value of these programmes.

While gender remained an unacknowledged or underplayed concern amongst

women, issues relating to motherhood were considered a more legitimate basis for

organisations to constrain the careers of women. The next chapter now moves to

consider the differences in male and female experiences of parenthood, and the

impact on career trajectories.

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Table 6.3 Potential constraints on women’s ability to make career transitions, arranged as per the levels of analysis of the analytical framework

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7 FAMILY AND CARE: PARENTHOOD, CAREER CONSTRAINTS

AND IT WORK……..

7.1 INTRODUCTION

This last empirical chapter addresses how gender interacts with features of an IT

career in the family and care life stage. As well established in the literature review,

traditionally motherhood has substantially influenced career trajectories and

created challenges for women in maintaining and advancing careers. In addition,

the last chapter has highlighted the embeddedness of masculine ‘ideal worker’

norms in working practices which pose additional challenges for mothers.

The chapter begins by studying the impact of different parental leave arrangements

on the careers of mothers and fathers, focusing on how they prepared for and

accessed parental leave arrangements, and what challenges they experienced in

returning to work. Upon their return, it is likely that career adjustments would be

required to accommodate domestic demands. Therefore, discussion moves to

examine exactly what these adjustments were, how they varied between mothers

and fathers and how contextual factors influenced those decisions. Then how the

nature and organisation of IT work interacts with these different career adjustments

and the personal context of the individual worker to provide different career

opportunities and constraints is explored. Finally, the chapter considers how these

elements combine to shape different career trajectories for mothers and fathers, and

how that helps understand the persistent patterns of underrepresentation and

segregation observed in the industry. The specific research questions addressed are:

RQ 3: How do the career trajectories of mothers and fathers differ?

SRQ 3.1: What challenges does IT work create for men and women to fulfil their

responsibilities as parents?

SRQ 3.2: Is there any evidence that the organisation of work and working

practices typical of IT companies create processes of exclusion for either

mothers or fathers?

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SRRQ 3.3: In what ways do mothers and fathers respond to these challenges,

and how do their personal circumstances influence these responses?

SRQ 3.4: In what way do these differing experiences of challenges, and varying

responses, contribute to an understanding of female underrepresentation and

occupational segregation?

These questions will be addressed primarily through an analysis of the narrative

interviews with 62 IT workers. As parenthood is the focus of this chapter, the

narratives from both mothers and fathers within the sample will be dominant

throughout. The narrative data sample comprised 37 women and 25 men, and of

these, 17 women and 14 men were parents to a total of 52 children. Two women

identified themselves as single parents, although only one was a single parent when

her child was born. Only one father was not in a committed relationship with the

mother of his child and, at the time of interview they remained cohabitating

although he travelled away for part of the week. All of the parents in the study

presented as heterosexual. Throughout the interviews participants were asked to

describe their career experiences, career movements, future long- and short-term

career plans, and were also asked about how they believed that their personal

circumstances had influenced their careers. This information, in conjunction with

the data from the supporting interviews, will inform this analysis.

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7.2 IMPACT OF PARENTHOOD ON MALE AND FEMALE CAREERS

The narrative accounts revealed that becoming a mother has a more pronounced

impact on the careers of IT workers than becoming a father and that this impact can

negatively affect the ability to maintain and progress and IT career. Negative career

implications result from (i) taking time out for parental leave, (ii) using flexible

working schedules, and (iii) the perceptions of performance associated with

combining home and work responsibilities. The narrative accounts suggest that not

only do mothers experience differences in relation to these aspects when compared

to fathers, but that they have varying capacities to respond to these challenges. This

creates considerable heterogeneity in the careers between fathers and mothers, but

also between mothers as a group.

One of the significant differences in the histories of mothers and fathers was the

disproportionate time taken out of the labour market by mothers for parental leave.

The leave periods utilised for each of the 28 instances in which female IT workers

had children while in IT work are in Table 7.1. Women in this study, by and large,

opted to take the maximum allowance for their maternity leave, regardless of the job

role and in this way, differences mainly reflect the changing provision of parental

leave over the 30-year time period rather than personal preferences.

Similarly, fathers in the sample typically opted to take a maximum of two weeks.

Most of the children were born while this was the maximum legal allowance for paid

paternity leave, according to legislation introduced in 2003. However, six children

were born to three men since 2011, when their partners had the option to transfer

half (26 weeks) of their statutory, unpaid maternity provision to them. None of the

participants reported having used shared parental leave arrangements10 This means

10 New shared parental leave arrangements introduced in April 2015 entitle new parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave (37 of which are paid the statutory pay level) between them, instead of having traditional, separate maternity and paternity leave allowances.

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that, typically, mothers were out of the labour market for between 22 and 46 weeks

longer than their male colleagues with the arrival of a child.

Table 7.1 Maternity leave period’s utilised by female respondents

(1) Period of maternity was not specified, or it was not possible to accurately calculate based upon the narrative

data.

The narratives of both male and female IT workers suggested that the IT industry is

inherently changeable, with consistent change, movement and adaptation

characterising the testimonies of all workers. A significant number suggested that

taking time away from an IT career is "riskier" than taking time out in other, more

stable, professions: whether for parental leave, sickness or sabbatical. The relatively

rapid pace of technological change was considered to render technological products

and the associated jobs and occupations redundant in a short space of time.

Although these perceptions were relatively ubiquitous in the accounts, they did not

seem to translate to women opting for shorter maternity leave.

Generally, the women interviewed expressed confidence in the intention and

willingness of their employing organisation to comply with maternity legislation.

None of the female respondents suggested IT companies sought to discourage

women from taking maternity leave or expressed concern that their job was at risk

explicitly as a result of doing so. Indeed, all of the accounts referenced the relative

ease with which maternity was arranged with their employers, and suggested it was

their own preferences determining how long the period of leave would be. This ease

is also likely a product of the nature of the employees undertaking professional IT

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roles. Well educated and articulate, they were fully aware of their legal rights with

maternity provision and pay. Instead, concerns with taking maternity leave related

to the extent to which a period of leave would diminish their reputational capital

(their ability to network) and their human capital (their skills and abilities) and thus

reduce their ability to achieve good career outcomes. For instance, concerns were

raised that their job may not exist in the same form upon their return. However, they

did not question their ability to return to the company, as is legally required, but

expressed apprehension that the role they would be doing would have changed or

been made redundant, and they would end up doing something else which, due to

their absence, may not be their preference. This was positioned as a fear of change

in their absence more generally, rather than an unease of being penalised explicitly

due to maternity leave itself, which is an important distinction. The feasibility of

maintaining and updating their skills while on leave was expressed as another

specific concern, primarily in relation to the speed and ease with which they could

return to work without being ‘behind' their colleagues. Additionally, concerns were

raised about their ability to maintain the same networks, both logistically and in

terms of negative reactions to ‘taking time off'. This was a particular concern for

women having their second or third children, and especially for those in quick

succession.

Despite these apprehensions, for most women, their expressed preference was to

prioritise time with their children, and this justified taking longer maternity leave.

In contrast, one woman, Leila, who took a much shorter leave period than the usual

6-12 months discussed how it was motivated by enjoyment for the work but also

explicitly because “I don't want to fall behind”. Her exceptionalism in the cohort

could be explained, in part, as a result of starting a new job close to the time of her

pregnancy. As such, her maternity leave and pay entitlements were reduced

compared to other women in the sample. It was also facilitated by the presence of

full-time unpaid childcare provided by her live-in in-laws. Interestingly, only one

account overtly referenced a lack of affordability as constraining the amount of

maternity leave taken, although almost all of the discussions relating to maternity

raised financial concerns as a contributing factor. When asked why she took 6

months instead of a longer period she notes, this woman responds:

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Yeah, just finances to be perfectly honest

Sandra (F, 45-50)

Yet, some of the accounts demonstrated that the fears and concerns expressed in

relation to career implications and maternity leave were not without merit. A small

number of women found that upon returning from maternity leave that their role

had shifted or been eliminated, exemplifying negative career consequences. One of

the most illustrative examples is that of Cathy, who took just a six-month period of

maternity leave with her second child, and returned to discover that the technology

on which her previous role had centred was now out-of-date:

I came back to find that they've invented an entirely new thing…everything had changed. And

I'm thinking oh god… It'd have been very easy to walk away and say I can't do that technical

stuff anymore because I've missed a big six months chunk. If you're not constantly re-educating

yourself… you miss the party…it's such a competitive environment.

Cathy (F, 45-50)

There were five instances in total where women had their fears regarding

employment insecurity realised. They were informed while on maternity leave or

immediately upon return that the roles they had previously held were no longer

available. This was either due to technology developments rendering their previous

roles redundant, or as a result of organisational restructuring. These are two

examples:

When I came back my job had disappeared... people changed and, you know, management left

and different structures, so I came back and my job had gone.

Sandra (F, 45-50)

…And when I got back, you know things had moved…so there wasn't really the need for me

anymore.

Hannah (F, 35-40)

Certainly, maternity legislation provides scope for employers to change the role of

women returning from maternity leave, only, however, provided the conditions to

which she returns match those to which she would have been entitled if she had

remained in continuous full-time employment. In one example, when asked how she

felt about her job disappearing while on maternity leave, one respondent did not

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show any overt resentment or resistance to this occurrence, in line with the

positioning of change as an inevitable feature of the industry. Her response was

notably measured:

I: So did you find it hard to come back and not have the job you had when you left?

R: I suppose, well not hard really, a bit discomforting, I suppose is more accurate. I sort of

knew things were [being outsourced] but that's not new, I mean everything is changing all the

time isn't it…It was more that I didn't really know where to go, I didn't know what I wanted to

do…

Hannah (F, 35-40)

Resignation is perhaps indicative of the not-unusual nature of this occurrence, and

all part of the “risk” that workers consider part of taking any time out of the industry.

Indeed, as the previous chapter has discussed, uncertainty and change are

characteristic of all of the narratives, and the respondents highlighted that returning

mothers would not be exempt from this, as indicated in the testimony of Kirsty.

Upon announcement of a round of redundancies on her last day of work, she noted

that those on maternity are not protected:

I: Did you feel at risk with that round of redundancies?

R: You’re not immune on maternity, you get phoned up just the same as everyone else, and

they’re not allowed to discriminate positively, which is fair enough.

Kirsty (F, 35-40)

This perspective links to the underlying sense of gratitude that was evident in the

majority of the mothers’ narratives. Most mothers remarked on how "generous",

"supportive", or "extensive" their maternity allowance had been. Maternity was

typically considered easy to arrange and, in many cases, generous in comparison to

other industries due to the additional allowances and pay provided by most

companies. This could be seen as contributing to a sense of obligation and the need

to reciprocate these generous terms by limiting their career expectations upon their

return. For instance, for two of the women, the loss of their job in this way also

represented a loss of career agency; the company redeployed them into other areas

with little opportunity for meaningful negotiation or choice. They both ended up in

roles that represented the only feasible option at that point, but retrospectively they

felt those moves were not right for them or for their long-term career. In contrast,

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the remaining three had to find their own roles within the organisation with little

assistance, although with an imposed deadline.

Yet, in many cases, women did seek to respond to these challenges proactively, albeit

according to their own set of personal circumstances. The career histories

demonstrate how strategic career moves were made before maternity leave in order

to place women in a position considered preferable before taking maternity leave.

For some women this meant seeking promotion to maximise their seniority and

maternity pay entitlements, for others they moved to larger organisations

considered more amenable to maternity leavers in anticipation of having children.

For one respondent, moving from a smaller company was a calculated and strategic

move to facilitate having a family. For another, the preferential maternity provided

by large organisations was an incentive to switch from contracting to employment

status:

I thought I didn't want to be contracting while going on maternity leave and things like that.

And [this company’s] maternity leave has been quite good.

Katherine (F, 35-40)

Many of the other mothers noted that they had made similar proactive efforts before

having children to position their careers to ensure as advantageous and/or secure

position as possible, thus making a successful return more likely. Although not

replicated in many cases across the sample, these are illustrative examples of

individual strategies developed in response to specific contexts. For one woman, she

sought to accelerate career progression vertically while she did not have children, so

that she would be of a seniority and skill level that, as she framed it, would make her

more valuable to the organisation. She credited this with also ensuring that she

received a higher wage while on leave:

I've got promoted to what's like a low-level manager grade I guess, just before I went on

maternity leave, ‘cause I felt it would be easier to get promoted then…It meant I got my

company car allowance while I was on maternity leave, which made a big difference to my

maternity pay, which was one of my major motivating factors. Not that I said that to my

boss, as you can imagine.

Kirsty (F, 35-40)

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Insecurity from maternity leave was especially concerning those who considered

themselves less senior or lacking specific, valuable technical skills. One mother

attributed a sense of security when taking maternity leave to her specific and niche

knowledge:

There were only a few of us that really understood this [technology]…so I knew they would

need me back. I didn't really have any concerns about maternity at the time, to be honest

Bethany (F, 30-35)

Similarly, and in response to fears relating to the diminishment of their reputational

and human capital, another woman sought to focus on actively developing her

networks and skills before taking maternity in order to be more valuable as an asset

thus incentivising the company to retain her. She acknowledges, however, that she

delayed having children in order to do so:

I wanted to be as irreplaceable as possible before I buggered off [laughs], so I waited maybe a

couple of years longer than ideal, but I wanted to be sure that I was [working on a technology]

that was a bit more secure…I was then senior enough that I knew the right people and was

valuable enough that they wouldn't get rid of me, well it would’ve been harder anyway…

Olivia (F, 35-40)

These career responses underscore the complexity of maintaining a career in this

industry. The heterogeneity of contexts demonstrates the difficulty women have in

predicting their careers and developing appropriate responses to them. While for

some women it was possible to make moves to accommodate preferable maternity

conditions, for many these are likely to be less feasible. For instance, those already

managing childcare arrangements, or other caring responsibilities, may be more

restrained in their ability to seek alternative employment that fits with their current

domestic arrangements. Furthermore, becoming pregnant is not always planned,

and therefore the scope to strategically plan career moves in relation to maternity

leave is limited. These restrictions may explain why seven of the sample did not

make specific reference to strategic career planning around maternity leave, despite

expressing similar concerns about taking time out of the labour market.

Additional negative career implications arose from the way in which maternity leave

was integrated with the appraisal and promotion processes to the detriment of

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mothers. Respondents considered performance comparisons as taking place against

those that hadn't taken a similar career break, rendering them unfair. This was

linked to the perception by mothers that they were expected to continue career self-

management while on leave, specifically regarding keeping abreast of technological

developments and continue to maintain skills, knowledge and networks. The extent

to which this was perceived as necessary, and was undertaken, varied between the

mothers in the sample.

The framing of the need to stay ‘current’ also varied between considering it

positively, as a way to stay in contact and as reassurance of their continuing

importance to the company, to viewing it negatively, as an unwelcome invasion of

their leave period that would not be expected of employees in other industries. Most

women fell somewhere on the spectrum between the two extremes, as indicated in

these quotes:

So then I had a years' maternity leave…the terms were fantastic, really enabling, I was able to

keep my laptop so I could stay in touch, you know, I didn't work as such [but] I would do

some things which were called “give back” where you sort of help maybe build other technical

people up and help them.

Elissa (F, 40-45)

My manager sort of inferred that I could maybe train in [a specific technology] while I was

away…but it's not time off is it? I have a job to do, I am busy...I think sometimes they don't get

that because they have never [taken parental leave] ...you wouldn't get that with accountancy

would you, go and do these accounts when you're away!

Bethany (F, 30-35)

The actual level of contact the interviewees had with companies was perceived to be

reflective of the preferences of the line manager, and it was influenced by the

relationship that women had with them. There was a lack of consistency in the level

and nature of contact, as well as in the expectations of actions while on maternity

leave. Arrangements relating to these aspects of maternity tended to be less

formalised, instead emerging as the result of the interplay between the preferences

of mothers’ and the expectations and approach of their manager.

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As a result of their historically limited entitlement to paternity leave and low labour

market disadvantage, fathers did not discuss making similar concerted career moves

to facilitate career maintenance or development before having children. For

example, no male contractors within the sample (of which there are five) considered

making a move to permanent employment to receive additional benefits (such as

paternity leave, flexible working, sick pay) that would aid with their partner's

pregnancy or on-going childcare. Perhaps this low uptake is reflective of the

relatively low pay and time allowance traditionally associated with paternity leave

weighed against contractors relatively high wages. It is also likely to reflect the

secondary caring role that men typically anticipate playing.

There is pressure on new mothers to continue their career management activities

while on leave, such as keeping abreast of technological changes, managing skills

and even, for some, other voluntary activities which contribute to career capital.

These activities help minimise the impact of being away. Most notably, many of the

mothers in this study have demonstrated how their careers are not secure in the

traditional sense. They remain employees yet are deployed or forced to find

alternative roles that they did not initially select as a result of industry or

organisational changes. In the context of the historical differences in maternity and

paternity leave entitlements, that women suffer labour market disadvantage as a

result of their time out of the labour market is not inherently surprising. However,

this section has highlighted variances in the nature and ability of mothers to reshape

these challenges through a variety of responses. The interaction of their personal

circumstances with the organisational context appears to determine the nature and

feasibility of these responses.

7.3 CHALLENGES OF PARENTHOOD FOR MAINTAINING IT CAREERS

Much of the literature concerning gender inequality in employment suggests that it

is the greater responsibilities associated with parenthood assigned to and taken up

by women that create impediments to employment and career progression when

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compared to men. The testimonies in this study are consistent with this literature:

the female interviewees who were parents of young children tended to take on the

majority of the child caring responsibilities, while male interviewees in similar

circumstances did not. These differences then translated into gender differences in

the career adjustments necessary to facilitate childcare, including the use of flexible

working schedules, creating negative implications for female career trajectories.

Men did not adopt the primary child caring role in any of the male accounts

examined, while in only one case did the male partner of a female respondent take

on primary childcare responsibility. A temporary period in which the female partner

took primary responsibility for childcare is expected in the context of more generous

maternity than paternity provisions. Yet, this arrangement continued for almost all

of the male participants. Although naturally there were variations in the amount of

responsibility each father took for childcare, they did not make any substantive

changes to their working arrangements as a result of becoming a father. In contrast,

many of their partners did make significant changes to their careers. The primary

career responses to parenthood reported by the 32 IT workers in respect to each child 11 have been categorised into five distinct groups. These groups denote the most

significant career change in the testimonies of the interviewees but, in reality, the

majority of the participants used some combination of these responses for the care

of their children, and often the combination changed over time. However, the

categorisation is useful for examining the gendered patterns of career response.

Figure 7.1 demonstrates the gender breakdown across the five categories. In more

detail, these categories are:

(i) Leave primary childcare responsibility to partner. The IT worker can

continue with their current role with no discernible alterations as their

partner takes responsibility for the majority of the domestic

arrangements. Their partners typically do not work, work part-time, or

work for themselves in a non-routine occupation (such as an artist).

11 This is the most significant career change within the first year of the birth of each child, in order to reflect the changing career responses between children.

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(ii) Adjust hours of work or location without changing existing full-time

contract. Some workers have the scope to adjust the location of their work

within their full-time contract, either by working from home or switching

to a closer office location to allow them to better balance home and work

life. Additionally, it was possible to adjust the hours of work they did

within their full-time arrangement. For example, by going in earlier and

leaving later, or using compressed hours to carry out full-time hours over

four days a week rather than five.

(iii) Use family and/or paid childcare. The third response is to obtain external

help, either form of formal paid help, such as a nursery, nanny or child-

minder, or the use of family or friends.

(iv) Reduce hours/change contract. Many participants sought to alter their

contract type in their current role to facilitate childcare. Part-time was the

most frequently used schedule, but it also includes other temporal

arrangements, such as job sharing.

(v) Move to a different role. Lastly, some participants would move to roles that

are considered to be more amenable to reconciliation with their domestic

duties. The advantages of a new role may be that it is possible to carry out

full time with more flexibility in hours. Alternatively, it may represent a

more convenient location or offer more scope for part-time work.

Table 7.2 lists the employment status of the male respondents' partners after they

took maternity leave. Out of the 14 men whose partners took on primary childcare

responsibility, seven of their partners gave up paid employment after having

children, and three adapted their working schedule to accommodate childcare. In

contrast, only one of the women had a partner who took on primary childcare when

she had two children allowing her to continue with her role as before. As a result of

not being the primary childcarer, the types of adjustments to working lives reported

by male participants upon having children were relatively small. For example, going

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Figure 7.1 Main career responses to parenthood, as reported by study participants

NB/F = Female, M = Male

Table 7.2 Employment status of partner, for workers identified as having ‘Leave to Partner' career response.

* Non-formal work denotes occupations to which no formal employment contract exists, and work

is non-structured, non-routine or ad hoc, such as artist, gardener or writer. In these cases, these

partners combine their work with primary childcare responsibilities as reported by the respondents.

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into the office earlier and leaving earlier so they can see their child before they go to

bed, or by opting to work from home more than they had previously. Despite these

adaptations, works was still assigned primacy. Schedules would be arranged around

work, rather than seeking to alter their working lives around their home life. The

reality for most fathers was that having children did not alter their immediate

working lives substantively. These adjustments were made for them to see their

children more, not necessarily because there was no one to care for them at that

time12.

Women who remained in full-time employment hired formal paid help or utilised

unpaid family support to facilitate this move. Without this assistance, many noted

how they would be unable to continue their career on a full-time basis. Those who

relied on hired help or family networks as the primary means of childcare tended to

be on an equal earning basis with their partners, or co-earners, rather than having a

higher single-family income. Interestingly, three out of the five women in this

category were in relationships with other IT workers. The combination of two higher

than average wages provide the means to employ full-time childcare, which may not

have been affordable for workers whose partners earned a more modest income in

other industries. The exception to this pattern is the case of Leila (30-35), in which

the live-in childcare is provided by her in-laws, as has already been highlighted.

Where the use of this level of childcare was deemed unfeasible or undesirable,

women reduced their hours by moving to a part-time contract. Of those participants

who actively sought to reduce their hours or adjust their employment contract to

reconcile work and home life better, all were women. Of the six women who did so,

three of them also made the highest household income before becoming part-time.

Not only did they earn more than their partners, in some cases considerably more,

but two of them also noted that their work was more secure and predictable too.

The remaining woman was a single mother and was, therefore, the only earner in

her household

12 Hence their inclusion in the ‘ Partner takes responsibility' category, and not the ‘Adjust hours/location.'

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Finally, three participants immediately transitioned to a different role after

maternity leave that was perceived as more easily reconcilable with their domestic

responsibilities despite being full-time. For one woman the decision to move was

initiated by herself, for two of the women, in contrast, it was initiated by their

employing company (two different companies). This was due to the belief by their

managers that it would be too difficult to reconcile their current role with childcare

demands, mainly due to the long hours and need for travel associated with those

roles. For one woman this was discussed before undertaking maternity leave while

for the other women this was only upon her return:

I already knew before I left that really I couldn't carry on with this [client based role] with a

baby but I didn't really want to think about it [before I went on maternity leave]…but

evidently, my manager thought the same because before I left we had a slightly awkward

conversation about it…he just said he can't guarantee me jobs close to home but that it was

up to me…so I looked out for something in development where I knew I could get home at a

reasonable hour each night, even if it wasn't exactly what I saw myself doing

Olivia (F, 35-40)

A year’s maternity leave, yeah. So I came back, and my view, and their view really, was that I

couldn’t do the role that I’d done previously…it was an awful lot of long hours, travelling,

translating that, getting the offshore teams on side, getting the project manager etc. etc., but

it did go really well…So I decided, on that basis, that I would look at other things.

Kirsty (F, 35-40)

The women affected did not frame these decisions necessarily as a negative step in

their career, despite having reservations as to whether it is the one they would select

for themselves. However, there was a sense that their options were limited in finding

a suitable alternative role.

Cases of shared childcare had been anticipated, given the relatively high rates of pay

for women. However, in only one case was childcare shared relatively equally. The

only instance in which childcare could be considered actively shared was that of a

male participant who was already working part-time before having children,

therefore did not make significant alterations to his arrangement upon having

children. Nonetheless, he shared childcare relatively equally with his partner, who

had also moved to part-time work.

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When asked about personal domestic arrangements, male participants often

referred to their ‘understanding’ or’ accommodating’ wives to explain how they as

fathers balanced demanding jobs with family. Men framed the decision as to how to

manage childcare in their relationships from a ‘rational economic man’ perspective.

They proposed that the decision to let their partner take primary responsibility for

childcare was straightforward. For all but one respondent in the sample, their

income was the highest coming into the household. Male IT workers argued that

based on utility calculations it was rational for them to remain in work while their

lower earning partner adjusted their schedules to accommodate childcare. Phrases

such as “It was an easy decision, I made twice as much as she did” (Tommy, M, 40-45)

were common. In many cases the fact that the female partner would take primary

childcare was assumed, with the male narratives characterised by phrases such as “it

wasn’t really even a decision per se, we both just agreed”, “I don't think we had the

discussion, really…”, and “She was keen on staying at home” all underlining the

pervasiveness of gender norms.

Five of the male participants suggested that their partners wished to give up work

because they did not enjoy the work they were currently doing, which had simplified

the decision. This attribution was particularly interesting in the case of Aryan, who

noted that it was the similar intensity of their careers, which had contributed to

them becoming a couple initially:

R: I think that's why we got together, we were both very much living those [intense and

professional] lives, so it worked really well.

I: So when you had the children, did she reluctantly give up work or was she very positive

about it?

R: No, she wanted to do it. I think it was a welcome…what's the word? I think she needed that

because it used to stress her out all the time anyway…She wants to go back to work. But I

don’t think she’ll go back to recruitment

Aryan (M, 35-40)

Without the perspective of their partners, it is difficult to know if this is an accurate

record of the decision-making process. However, the replication of this justification

across the male accounts is worthy of note. This relative simplicity also provides an

interesting contrast to the female IT workers decision-making process about the

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same arrangements. In contrast to the male accounts, five of the 17 mothers also

earned the highest household income, yet only one continued in full-time

employment with no adjustments to her working arrangements. Her decision to

continue to work was similarly framed as a rational economic decision, as her

partner earned considerably less than her in more insecure work:

we just agreed that he would have to give up his job and follow me wherever I needed to go.

And that seemed really easy in theory, but when you've actually got a kid, they settle so

quickly …so we stayed there…so I'm really lucky in that way... I wouldn't be [working away 4

days a week] doing this if he weren’t the househusband.

Seren (F, 30-35)

The differences of her justification for being the partner to keep working to that of

male IT workers in the same situation was striking. It was framed as a more thought

through and negotiated process than those experiences presented by the male IT

workers – albeit still underpinned by economic rationality. Her decision to continue

working was justified both by contributing the highest income to the household but

also by the flexibility of her partner's previous occupation as a delivery driver,

meaning that he was able to assume responsibility for full-time childcare. As a

contractor, she moved with relative frequency, reflecting that when planning a

family, the intention had been that her family would travel to wherever she worked.

Upon having children, however, she found it impractical to ‘uproot' her children

from their extensive support network, and so she continued to work away from

home four nights a week. She reflected on the exceptional nature of this

arrangement and suggested that she was "lucky" compared to other women working

in IT.

More commonly, women framed their decisions concerning their own moral and

socially negotiated views about what behaviour is right and proper regarding

motherhood, and these vary from individual to individual. While being a good

mother was argued to be of paramount importance to mothers in the study, the vast

majority overtly rejected the identity of full-time “stay at home” mother and sought

to develop a new career identity combining motherhood and work. A consistent

theme was that the majority of women could not imagine being a full-time

homemaker, with most describing the lifestyle as "boring".

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With [my second child] born I was thinking about going back earlier, mainly because it's

mind-numbingly boring. And Roger and I discussed it quite a lot, and I'd met a woman who'd

said no, don't, because you don't ever get the time back.

Katherine (F, 35-40)

Most cases highlight the tension between an underlying view that “good” mothers

stayed at home to look after their children, and the desire or financial necessity to

continue with their careers compelling women to find ways of combining the two.

For Trish, as the primary earner in the family the option to move to part-time to look

after her young children was acknowledged to result in greater financial hardship

for the family, but was deemed important enough warrant the sacrifice:

I just didn't want to miss that time you know, they are only little once. And I was fairly

comfortable that I had the network behind me to come back full time later so decided to go to

24 hours [per week] …and he would have hated having to stay home and do all that domestic

stuff anyway! It was pretty boring at times

Trish (F, 55-60)

This extract and its repetition in the narratives from two other women conveys some

interesting messages about the perception of the role of motherhood and how that

is compatible with paid employment for women in this study. Here the desire to be

‘a good mother’ is articulated, and for her, that means spending more time with the

children when they are younger even though she acknowledges that this is

sometimes boring, and that economic rationality would have seen her husband

become part-time rather than her. Hannah's discussion about her childcare

preferences echoes these views:

There's no point in having children just to give them to someone else to look after…I want to

be a good mum and do with them the things my mum did with me when I was little…It's

difficult though…to do that.

Hannah (F, 35-40)

This comparison with her mother is interesting. It demonstrates the tensions that

exist in trying to emulate traditional motherhood role models while pursuing a

challenging career. Her mother did not work and was therefore afforded more scope

to dedicate to the home. When asked if she would consider not working to fulfil this

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conception of being “a good mum”, her answer was seemingly contradictory to her

earlier statement:

I don't want not to work…I enjoy it, well most of the time! [Laughs] And I think I'm setting a

good example, by going to work and working hard. They see the effort behind the things we

have and don't take it for granted. They understand.

Hannah (F, 35-40)

What is also notable is that there was a limited reflection of these gendered norms

by IT workers, as exemplified in the narrative of a mother who was the primary

earner, demonstrating how embedded they have become:

I: So did you consider [your partner] going part-time?

R: No, not really, it just felt natural for me to go part-time and be home more…

Lindsey (F, 40-45)

Examples like this help highlight the underlying gendered assumptions around

mothers as the primary carers. More often women made significant adjustments to

their careers to accommodate childcare. Typically, a combination of adjustment of

the terms of their employment and/or use of paid or unpaid childcare was required

to maintain their full-time role.

All of these cases are critical because it demonstrates that career decisions are not

necessarily being made due to financial rationality or pragmatism, but instead acted

out according to collective ideas of what is deemed socially proper and appropriate,

in line with the moral rationalities argument posed by Duncan (2011). These

decisions can still be considered rational, but with a different basis of rationality to

that assumed by the rational economic man model.

Another contextual consideration is that of the presence of another parent. The

decisions outlined above are all made by workers with long-term partners. The case

of the only single parent in the sample highlights the additional challenges of

reconciling work and motherhood as a single parent. Due to the absence of the

child's father from an early stage, and limited family support where she was living,

she felt her choices were limited in balancing work and childcare. To not work at all

would reduce her income to a level she felt was unsustainable, but to work full time

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would have required too much time away from her child and incurred childcare costs

that would make the sacrifice of time too costly. Therefore, she sought two days of

work to balance these demands until she could relocate to an area close to her family

to utilise their help with childcare:

The father, well he's not very involved, so I had no choice but to go back to work, yeah. I

couldn't have lived off benefits. So that's why I decided to start off with two days a week, just

to meet the minimum 16 hours so I could still attract child tax benefit et cetera, but then as

soon as I started to hit, I think it's something like 26,000 it all goes anyway, so, yeah, and

then when I moved here it was easier, cause my mum was just down the road, so she could

help 2 or 3 days

Ruth (F, 35-40)

These cases also demonstrate the longer-term approach to career planning that

women take in comparison to men. While the overarching trend of IT careers

reported by the interviewees, as explored in the previous chapter (see 3.5 Knowledge

work and career forms) is one of short-term planning, reacting to the opportunities

they are presented with, mothers look to make these career adjustments as a

temporary arrangement to facilitate their needs at that time. Of the six women who

had sought to reduce their hours, five did so temporarily, intending to move to

fulltime once their children were older.

As with extant studies around gender, it appears from this study that having children

required mothers to move to different career trajectories in comparison to than

father and non-mothers, with them adopting short-term strategies that best fit their

changing circumstances. In making these different decisions, mothers are liable to

face different career challenges to their peers which, in turn, shapes their ability and

willingness to stay in or progress with IT work. The way in which these strategies

interact with the specific features of IT project-based work, and the implications this

has for mother's careers in IT is the focus of the next section. A mother's career

choices appear more constrained than for fathers. Their mobility is limited by the

extent to which career opportunities can be reconciled with the demand of their

wider responsibilities, in contrast to those operating with primacy on the benefits to

their career trajectories – limiting the ability of mothers to capitalise on the best

career opportunities.

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7.4 WORK-FAMILY RECONCILIATION: SPECIFIC CHALLENGES IN IT

CAREERS

The nature and organisation of IT work creates additional challenges for women in

fulfilling their roles as mothers. Particular challenges emerged related to the project-

based organisation of work across the IT industry. Work was characterised by

flexibility, constant change and informality – aspects that were shown to

disadvantage mothers by limiting their access to career opportunities in comparison

to fathers and non-mothers. This section considers the ways in which IT work

creates specific challenges for male and female IT workers in reconciling parenthood

with their paid employment, how they respond to these challenges, and what the

implications are for their career trajectories and career prospects.

7.4.1 Project-based work and work-life challenges

There are two main elements of project-work that increase the challenges for

working mothers (i) a fundamental tension between cyclical project-work schedules

and the need for stable, routine childcare arrangements and, (ii) greater complexity

in accessing flexible working schedules across multiple projects.

As discussed in the previous section (see 6.3.1 Organisation of work and ‘ideal worker’

norms), project-based working created cyclical working demands that necessitated

periods of high pressure, intense working requiring long hours, contrasted with

interim periods of relatively low intensity, requiring fewer additional hours. The

pervasive expectations that employees can, and will, prioritise business needs and

accommodate the varying time and location demands of each project as required

were firmly embedded into HR processes. Demands on employee availability and

visibility disproportionately affected those with primary caring responsibilities who

were, in this study, almost exclusively female. Although few women considered

negative consequences associated with difficulties to meet those expectations

tantamount to gender or motherhood discrimination, they were aware that this

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meant that others, unencumbered by domestic responsibilities, were able to advance

their careers more quickly.

Over the course of the interviews with full-time workers, the notion of 'flexible

hours' was used to suggest that the individual was able to exercise some control over

when and how they work, but in actuality the needs of the project were always

paramount, and 'flexibility' was predominately determined by these rather than by

the needs of the worker. Mothers recognised this more than other types of workers,

typically because they had been meeting these expectations prior to having children.

So whilst [having children] doesn't affect your commitment to work it does affect your

availability and consequently in some ways it affects your flexibility … So I used to be able to, I

could work till late, no problem, and now I do have to stop, pick up the children, make dinner,

you know and it does affect [your work].

Elissa (F, 40-45)

Many female participants acknowledged the paradox of inaccessibility of flexible

work arrangements for professional workers, yet simultaneously the demand for all

employees to be flexible with respect to when and where they worked.

There were particular tensions in relation to cyclical project needs and the provision

of childcare. In contrast to the cyclical nature of the work they do, mothers described

regularity and routine as being necessary to utilise child caring arrangements. Users

of paid child caring services arranged them according to a fixed and prearranged

schedule. Therefore, their ability to respond to short-notice, unpredictable project

demands requiring them to stay late is limited. Women reported having complex

childcare arrangements, in part, to provide them with the scope to respond to the

changing needs of their project. Many of the women who returned to full-time

employment after children did so facilitated by use of a combination of both paid

and unpaid childcare services. This could lead to a reliance on family and friends to

provide supplementary childcare when issues arose requiring them to remain at

work. This is a form of childcare that is the most adaptable and on which parents

can rely. When Gretchen describes her reliance on using her parents as childcare

‘back-up’ if work requires it, she also reinforces the legitimacy attached to project

demands taking primacy over home life:

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if I need to stay late or whatever then either my husband…or more usually my parents can pick

up the kid… it tends to be when we have a deliverable due, and it's, you know, noses down, arses

up. Otherwise, I can just pick them up and work from home, but sometimes things happen, and

I really have to stay [at the client's].

Gretchen (F, 35-40)

This experience and framing were repeated across the majority of the interviews with

mothers. Women who returned to work fulltime tended to use nannies, au pairs or

family members as main sources of childcare. These are the forms that are best able

to respond and adapt to schedule changes in comparison to nursery or child

minding, which are more routine and less flexible. Georgia’s account of her daily

routine highlights the long length of time that childcare is required, noting that she

pays the nanny for two hours in the morning to get the children ready for school,

and then from three o’clock until seven o’clock in the evenings.

In addition to the cyclic nature of projects generally, the novel and bespoke nature

of many of the IT projects experienced by workers in this study created further

schedule uncertainty and variance between projects, as one male participant

articulated succinctly:

I mean, you never really know what you are going to be doing [on a new project]…so they set

these timeframes, and then you get on site and realise it's going to take twice as long and

need whole new solutions…it’s hard because often it's doing stuff that's never been done

before, so you just don't know…but then you are committed to a timeframe and budget, to a

certain extent, and the pressure is on… the team just have to get on with it.

Ethan (M, 30-35)

Developing accurate timescales and budgets for new, novel or bespoke projects is

difficult. If they are conceived unrealistically, however, it is the project team who

have to adjust the project process – typically by increasing their hours - in order to

deliver the project according to specifications that have been agreed. As Ethan

describes above, the responsibility for delivery of a project output is on the front-

line team regardless of what could be considered relatively arbitrary timescales and

scope. This naturally creates even more tension for those with caring duties than

expected in regular, albeit long hours. As discussed, it makes reconciliation with the

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routine and fixed paid-for childcare provision even more difficult as adaptations

have to be made at short-notice according to unknown and emergent issues.

Secondly, it creates the perception of unequal contribution by mothers to a team

under pressure. This exacerbates previously identified issues concerning the long

hours culture in IT projects. In the absence of ‘normal’ working times, leaving at 5

or 6 pm when a deadline is approaching is positioned as ‘leaving early'. This was

highly visible to other invested team members and created tensions with mothers

who were seen as not contributing as much to the project as other team members.

Leaving early not only created issues with colleagues, but it also caused dissonance

for mothers whom themselves perceived that leaving ‘early' was unfair to colleagues.

Lastly, the lifecycles of projects were used to justify these demands further. Meeting

project needs was framed as a necessary but temporary situation, linked to a specific

deliverable or deadline. Yet all of the workers worked on a project basis at all times,

therefore these cyclical demands are not temporary.

7.4.2 Accessing flexible working policies

IT companies have developed a raft of flexible working arrangements designed to

alleviate the challenges of reconciling home and work life, identified as restricting

to female careers. Part-time hours, compressed hours, and home-based working

were all highlighted as commonly used policies across the sample. Companies

framed the provision of flexible working policies as a way for women to reconcile

home and work duties, and also a means for them to retain skilled working mothers.

The majority of mothers interviewed hailed the ability to move to a part-time

schedule as a major contributor to their ability to continue in IT work, and many of

the younger women mentioned their intention to utilise this in the future. In some

cases, however, mothers reported challenges in accessing and using flexible working

schedules across multiple projects, which limited the intended positive effects.

Difficulties in accessing and utilising flexible working policies arose due to their

inconsistent application across different projects and roles and were linked to (i) the

line managers role as gatekeeper and the domination of business needs, and (ii) the

multiple layers of approval required in order to enact flexible working in practice.

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Across the interviews, female IT workers were using flexibility in such a way as to

reinforce traditional gender roles. While female IT professionals used formal flexible

working schedules (part-time and compressed hours, for instance) to better

reconcile work and caregiving responsibilities, male respondents use of ‘flexitime’

(the ability to set their start and end times) was employed as a way to work more

and improve their career options. Working longer hours, or at unsociable times was

used to improve their visibility and/or meet project demands, which both

contributed to career advantages. Women, therefore, are still expected to carry on

their traditional role of primary caregiver alongside their careers and facing intense

pressure combining both roles. Men, on the other hand, are credited with being

more committed employees. Yet this reinforcement of gender roles, and close

association to flexibility only with childcare, can also negatively affect workers who

seek flexibility for reasons other than childcare

Firstly, although the right to request flexible working is enshrined in law and there

were formal policies and processes through which requests for flexible working

policies were submitted into organisations, most of the respondents who had

applied noted how it was through informal negotiations with their direct manager

that the actual schedule women end up working developed. The process typically

started with a conversation with their line managers to discuss what type of schedule

would work in terms of both their domestic responsibilities and the needs of the

business, and this conversation then informed the type of formal request they

submitted to HR. Schedules were rejected when they were considered to be

inconsistent with business needs. The line manager’s perception of the relative

merits of flexible working and their impression of the needs of the business thus

determined mothers’ access to flexible working. Sometimes these negotiations

resulted in applications for working schedules that were not ideal for mothers, but

were more likely to be approved by the business/line manager, as illustrated in this

case:

So initially I went back for three days a week, but the guy that I was working for said, "Oh no,

no, that can't work. You can only do it for a couple months, then you have to go up to four

days." So I kind of got coerced into four days, reluctantly, and it wasn't working brilliantly well

because I was commuting.

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Sue (F, 60-65)

Line managers personal views relating to the viability of the schedule for the specific

role considered, and the validity of the reasons driving flexible working requests

were therefore highly influential. These, however, varied across business units and

between roles leading to inconsistent application. The dominance of business needs

is consistent with previous studies findings that, although couched in the language

of family-friendly working, flexible schedules are only welcome where they serve the

needs of the employers.

The multi-tiered management of project organisation combined with a high level of

informality relating to work and task allocation increased the complexity for

mothers with respect to accessing and using flexible working schedules. In many

cases, women had successfully arranged formal flexible working policies with their

line manager, yet experienced difficulties in applying these consistently to the

projects to which they were assigned. Project managers were considered by women

to be under pressure from client managers to allocate full-time resources as opposed

to part-time, as clients perceived to be providing the most value. Projects were also

subject to budgetary constraints and sought value for their own agenda. The

difference in perceived value is attributed mainly to the many additional, unpaid,

hours that IT workers are expected to contribute to projects, which mothers are less

able to do. So despite having already negotiated their working arrangements with

the organisation, mothers often undertook a process of negotiation with each project

manager in order to secure a project role. In this way, women have theoretical access,

but less so in real terms. For one part-time worker the negotiation of a four-day a

week contract with her line manager was relatively straight forward, more difficulty

arose when seeking allocation to projects. As a part timer she was considered less

economically viable in the context of tight project budgets, and found project

managers less willing to accept her into project teams:

My [line] manager was quite supportive, but I tried so many projects, and they were saying,

"No, you can't," you know, “we can't fund you with that time you know, you have to work full-

time or we can't have you." So I ended up sort of doing a mishmash of different roles.

Sylvia (F, 45-50)

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Failure to undertake sufficient project roles would affect the number of client

billable hours attributed to a worker and, in turn, their performance management

results and pay and promotional prospects. Therefore, women were incentivised to

make compromises. These tensions are summarised in Figure: 7.2. A complex

interplay of factors determined the outcome of the negotiations. For instance, line

managers and individual workers may have more power over the project where

resources are niche or limited or where companies privilege line management

allocation of resources to projects (rather than a negotiation-allocation model).

Project managers may have more power to demand full-time resources where

projects are high profile, reputationally important to the organisation or where

project margins are more constrained. The extent to which women themselves were

able to push back against both client and project manager resistance to flexible

working was linked to both their human capital, reputational capital and the level

of line management support they received.

So if I did go to another organisation I'd have to probably have to be on-point a lot more than

I am now and be visible a lot more until you establish that credibility to then allow you to go,

well, I'm working from home today or I'm going to leave at four because I've got a call with

the States at seven.

Georgia (F, 35-40)

Regardless of their specific circumstance, however, it is clear that these tensions

created a challenging environment for mothers who needed consistent access to

flexible working schedules that would allow them to reconcile work with their

childcare responsibilities.

Furthermore, even those women who had successfully negotiated alternative

working arrangements across projects reported being under pressure to increase

their hours in response to the needs of the business. As revealed by the interviews,

the organisation was aware that that mothers that had been granted flexible

arrangements to meet their work-life balance needs (employee-friendly flexibility),

but continued to assume that mothers could simultaneously use flexibility to be

available to meet the needs of the project (employer-friendly flexibility).

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The tensions around the reconciliation of employer-friendly flexibility and employee

friendly flexibility expected of workers created negative career implications in terms

of career mobility for mothers in comparison to men.

As many mothers, both part-time and full-time, typically employ a combination of

childcare options, any change to the schedule or location of work can prove

problematic. As one participant terms it, they have a 'delicate childcare eco-system'

in place, and even small changes such as a different commuting route can disrupt

this.

Women either had to change their working times and domestic arrangements each

time they moved to a new project or, if possible, they became more selective of the

projects they sought. Three out of the five part-time women said that they would be

reluctant to move to new projects or roles unless they offered more flexibility or the

same schedules as their current role, due to the challenges in adapting their

relatively complex childcare arrangements. In doing so, they opt out of considering

some career options and their career mobility is restricted. However, not all project

moves are self-selected. Employers allocate employees to projects as they see fit, and

mothers (both full time and part time) may be allocated to projects that they are not

easily able to reconcile with their caring responsibilities. In such cases, they are

forced to consider whether they can continue in a particular role or transition to a

job that may prove more easily reconcilable with their domestic arrangement.

Changes made in service of domestic arrangements may not reflect their ideal career

choice, but rather the best of the available career options at that point in time.

Mothers may also be allocated to projects that are reconcilable with their domestic

responsibilities but provide less potential for facilitating future career development.

As perceptions of commitment and value were viewed as particularly important for

high profile projects (either in terms of value to the company, a specially valued

client, or a new technology) part-time mothers perceived themselves as even less

likely to be allocated to these projects. Mothers were therefore particularly

disadvantaged in relation to the types of projects that would provide new skills and

visibility to senior management – both highlighted as essential for securing career

progression.

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Figure 7.2 Negotiation of flexible working arrangements across project structures

Despite these issues, many female respondents expressed gratitude for being

allowed to continue working for their employers part-time and sought to minimise

discussion of the difficulties that they experienced in utilising them. This is

consistent with the idea that part-time workers did not view part-time or flexible

working as any kind of right but rather a favour conferred by the organisation (see

Smithson and Stokoe 2005). Despite instances in which women identified difficulties

in accessing family-friendly flexibility or experienced pressure against it, they did

not frame this a problem per se.

As described in the previous chapter, accounts point to the realities of IT work in

that individuals need to continually adapt, up skill and re-train to stay employable

and exploit career opportunities. The shift from organisational provision of

formalised training, to the individual taking responsibility for maintaining and

developing their skills, has created an additional burden for workers and creates

particular difficulties to those with caring responsibilities and limited time outside

work. Training is considered secondary to project responsibilities, with most of the

respondents describing pressure to carry training out after work, at home or between

projects. This is particularly challenging for mothers who are already time

constrained. Two mothers discussed the unfeasibility of seeking out project roles in

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areas that required a significant amount of additional training due to these time

pressures. For one woman, this represented a move away from more technical roles

where she perceived a greater need to up-skill regularly, to a less technical business

analyst role, which she felt depended more on interpersonal skills and changed less

over time.

7.4.3 Exclusion from informal networks

As already discussed (see 6.3.2 Processes of work allocation), work allocation and

knowledge exchange were characterised by informality in large part due to the

project based nature of work and the rate of change. Informal networks were,

therefore, critical for career development. For mothers, this reliance on informal

networks could be problematic due to (i) negative peer perceptions of commitment

and aptitude concerning motherhood and flexible working, and (ii) the logistical

challenges in maintaining them.

Firstly, mothers felt excluded from these networks due to their different priorities

and the gendered perceptions of mothers as less committed employees, which led

to negative judgements about their value as members of these networks. Mothers,

and particularly part-timers, faced suppositions about their competence and

commitment to paid employment due to the need to balance it with their domestic

responsibilities. Most of the accounts from mothers reveal beliefs that their peers

consider mothers as less committed due to their need to leave work earlier or

prioritise their domestic responsibilities. These stereotypes are reflected in

statements such the one made by Harry, in which he submits that women with

children are less committed to project-work.

R: …well parents can't stay late can they, so sometimes they leave in the middle of something

important and, I mean I get it, but you can't rely on that can you, when you have to deliver to

a client and everyone is working their arses off…

I: Do you mean parents or mothers?

R: Well it's usually women isn't it?

I: So does that impact whether you would want to work with them again, or recommend

them?

R: Ummm…well…no, I don't think so…not if they are good [at the job] I guess

Harry (M, 30-35)

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Although he falls short of suggesting he would discriminate against them or exclude

them from projects explicitly because of their parenthood status, it is certainly

reflective assumptions of reduced commitment in relation to motherhood.

Part-time work reduces acceptance into the organisational culture and lowers

opportunities to pursue work-related interests. Despite men frequently expressing

awareness and empathy with the challenges that women face in combining work

with caring responsibilities, they continued to make judgements relating to their

value in the workplace in ways similar to that articulated by Harry. When reflecting

on her experiences working part time earlier in her career, Sue perceived differences

in the how respected she was compared to when she was working full time:

I had to work to make sure that people understood that I was a fully qualified person working

part-time, not a partially qualified person…Sometimes in a meeting what you said seemed to

carry less weight because you know, I wasn’t around as much. My opinion wasn’t valued as

much so that was difficult.

Sue (F, 60-65)

Regardless of their specific working schedule, all workers noted that moving to new

projects requires a period "proving" themselves to the new team or client. This stage

of building a project reputation is particularly critical in combating the negative

perceptions of commitment associated with part-time work. Paradoxically, however,

working mothers struggle to find this additional time and energy precisely because

of their childcare responsibilities.

In addition, mothers are at risk of exclusion due to their limited availability to take

part in the social activities that create networking opportunities. Upon having

children, women found the socialising aspects of their work particularly difficult.

Networking was seen as critical to maintaining and progressing an IT career and

therefore not being able to do so was a severe setback to women’s standing in the

organisation. Being able to socialise outside of work hours was another way in which

the distance between male and female participation is magnified. Socialising and

developing contacts across clients and colleagues took place outside of hours, and

this was critical to future success. Many mothers reported feeling excluded from

these networks because of the responsibilities that they hold outside of work, so they

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are less willing to give up time with their children for social occasions that they

might help advance their career.

[As a mother] you can't socialise in quite the same way, and a lot of it's based around going to

the pub…It's a little bit harder to make those networks. It's harder to find the right people to

kind of, you know, to advise you maybe where to go next or build up that network and people

would say, "Oh yeah, actually you'd be great on this project. Come along and join us," you

know, or, "Maybe you could do this role if that's what you want to do." You don't get that.

Sylvia (F, 45-50)

Several mothers also noted that their way of working had also changed: they worked

in a much more intense way after becoming a mother. These changes were especially

true for those on part-time contracts. Women perceived themselves as doing did less

‘time-wasting’ activities; such as going for lunch or having informal chats in the

office, because of the need to compress demanding work into a reduced time frame.

However, this could actually be detrimental to their career progress by reducing

embeddedness within professional and social networks. Without inclusion in

informal networks, women and mothers are less able to access the same career

opportunities, thus limiting their career mobility. This exclusion may also give them

less access to knowledge resources and have less support in work, impacting their

appraisal results and, in turn, their promotional prospects.

7.4.4 Difficulty with performance measurement

Careers are also impacted by the insufficiency of appraisal and promotion processes

to account for the challenges of motherhood generally, and specifically for those

working alternative schedules. The continuing conflation of presenteeism with

commitment and ambition explored in the previous section places mothers even

further from meeting expectations aligned with masculine ‘ideal worker’ norms.

Mothers are not able to offer extended hours to signal their commitment and career

aspirations. In previous discussions around how performance is measured, Ethan

suggested that long hours were an “easy” way to demonstrate you are working hard

in discussing why he works until 8-9pm most days. He goes on to explicitly note

that:

It's not fair though, not on the people with kids that can't do it. But it's the way it works.

Ethan (M, 30-35)

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This underscores the awareness that male employees have of the affect that these

expectations have in disadvantaging women who are mothers. This case, along with

others from the male sample, demonstrate a level of empathy with the challenges

mothers face. Yet in none of the accounts is the legitimacy of expectations for

workers to acquiesce to project requirements at all times fundamentally questioned.

A small number of mothers took issue with the perceived “unnecessary” hours that

some (male) workers put in – the presenteeism element. But even they did not to

query the underlying notion of business needs prioritisation.

Furthermore, the use of benchmarking in appraisal and promotion was considered

by most of the mothers to disadvantage them through inadequately accounting for

maternity leave and part-time hours, which formed an essential part of many

mothers’ careers. Two of the part-time mothers raised this as a particular problem

in the larger organisations in the study, which typically provided a generous period

of maternity leave and pay, yet also had formalised appraisal schemes that did not

account for these breaks, or pro-rate expectations and standards to account for their

reduction in hours. One woman used an interesting metaphor to underline this

issue:

…Since being promoted, and since being part-time, I've never achieved more than a [middle

rating]. And lots of people find that very demoralising… it's kind of like a blindfolded race, so

you kind of go, if I'm being compared to someone else who's maybe the sole breadwinner in

their family, who works full time, who's prepared to do x, y and z, that I'm not prepared or

able to do, then how can I ever compete against that? It’s like, I don't know, it is like an

Olympics race, with Paralympic and Olympic athletes at the same thing. You're starting

from a different baseline; I think would be my view.

Lindsey (F, 40-45)

Regardless of the hours those workers were contracted to do, the expectation that

workers would carry out additional tasks in order to gain work and seek promotion

was the same. Part-time workers were expected to keep on top of their own training,

keep abreast of technological developments, manage and improve their personal

profile, for example, and this was considered essential to keeping and developing an

IT career. This creates an obvious additional weight on mothers who are, as has been

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well established, more time constrained as a result of their roles as mothers. Three

of the part-time mothers mentioned that this also poses an additional burden mainly

because of the need to contribute above and beyond in their actual jobs in order to

combat the negative stereotypes associated with part-time working:

on top of your day job you've got to do all these extra things, and that's what gets you noticed

and that's what gets you the higher ranking at the end of the year …But when you're literally

just going, right, I've got to prove that I can do this job so I don't lose the project I'm on, you

don't have time to then spend hours on the phone talking to other people about whatever it

might be. You really don't, you know. And so you get penalised for it because you aren't

contributing to [Large IT Software and Service firm]

Sylvia (F, 45-50).

Beyond these issues, the administration involved with appraisal and promotion

processes is the same regardless of whether the individual works 40 or 24 hours a

week. Many of the IT workers mentioned how the appraisal and promotional

processes were time-consuming and needed to be fitted in around their day-to-day

jobs. For part-timers, the time spent doing these makes up a much higher proportion

of their contracted time.

7.5 PARENTHOOD, GENDER AND CAREER TRAJECTORIES

As discussed in the previous chapter the exact trajectory of a career is determined

by the relative ability and desires to make either lateral or vertical movements,

internally or externally to the organisation (see 6.2 Career trajectories in IT work)

The ability and desire for movements, in turn, are determined by the various

contextual factors shaping opportunities and constraints over the course of the

empirical chapters. This section will provide an overview of the constraints resulting

for the interaction of contextual factors and the issues discussed over the course of

this chapter, before considering how responses similarly influence career trajectories

for mothers and fathers.

7.5.1 Modelling career trajectories

It is clear from this discussion that the ability for women to demonstrate the

appropriate ‘ideal worker’ behaviours is made more challenging by the need to

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reconcile childcare with the project-based organisation of IT work. The ability to

achieve the same performance targets and secure inclusion in informal networks is

reduced in comparison to those IT workers without children or fathers.

Furthermore, the need to accommodate domestic responsibilities often required

employment of flexible working schedules which created additional complications

and exacerbated these processes of disadvantage and limiting access to the best

career opportunities. In this way, mothers’ careers can be impeded by constraints

linked to motherhood, but also face additional challenges linked to flexible working.

The way that mothers responded to these constraints, and therefore the way in

which they shaped career decisions, varied. For some, they are able to make

adaptions to their personal or working lives in order to mitigate the challenges that

arise and continue to successfully pursue their sought progression. For others they

make adjustments to their careers expectations and pursue alternative career paths.

The career trajectories reported by mothers in this study have been outlined in

Figure 7.3. This diagram shows that when mothers and fathers seek to progress their

careers either laterally or vertically (as per 6.2 Career trajectories in IT work), they

may encounter a combination of some, or all, of the potential constraints outlined

in this chapter. Mothers face multi-layered constraints related to motherhood, to

flexible working and to gender. Gender is included here because it cannot be

divorced from motherhood. Career constraints may arise not only as a result of

motherhood itself, but also due to the assumption or expectations of peers and

managers that they have, or will in the future, be mothers. For fathers, these are

limited to personal constraints.

If workers are subject to no constraints on their career progression, the desired

outcome is achieved. If they experience constraints on their desire to progress, the

IT worker has to determine if they can mitigate the constraint(s), thereby achieving

the desired outcome of ‘achieve progression’ or, if not, how they respond to the

constrained outcome of ‘fail to achieve progression’. It is clear that the greater

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Figure 7.3 Model of career trajectories of mothers and father in IT work

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potential for constrained career attached to mothers creates the potential for a much

more substantial loss of them between the ‘seeking progression’ stage and the

‘achieves progression’ outcome, than fathers and non-mothers. These women (and

some men) end up in the ‘fail to achieve progression’ and diverted from their

preferable IT career.

As this model is cyclical, the career response to a round that ends up in failure is

influenced by the how temporary that failure is perceived as being. Where a worker

considers the failure to be temporary (i.e. can be overcome in the future) and

therefore the preferable career route recoverable at some point, they are more likely

to remain in the industry but make adjustments to their career expectations to

reflect the constraint. However, when the failure is viewed as a more permanent

limitation to career development, workers may adjust their priorities away from paid

employment. They may engage in career maintenance, and abandon notions of

significant career progression or, more extreme, look to opt out entirely.

7.5.2 Career trajectories of career history respondents

Almost all mothers described a period of career stagnation after having a child, and

for a time afterwards. Most mothers thus accepted that the early stages of their

children’s lives would form a career ‘hiatus', in which work would be secondary to

caring responsibilities and career advancement limited. Only four13 of the 17 mothers

mentioned career development occurring in any capacity while they had small

children. All of these four mothers continued to work full-time and used extensive

alternative forms of childcare (paid and unpaid). One of those women had a partner

who took responsibility for full-time childcare, two were in relatively senior

positions and utilised full-time nannies (one live-in, one nearby) and the final

woman lived with her in-laws.

13 Seren and Leila, discussed above, provided two of these accounts.

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Typically, the difficulty of fulfilling both family responsibilities and work demands

steered most mothers to adjust their career aspirations, often downsizing their

shorter-term ambitions as they enter the family formation phase of their lives.

Commonly mothers indicated they felt it would be easier to wait until younger

children were older before seeking progression, as they felt they could not fulfil the

requirement for mothers to commit to the working practices of dominant

masculinity (i.e. a boundless time schedule, a suppressed personal life and a reduced

investment in care) in order to enable progression.

Perhaps due to the multiple constraints faced by motherhood and flexible working,

this was particularly true of those that wished to work employee-friendly flexible

schedules. Three of the part-timers had actively pursued promotion prior to having

children and becoming part-time, yet they decided not to pursue career progression

while they worked part-time. Another mother had received promotion just before

leaving for maternity, and expressed the view that promotion was easier to achieve

without children than with. For two of these women, this was due to the perception

that the challenges that they experience in reconciling home and work would only

be made more difficult at more senior levels. Rather, they took a longer-term

approach to their careers, focusing on ambitions considered achievable once the

temporary career ‘hiatus’ was over:

So, my youngest will be in school in three and a half years, and then I think I will try and push

my career through a bit more… [I'll have] more time, more energy and I just think it will be

easier then…so I'm planning for that

Olivia (F, 35-40)

I think in my mind I'm going to go back after my son, going to give myself probably a couple

of years to settle back into it, getting them into a school which makes the whole childcare

question a bit easier. Maybe change my working hours then to work school hours. Then you

have all the holiday cover issues. And I think after a couple of years then I'll start to think

about how we do something with my career, or if maybe, I don't know, something else would

be better.

Katherine (F, 35-40)

Mothers’ accounts associated this hiatus not only with the (un) likelihood of

achieving vertical progression, but with the substantial energy and focus required

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both for the promotional process and with carrying out a role at more senior levels.

At no point was it suggested that vertical promotion would be compatible with the

demands of young children or flexible working. Instead senior roles were viewed as

more demanding, thus more incompatible with either flexible working or caring

responsibilities. In response, most of the mothers adapted their career goals and

trajectories with a view to ‘catching up' with either where they viewed their peers to

have reached, in terms of terms of pay, grade and experiences levels, or, more

commonly, where they perceived they would have been in terms of career success if

they had been unimpeded in pursuing their preferred career trajectory. Elissa, for

example, was very ambitious but felt that if she had not had children, she “would

have reached the goal by now”. Nonetheless she emphasised that her plans were still

possible, despite having to make what she termed “compromise at present” in

balancing home and work. She simply adjusted the timescale associated with her

career expectations.

A minority of the female sample considered difficulties progressing as a sign that

they should shift their career focus to an area where they are more likely to be

successful. This was the case with Rebecca, who was involved with developing and

implementing a financial product which was no longer considered viable by her

organisation at the time of interview. On reflection, she considered that she might

be better recognised for her specific skills in a less technical role, where her client

management skills would be better rewarded in comparison to the technical focus

for vertical progression:

I can’t compete with the guys here; they would trounce me if we all went for [promotion]... I

think I will have more opportunities where client feedback is more valued

Rebecca (F, 25-30)

This offers an insight into why occupational segregation may persist. Occupational

segregation is reinforced when women feel it is easier to get recognised in certain

occupations where a higher number of women already are, and they self-select into

those areas.

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A small number of women accepted that motherhood, and particularly flexible

working, had affected their careers to such an extent that future career opportunities

were forever restricted, making career stagnation more impactful. Viewing a

preferential IT career as unrecoverable, in light of the realities of their

responsibilities combined with the lack of options at work, these women suggested

they had adjusted their life ambitions, attributing less priority to work than they did

previously and focusing more on work-life balance:

I mean I probably wouldn't try and out-perform people now. I'd just go, well okay, either you

have it or you don't. [Promotion] is just not as important as it once was I suppose…

Sylvia (45-50)

Within the career history accounts of part-time workers, there were also instances

in which the temporary period of working flexibly when their children were young

had ended, but women had found it difficult to subsequently return to more senior

or preferable roles.

I can easily go back full time, no problem, but I don’t think I’ll be getting to best projects

again. It’s unfortunate ‘cos I don’t feel like I have less ability or willingness but I’m just not

where [my peers] are because I took time out, and it’s competitive. So no, I don’t see my

career rocketing off

Hannah (F, 35-40)

These examples reflect what Quesenberry et al. (2006) terms the ‘mommy track’:

whereby careers are restricted to roles considered suitable for women with caring

responsibilities, thus reinforcing gender segregation in the company. Women then

positioned themselves as more focused on subjective measures of success rather

than objective measures such as formal promotions or pay. This ‘satisficing’

reinforces criticisms of the supply side explanations of gender segregation and

contemporary career trajectories, in which expressed preferences are not placed in

the context of the constraints in which they occur. In the context of inflexible work

schedules, long hours and the undervaluation of part-time workers, the extent to

which career outcomes can be seen as the product of personal ‘choices’, following a

protean orientation is highly questionable.

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This perhaps offers an explanation for the more pronounced sense of dissatisfaction

expressed by four women when questioned how they viewed their careers

progressing or considered how they had progressed. While none of the women

expressed immediate intentions to leave either their specific organisations or the IT

field, during their interviews many women discussed future plans or aspirations

outside of the industry. When asked where they saw themselves in five or ten years,

all but two of the fathers (and men more generally, with the exception of those due

to retire) discussed future career plans within the IT field. By comparison, a range of

desires were suggested by mothers, including life-coaching, non-profit work and

teaching. Key drivers for these aims were exhaustion with the constant change and

up-skilling requirements, combined with dissatisfaction with the competitive nature

of IT work. Yet, only one man suggested the same concerns with work in IT as he

got older.

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7.6 SUMMARY

There is ample evidence presented in this chapter to suggest that parenthood has a

more profound effect on women’s careers than on men’s, and that the effects are

negative in terms of career progression.

Consistent with the many studies examining gender and work, women in this study

continued to undertake the primary child caring role and the majority of the

domestic responsibilities. They made significant alterations to their careers to adjust

for these changes, including moving to flexible working schedules (especially part-

time), changing to a more easily reconcilable full-time role, or minimising temporal

and locational change to ensure the stability of existing childcare arrangements.

Moreover, they limit the time that they spend at work to accommodate the needs of

childcare outside of ‘normal’ hours. Those that remained in the labour market did

so through heavily reliance on paid for and/or family provided childcare. Fathers, on

the other hand, typically passed child caring responsibilities onto their (female)

partners, who either remained at home or selected to work part-time in their own

fields.

While the ability to make these changes helped women to maintain their IT careers

through the family and care life stage, they created negative implications for

progression of their careers. In general, career mobility for mothers was limited by

the extent to which career opportunities reconciled with the demand of their wider

responsibilities, in contrast to those operating primarily for the benefit of their

career trajectories. This limits the ability of mothers to compete and capitalise on

the best career opportunities. Due the incompatibility of their working lives with the

dominant ‘ideal worker’ expectations of constant availability and employer-friendly

flexibility, mothers continue to be viewed as lacking in commitment to paid

employment. Flexible workers experienced the most difficulties in securing

advancement and project opportunities due to the significant disparity between

their reduced hours, and the long hours expected by the organisation. Furthermore,

all mothers struggled to commit significant time to the range of activities necessary

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for ensuring organisational visibility and reputational and human capital, such as

participating in out-of-hours or undertaking training after work hours.

The nature and organisation of IT work creates additional challenges for women in

fulfilling their roles as mothers. Project life cycles mean workers had to

accommodate periods of intense working to meet specific time or budgetary

constraints. This is fundamentally incompatible with the routine and stability

required to facilitate relatively inflexible childcare arrangements. Project-work was

characterised by flexibility, constant change and informality. Moreover, despite the

availability of flexible working schedules in theory, in practice using them was

difficult. The multi-tiered management of project organisation combined with a

high level of informality relating to work and task allocation increased the

complexity for mothers with respect to accessing and using flexible working

schedules across projects. In addition, employers and clients still demanded that

employees prioritise business needs with workers expected to accommodate the

time and location demands of each of the projects, regardless of formal schedule

arrangements. The need to accommodate project needs means mothers either had

to change their working times and domestic arrangements for each project or

become more selective of the projects they undertook. From already being restricted

in their project possibilities, mothers were further disadvantaged by the tendency

for the highest profile and most beneficial project opportunities to be the least likely

to be amenable to alternative schedules and parenting demands. The constraints

related to the motherhood and flexible working are summarised in Table 8.2 and 8.3

in the discussion chapter and are arranged in accordance with the proposed

analytical framework used through this study.

Analysis of the career trajectories of male and female IT workers demonstrate how

the cyclical process of encountering career constraints can result in women failing

to advance or progress their career as they intended and can lead to a greater

tendency for women to experience periods of career stagnation at the point of family

formation. The career responses resulting from these experiences depend on the

perception of this ‘hiatus’ as temporary, or permanent. Where temporary, women

may adjust their career expectations and seek out less preferable career options,

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which offer them a greater chance of future progression, a process that reinforces

occupational segregation by sex. Alternatively, they may readjust their career

expectations away from vertical progression and satisfice with career trajectories

deemed more achievable. Most concerning in terms of underrepresentation, is that

difficulties progressing their careers may lead to disenfranchisement and turnover

when their desired career is viewed as being unrecoverable. As a response some

women focused on their wider life ambitions, attributing less priority to work than

they did previously and focusing more on work-life balance than on career

progression. While none of the female sample explicitly stated they wished to leave

the industry, opt-out intentions were implied by an emphasis on future career plans

outside of the industry by dissatisfied respondents.

The greater constraints facing women and mothers, and a wide range of career

responses indicating ‘satisficing’ behaviours in IT careers can help explain why the

vertical and occupational segregation of women remains persistent. Meanwhile the

greater contemplation of careers outside of the industry by women may provide a

partial explanation for a pattern of higher female turnover. The existence of a few

‘successful' mothers reinforces meritocratic discourses relating to individual choice

and combining motherhood and paid employments. Yet, little attention is paid in

this discourse to the reality that fathers do not face similar career issues, instead

shifting the responsibility for gender inequalities from the organisational sphere to

the institutional and societal sphere. This lack of acknowledgement of the systemic

difficulties facing women with respect to motherhood limits the scope and incentive

to make more substantive changes in the industry to better enable women and

mothers to thrive.

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8 DISCUSSION

8.1 INTRODUCTION

This study has provided a number of insights that help to understand the

underrepresentation of women in IT, and the main contributions will be discussed in

this chapter.

The data revealed how the viability of paths of entry previously used by women into

IT careers is reducing and has explored how gender and motherhood roles interact

with organisational structures and practices to create processes of exclusion within

IT firms. It has also demonstrated how organisations are employing equality and

diversity (E&D) programmes to signal commitment to addressing gender imbalances,

without making any substantive or systemic changes to tackle their root causes. These

issues, in combination, help explain the persistently low numbers of women in IT

generally, and within technical occupations and senior positions more specifically,

within the UK IT industry.

The findings help extend existing debates relating to the nature of contemporary

careers by demonstrating that IT workers are not boundaryless career agents (Arthur

and Defillippi 1994), shaping their careers to suit their own orientations to work (Hall

1996; Briscoe and Hall 2002). Rather, the increasing prevalence of project-based work

organisation is blurring the distinctions between organisational careers and

organisation boundary-crossing careers in IT. Careers in this industry are

characterised by the inclusion of both traditional and contemporary elements in a

way that mean they cannot be so clearly classified. Furthermore, through its close

examination of career and gender, this study finds some workers, particularly women

and mothers, face a process of double disadvantage in having to manage the demands

of simultaneous lateral and vertical career development required by the structure of

these careers.

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Through identifying multi-faceted career constraints, this research responds to calls

to bring boundaries back into career research (Inkson et al. 2012). A boundary-based

analysis provides greater scope for more nuanced consideration of the interaction

between agency and context in the formation of careers, thus providing a more useful

perspective for understanding contemporary careers of both men and women. This

study has underlined the inherently gendered nature of these boundaries and

recommended a reconceptualization of ‘career constraints’ to gendered ‘career

boundaries’, varying in salience, permeability, and fluidity over the life course.

The first section of this chapter outlines the key findings and empirical contributions

of the study for understanding persistent female underrepresentation. The broader

theoretical implications of this research for understanding contemporary careers,

especially those of women, are outlined in the second section. The final section then

proposes some actions companies can take to address gender inequality in

contemporary careers. These are designed for use in IT companies but can also be

used by HR practitioners and policy makers across other professional fields, especially

those employing project-based work.

8.2 KEY FINDINGS AND EMPIRICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

8.2.1 Accessing IT careers

This study has found that the paths of entry used by IT workers differ by gender, but

also demonstrate substantial variance within the gender groups. That women tend

not to develop an early interest in computers or technology, and show a lower

inclination towards computer gaming or ‘hobbyism’ has been firmly established in

prior research (summaries provided in Ahuja 2002; Margolis and Fisher 2002;

Woodfield 2002) and these tendencies are similarly evident in this study. Male

accounts typically reported a direct link between their early experiences with ‘leisure’

computing and pursuit of IT careers. In contrast, female accounts credit their interest

in IT careers to the contact with technology that occurs in the course of pursing other

career paths (i.e. through university courses or paid employment).

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These findings challenge the current understanding of low female recruitment into

the industry. As outlined in the literature review, female underrepresentation in IT

work is frequently attributed to issues with the ‘educational pipeline’. Low numbers

of women taking IT subjects specifically, and STEM subjects more broadly is seen as

creating a dearth of women who are qualified to take up professional IT roles (Gürer

and Camp 2002; Diamond and Whitehouse 2007; Branson 2018). The exact causes of

low female uptake of these subjects is widely debated, but broadly the close

association of technology with masculinity is argued to discourage women from

pursuit of formal IT education at subsequent stages and limit the interest of women

in seeking IT work (for example Wilson 1998; Wilson 2003; Wajcman 2004; Wajcman

2007) .

Yet, in a challenge to this mainstream logic, this research has demonstrated that a

variety of alternative routes into the IT professions have been possible beyond that

consistent with the ‘educational pipeline’ approach, and that these are particularly

important for the recruitment of women. For example, many individuals develop an

interest in IT careers after their formal education, transitioning over from alternative

career paths. From analysis in this study a range of educational and career choices led

to the emergence of eight separate routes into the industry, as detailed in Figure 8.1

These heterogeneous routes of entry have important implications for considering

female underrepresentation.

Firstly, much of the previous research and policy discourse relating to women in IT

work are designed with the aim of provoking girls’ interest in ‘technology’ as an

artefact, such as the educational outreach programmes used by companies in this

study. Yet evidence provided by IT workers themselves suggest that possession of an

interest in technology is not essential for pursuit of all successful IT careers. Many

workers, male and female, described the favourable conditions of the industry such

as high pay, potential travel/mobility, perception of future opportunities and (a

perhaps misplaced) perception of employment security, as important motivations for

joining the industry. Once in work, women highlighted the interesting, challenging

and rewarding nature of IT work, even while maintaining a distance from computers

or ‘technology’ as distinct entities.

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Figure 8.1 Paths of entry reported by career history respondents

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Even for those men and women that claimed a specific an interest in technology, it

was often what the technology could achieve that was deemed most important for

them – although distinctions between the use of technology and technology in of

itself were often hard to distinguish. This has important implications for

understanding the failure of current measures used to tackle patterns of

underrepresentation.

If an interest in technology is not a prerequisite for IT careers, then the focus on

promoting girls’ interest in technology as the primary strategy to increase women’s

employment in IT is arguably misdirected. Wajcman (2007) has vehemently argued

that currently technology is the embodiment of masculinity, because it is

underpinned by ”symbols, metaphors and values that have masculine connotations”

(p.289). If girls are so fundamentally distanced from technology, then this research

would suggest that a revised focus toward promoting IT work rather than technology

in of itself would be more fruitful. The ultimate aim would be to ensure that women

have equal interest in and access to technology careers of all types and at all levels,

and thus an equal say in the way technology is developed - enabling closer alignment

of femininity and technology in the long-term. In the short-term, however, greater

representation may be better achieved by focusing on attracting women to IT work

more generally and ensuring they are supported to pursue more technical careers

once in the industry.

Secondly, some men and women did enter the industry without a STEM degree, and

in some cases without a graduate level education at all. These individuals not only

forged careers as IT specialists that endured but did so within both less technical

and more technical occupations. This poses a fundamental challenge to notions of a

single linear pathway requiring qualification from these educational stages for access

to IT careers. Evidence suggests, however, that the viability of entrance with

alternative educational backgrounds that were particularly important for women in

this study is diminishing. Transitions from other career paths were facilitated by the

presence of more routine entry-level positions that offered high levels of training

and provided structured opportunities to rapidly progress.

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Yet there has been a substantial reduction in these types of entry-level positions due

to the flattening of organisational structures, and processes of automation and

offshoring. A high proportion of roles that remain ‘on-shore’ do so as they require

specific skill sets, are high profile or valuable, or fundamentally require client

interaction. Entrants are therefore expected to add-value to a role from the outset:

for example, through being billable to client projects. The expansion of higher

education and the establishment of formal IT qualifications supported these

processes, allowing companies to increasingly rely on the external labour market to

fill these more skilled entry-level roles. Due to these organisational changes,

opportunities for progression are also limited, with employers unable or unwilling

to provide substantial training in a more insecure employment environment. These

elements combine to limit the capacity and willingness for line managers to recruit

those without a technical background and then equip them with the specific skills

for IT roles: as had previously been the norm. While these trends may similarly affect

men entering via these routes, as a small number in this study did, the detrimental

effects are likely to be markedly more acute for female numbers given the lack of

women entering via the ‘educational pipeline’ compared to men.

All of the IT companies interviewed stated a commitment to changing their

recruitment processes to enable women better to access IT work, which could be

argued to theoretically offset any constriction of the alternative paths of entry

described above. However, this optimism may be overstated. Promises to ‘open-up’

recruitment to female graduates by either providing interviews to all female

applicants (only in technical roles) or considering those with alternative degrees to

STEM may provide limited impact as this may simply reinforce the entrenched

occupational segregation in the industry. In practice, processes of ‘opening-up’

recruitment appear to have yielded benefits mainly for less technical occupations

(such as implementation/functional consulting, technical writing, technical sales),

with greater female representation in these occupations. Meanwhile, the

recruitment for technical occupations remains staunchly gendered. For technical

occupations, recruitment overwhelmingly still requires a STEM degree, to be a ‘fit’

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with the corporate culture, and to have demonstrable interest in and/or experience

with computing. These all create gendered processes of exclusion for women.

With respect to education prerequisites, while the requirement of a STEM degree

for some roles is understandable due to the nature of work involved, this research

suggest that the assumption it is necessary for all, or even the majority of IT roles, is

erroneous. For example, there are a number of other degrees outside of formal STEM

that provide a significant amount of maths and logic proficiency - such as economics

or psychology. However, narrow recruitment criteria and processes appear to

continue to exclude or less favourably evaluate candidates with such degrees.

Being perceived as a ‘fit’ with company culture is considered vital by companies and

existing employees in order for employment to be effective. Yet, assessment of a

person’s fit is made through the recruitment process and can be problematic for

women. ‘Fit’ is a subjective assessment, made by (typically male) managers, and

requires women to be viewed as compatible with what previous studies have

highlighted as a uniquely masculine culture, developed and reproduced by

generations of male IT workers.

Lastly, while an interest in computing and IT may seem a logical requirement for IT

roles, in reality women often come to IT later and do not possess substantial

experience or demonstrable interest in it. While previous authors such as Woodfield

(2000) have emphasised a notable gender difference between men, who are

perceived as motivated by technology in of itself, as a technical concept, and women

who are driven by what technology can do, this study has found fewer binary

distinctions in this respect along gender lines. Technology and its use are found to

be inextricably linked in the stated motivations for IT careers in these accounts.

Perhaps of more interest to discussions around improving gender equality, it was

clear that for many IT professionals technology (either in of itself or the use of) was

a secondary consideration to the preferable working conditions or professional

development opportunities offered by IT roles. Despite a stated lack of interest in

technology and the use of technology, some workers pursued long and rewarding IT

careers, with no obvious signs indicating a lack of commitment, capability or interest

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in the work they do. Therefore, as a criterion, the need to have demonstrable

experience with and interest in technology itself, could be considered unnecessarily

exclusionary for a large number of IT roles. This is liable to continue to

disproportionately affect women, who remain less likely to develop an early interest

in computing.

Finding it easier to access less technical occupations, these processes of exclusion

from technical occupations reinforce the patterns of occupational segregation

among new entrants. It is also important to note that graduate schemes demand

application within two to three years of graduation, yet many women in this study

developed an interest in pursuing IT work later in their careers and were therefore

ineligible for these schemes.

In short, in the current context, many of the female respondents in this study would

find it more difficult to enter the IT industry than they did previously. Consideration

of the contextual influences that create complexities in recruitment are essential for

understanding patterns of female entrance into the industry and are an important

contribution to the existing research.

8.2.2 Maintaining and advancing IT careers

This study adds to existing knowledge of the barriers that women face in IT by

providing a more detailed and balanced analysis of their career experiences, and in

doing so has highlighted substantial heterogeneity in the women’s experiences of

barriers and in their responses to them. These findings contribute to understanding

how women can influence and shape career constraints, as well as accounting for

contextual influences in explaining underrepresentation. This addition to the

existing research helps identify why some women are better placed than others to

forge successful careers more closely aligned to male IT workers, while others

experience significant disadvantage.

This study shows career advancement in this industry is not aligned with the

generally vertical movements of organisational careers, nor fully aligned with those

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of the boundaryless or protean metaphors which focus entirely on cross-boundary

movements according to personal preferences (Arthur and Defillippi 1994; Arthur

and Rousseau 1996; Raider and Burt 1996). Rather career progression is constructed

of a series of lateral movements, lateral progressions and vertical progressions over

the life course, which take place both within and across organisations. Career

success is measured in both organisational terms and personal, subjective terms and

achievement of either required both lateral and vertical progression.

Yet there are a number of restrictions to achieving these vertical and lateral

progressions, and these are linked to the interaction of gender with personal

characteristics, organisation dynamics, occupational features, and socio-cultural

and institutional factors. While some of these constraints are directly related to

gender, others are indirectly linked through motherhood and flexible working. The

potential constraints to vertical and lateral progression relating to gender,

motherhood and flexible working at each of these levels is summarised in a series of

tables. Table 8.1 identifies the potential career constraints related specifically to

gender, Table 8.2 shows career constraints related to motherhood, and Table 8.3

shows potential career limitations affecting flexible workers. These tables have all

been arranged in line with the theoretical framework employed in this study,

demonstrating the constraints at multiple levels; socio-cultural and institutional,

occupational, organisational and individual. They also distinguish between

constraints affecting opportunities for vertical progression (i.e. achieving formal

promotion) and constraints affecting lateral progression, or whether they affect

both. These summaries help identify a number of recurring issues and provide

interesting insights into the gendered challenges of contemporary career

development.

Many of the challenges relating to vertical progression reflect the issues identified

in previous studies. Namely that women and mothers, particularly those that work

flexibly, continue to be restricted in their ability to progress their careers because of

persistent ‘ideal worker’ norms that are embedded in the policies, processes and day

to day practices of IT work.

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Table 8.1 Potential career constraints relating to gender, limiting lateral and/or vertical progression

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Table 8.2: Potential career constraints relating to motherhood, limiting lateral and/or vertical progression

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Table 8.3: Potential career constraints relating to flexible working, limiting lateral and/or vertical progression

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What is perhaps more surprising is the extent to which these issues have translated

into contemporary employment and form constraints on the ability for women to

progress their careers laterally. Optimistic narratives hold that access to the

forefront of modern technology (allowing for remote working) and the intellectual

nature of IT work, would mean that women and mothers were better able to achieve

career advancement and maintain work-life balance (Lorber and Farrell 1991; Cross

et al. 2006; Kelan 2007). As knowledge workers, IT professionals were also suggested

to possess significant career capital enabling them to enjoy more autonomy and

control over their careers than other workers (Blackler 1995; Scarbrough 1999; May

et al. 2002). Yet many of the issues that have been found to limit vertical promotion

in organisations are now limiting women’s ability to make lateral progression. IT

workers were expected to take proactive control of their careers, through creating

and maintaining networks of contacts, continuously training and reskilling, and

proactively identifying and accessing project opportunities. Taking charge of their

own career, in theory, should create greater autonomy and scope for women to move

beyond the career structures which traditionally constrained their progression.

However, this study finds that they still face exclusionary processes and gender

stereotypes associated with a male-dominated working environment, which limit

the capacity of women to translate this theoretical control into real career control.

Many of these issues either emerge due to the project-based organisation of work or

are exacerbated because of it. Project-work creates a need to make HR decisions

more often, more quickly and with a shorter-term perspective, meaning that

informal networks become more powerful and women’s exclusion more damaging.

Whilst the old boys’ networks in traditional organisational careers would have

limited women’s scope for upwards promotion (for example Margolis and Fisher

2003), exclusion from male-dominated personal networks arguably creates many

more issues for contemporary female IT careers as they can restrict progression both

vertically and laterally. Exclusion from networks limits access to the most desirable

and/or high-profile projects, limiting women’s ability build reputational capital and

visibility to senior management damaging their chances of obtaining vertical

promotion. Simultaneously, however, the lack of reputational capital also risks their

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ongoing employability by limiting their access to billable hours and the best projects

to develop new skills.

Masculinised ideal worker norms and expectations of commitment that drive long

hours in this and other industries (see Acker 1990; Frenkel 1990; Wajcman 2007),

create sources of informal exclusion for mothers and flexible workers in particular.

Cyclical project-work is fundamentally incompatible with the routine and

regularisation of child caring schedules, while the team structure makes women

vulnerable to negative peer judgements of their commitment to team objectives. The

requirement to work long hours to meet project requirements is seen as a necessity

to ensure perception of being a committed team player; an expectation that flexible

workers and those with caring responsibilities are more unlikely to meet. This

exacerbates gendered exclusion from informal networks, already identified as a vital

mechanism for accessing career opportunities both laterally and vertically. Without

the appropriate reputational capital, reciprocal recommendations for future work

are reduced and employability compromised.

Frequent mobility demanded by project-working also places additional pressure on

flexible workers. In non-project-work, suitable working arrangements were achieved

through a process of negotiation with line management, and career penalties felt at

the organisational level (Hayman 2009; Lewis and Humbert 2010; Greenberg and

Landry 2011). Evidence from this study suggests that these negotiations take place at

commencement of each project. Agreement of a flexible working schedule from a

line manager does not guarantee project allocation, as project managers may possess

the power to ‘push back’ and exclude flexible workers due to their incompatibility

with project requirements. More commonly however, project managers seek to

renegotiate individual working arrangements on a project basis. Without some

acquiescence on the employees’ part, their likelihood of being allocated to projects

is reduced and so is their number of billable hours: compromising their future

employability. A lack of consistency across projects in relation to location, working

hours, and project life cycles means that those with complex domestic arrangements

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were less incentivised to make career transitions, excluding them from beneficial

opportunities.

The career constraints identified in this research have highlighted how ‘ideal worker’

expectations are reinforced and reproduced through the formal HR processes used

by IT companies. The performance management systems, for instance, were found

to be gendered to varying extents – specifically in failing to account for domestic

responsibilities and/or alternative working schedules. The bespoke nature of

projects and the adaptability required between project roles created difficulties for

establishing accurate measures of performance and contribution, with companies

relying instead on familiar and well-understood measures such as visibility and

billability. However, this reliance continues to entrench the notion that capability

and commitment is linked to the ability for senior management to see you, or the

ability to spend significant time on site – despite the opportunity offered by

technologically-enabled flexible knowledge work to move beyond these flawed

measures.

Additionally, the need to simultaneously undertake career self-management

activities alongside working in challenging jobs creates time pressures for all

workers, but these are more pronounced and problematic for mothers and flexible

workers who are already combining domestic responsibilities and paid employment.

Self-training, appraisal and promotion cases, and networking, for example, have to

be undertaken around demanding project timescales and therefore are usually

completed outside of working hours. For some workers, the advantages of fluid

careers and potential to make lateral progressions in lieu of unlikely vertical

progression does not offset the impact of these additional burdens.

By placing certain demands/requirements on the most desirable jobs, organisations

restrict access to only those workers who are able to meet them which can be used,

intentionally or unintentionally, to exclude women and mothers. Women, typically

less able to meet those demands, employ career strategies that aim to develop their

careers within this constrained environment and in doing so reproduce patterns of

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occupational and vertical segregation. Strategies employed by IT workers to

‘mitigate’ or minimise the impact of constraints on their careers are shaped by their

personal characteristics and their career resources. For instance, to overcome the

undervaluation of feminine skills or gender bias in performance management by line

managers, women seek out areas where their skills are more valued, which are

typically in less technical occupations. Furthermore, to better reconcile project

lifecycles and domestic demands, some women seek to move to roles that enable a

better fit with their home life, but these are the ones least likely to give them the

visibility and progression opportunities required to advance vertically, thus

reinforcing vertical segregation. In this way, both the constraints and the responses

to them reinforce female exclusion and segregation in the industry.

These strategies also require a woman to move away from what may be considered

their ‘preferable’ career trajectory, making concessions because of their gender or

motherhood status (as discussed in more length in 7.5 Parenthood and gendered

career trajectories). Men and fathers do not have to make similar changes to their

career objectives. In this way, female careers cannot be viewed as the product of

positive voluntary choices, or the expression of a protean orientation toward more

subjective measures. In reality, their career trajectory represents a form of ‘opting

out’ from structures that penalise and segregate them into less desirable

occupations.

In making these career responses, women could be argued to be legitimising and

reinforcing the influence of harmful ‘ideal worker’ norms, albeit inadvertently.

Discussions related to the career trajectories of mothers have highlighted the

expectation and acceptance of career ‘hiatus’ with young children, perspectives that

only serve to reinforce the notion that the two are incompatible. This study has

highlighted how all workers (and employers) broadly accept these formal and

informal practices, rooted these masculine worker expectations, as legitimate, thus

reinforcing the gendered inequality of IT work and making them less visible and

difficult to address. Previously proposed arguments relating to changing the culture

as a means to address female underrepresentation is argued to underestimate the

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extent of the embeddedness and multidimensional nature of the ‘gender problem’

in IT work that this research has highlighted.

8.2.3 Limitations of company efforts to address gender issues

Perhaps due to the level of legitimacy assigned to the organisation of work,

companies focus their framing of underrepresentation firmly within the realm of

individual choice and female preference, with only limited attention given to the

impact of the conditions of the industry. Companies recognise the additional

challenges for women in maintaining and advancing careers originating from their

socially-prescribed role as primary carers: yet the onus is still on women to adjust

their domestic needs to accommodate work, rather than on implementing broader

structural changes that would benefit women and mothers. In light of the

contextually specific and nuanced drivers of career constraints established by this

study, the measures companies have implemented can be considered relatively

‘blunt tools’ for addressing persistently low numbers of women. Specifically,

companies have employed (i) educational outreach, and (ii) female specific career

development initiatives as a means to improve the representation of women.

Many of the women claimed to have found company career development initiatives

helpful in their careers, particularly when they become mothers. Yet this research

finds that, in contrast to helping improve female career persistence and

advancement in IT, these efforts have actually reinforced gender disparity and have

individualised issues of systemic disadvantage, creating different ‘tiers’ of

disadvantage between female workers. In doing so, these efforts have undermined

the basis for calls to implement broader change in IT companies.

Underpinning educational outreach programmes is an inherent assumption that

improving female representation in IT work is simply a matter of exposing women

to technology. The implication is that underrepresentation in technology careers is

simply a product of female disinterest: inherently positioning women as the

problem, not the context that may limit their involvement and progression. This is

a view reinforced by the focus of female-specific career development initiatives on

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building up women’s skills and confidence to better navigate the dominant

employment structures across the industry. Instead of assisting female development,

these measures simply reinforce the perspective that women’s careers are

problematic deviations from the traditional male model of work (Kugelberg 2006).

While these negative aspects of female-specific initiatives have already been

considered in prior research, what this study further contributes is the view that in

their establishment and in their nomination mechanisms, the impetus to tackle

structural issues of gender disadvantage is undermined.

Among gender initiatives, the top talent and general development programmes

represent the most substantial investment in female workers. Yet the requirement

for participants to be nominated by management according to a criterion reflective

of masculine notions of talent and merit are found to undermine their effectiveness.

These processes could be viewed as yet another mechanism through which

dominant masculine ideals permeate organisational culture: forming another

mechanism designed to make women fit with the pre-existing masculinised

structures, rather than adjusting the structures to become more inclusive. In this

way, these schemes favour those women who are arguably already best placed to

succeed within the industry, rather than those that need more substantive

assistance.

Certainly, the career histories have underlined that within IT, some women have

rich and fulfilling careers and consider themselves successful and happy. For these

workers gender was of minimal concern in relation to their career development and

they were reluctant to explicitly consider or acknowledge the possibility of gender

bias. Instead, their narrative focused on differentiating between female experiences

and attributing relative success to these differences. From this perspective, some

women were disadvantaged because they did not make the right ‘choices’ or failed

to demonstrate the right amount of ‘commitment’ or ‘talent’, in line with the

prominent and masculine structured meritocracy discourses. The additional

constraints mothers in particular face as a result of domestic responsibilities are

widely framed as the product of an individual choice to have children. Despite IT

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workers operating in an environment in which their own careers were openly shaped

by personal relationships and/or contextual constraints, almost all workers

articulated the belief that advancement in IT was fundamentally meritocratic, and

success was overwhelmingly attributed to individual preferences and abilities. This

paradox is highlighted by this research in a crucial addition to the narrative of

women in IT. Arguably the real benefits of diversity will be difficult to achieve if it is

only women demonstrating the same characteristics as men who are able to stay and

advance IT careers. If it is only women that most closely reflect masculine ‘ideal

worker’ norms who are able to stay and advance their career, then the longer-term

prospects for challenging the masculinised culture of the IT industry and improve

female participation are disappointing.

Collectively, all of these issues contribute to the creation of an industry where

women may find it harder to enter and, once they do, my find their careers more

constrained than their male colleagues - albeit in differing ways dependant on their

own situation and contextual influences. Certainly, most women will be subject to

more constraints than their male peers. The processes women use to mitigate these

challenges may reinforce the patterns of segregation within the industry, and they

continue to be less likely to advance either vertically or, to a lesser extent, laterally.

Some women will accept the conditions and limitations of their careers and remain,

because they still receive interesting, challenging, well-paid work in a growing and

changing industry, or because their circumstances necessitate it. Others will set their

sights on a future outside of the industry where they feel better opportunities lie.

Whatever individual decisions may be, this study finds little evidence for optimism

with regard to women making the substantial numerical gains, both in total

numbers and into technical occupations and senior levels, for which there was much

hope.

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8.3 THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Knowledge workers have been described as having access to extensive career and

employment opportunities, due to the high level of technical and specific industry

skills and knowledge they possess (Gunz et al. 2000; Rodrigues and Guest 2010). This

value, it is argued in the contemporary careers literature, allows for them to act as a

‘boundaryless career agents’ (Arthur and Defillippi 1994): able to move between

organisations according to fulfilment of their own orientation for work (Hall 1996;

Briscoe and Hall 2002; Briscoe and Hall 2006).

The research evidence compiled in this study challenges this contention in a number

of ways. First and foremost, it undermines the fundamental dichotomisation of

organisational careers and contemporary careers that underpins the boundaryless

and protean theories (as evidenced in Arthur and Defillippi 1994; Hall 1996). Finding

that project-work has led to similar career expectations and challenges for those

working within a single organisation as for those working across organisations, this

study asserts that in reality careers cannot be so clearly classified in this way. It

demonstrates that the primacy attached to organisational boundaries and exclusion

of other types of boundaries inherent in the contemporary careers literature is

misguided, in line with previous critiques by Rodrigues and Guest (2010) and Inkson

et al. (2012). The focus on organisational boundaries also leads to the misattribution

of career characteristics to voluntary boundarylessness (Raider and Burt 1996) taken

as the expression of protean orientations rather than actions taken within

constrained choice. Lastly it argues that, in practice, careers are comprised of multi-

level career boundaries spanning far beyond those attached to organisations, and

that the salience and permeability of boundaries also need to be considered to

understand career patterns fully. These contributions will now be examined in more

detail.

In a demonstrable critique to the substantial body of contemporary careers

literature, this study has found that IT workers are not typical boundaryless or

protean career navigators benefitting from unbounded career and employment

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opportunities (Pink 2001; Tams and Arthur 2010). Yet neither are they entirely

controlled or constrained by a set of organisational structures and unable to enact

individual choices. In this way, the respondents’ career trajectories comprised both

elements traditional organisational career forms and elements of contemporary

career forms. In particular, workers reported experiencing elements of ‘new career’

forms, such as greater work autonomy, career self-management, less organisational

commitment, more lateral transitions and some subjective measures of success

(Defillippi and Arthur 1994; Hall 1996; Briscoe and Hall 2002; Briscoe et al. 2006).

They also encapsulated features of organisational careers, such as long organisation

tenures, a desire for employment security and an expectation of some vertical

progression. In this way, workers can be said to be following ‘hybrid’ careers that

comprise a mix of elements from both organisational career forms and

contemporary boundaryless or protean career forms.

It is clear from this study that the dominance of project-working in IT firms is

altering the nature of organisational careers to the extent that many of the same

features of ‘new’ careers, typically taking place across multiple organisations, are

being reproduced within a single organisational context. Regardless of whether

workers are operating within a single organisational setting or across multiple

organisations, the short-term nature of project-based work creates the need for

constant mobility: workers are expected to transfer between projects and adopt roles

and tasks as required. Having adopted flatter hierarchies in order to maintain the

flexibility to respond to a rapidly changing market place, organisations are limited

in their capacity to provide long-term career paths. As such, employment security is

now linked to workers own repository of skills and reputational capital in relation to

the marketplace, rather than to their employment status or organisational tenure.

Lateral movements and progressions replace the expectation for steady vertical

progression regardless of whether workers actual unconstrained preference would

be for vertical or lateral progression. The empirical evidence has demonstrated the

workers are expected to find new projects, taking responsibility for maintaining a

network of contacts and negotiating access to preferable roles in order to make these

transitions successfully. These expectations and challenges exist regardless of

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whether workers make project moves within a single organisation, as prescribed in

an organisational career, or between projects across multiple organisations, as in

new career theory.

In addition, elements seen as key to success in traditional, organisational careers

remain essential for those seeking work outside of a single organisational context.

Particularly at the early stages of their careers, workers deem it necessary to use

organisational membership and vertical progression to accumulate reputational and

skills capital, gain experience and develop networks of clients and peers, all of which

are required to pursue less bounded careers in the future. It is clear from these

narratives that it is extremely difficult for IT workers to emerge straight into the

labour market and pursue an entirely self-directed career without organisational

membership providing access to these resources. Those who successfully pursue the

vertical progression consistent with organisational careers in the early stages of their

working lives accumulate career capital which can then be used to transverse

organisational boundaries more easily in subsequent stages. Over the life course, in

this way, organisations remain architects of careers for even the least currently

bounded of workers at any singular point in time.

Moreover, this study has demonstrated how there is a process of circular

disadvantage occurring within these forms of project-based careers for women.

Workers who are subject to potential constraints on lateral progression, such as

those associated with exclusion from informal networks or an inability to complete

career self-management activities, are, in being so constrained, unable to

demonstrate the appropriate confidence, management skill and visibility needed to

progress their careers vertically. This circular process further blurs the distinction

between career development in line with organisational careers and career

development aligned with contemporary career forms.

As highlighted in previous critiques of contemporary career metaphors, for instance

by Roper (2010) and Van Buren (2003), there is an overstatement of individual career

actor agency in the contemporary careers literature. The ability to self-direct careers

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in order to achieve self-defined measures of success is a core tenant of new career

theories, with physical and psychological mobility viewed as an expression of this

agency. Empirically this study has demonstrated that for many workers physical

mobility is not an expression of their agency, but rather a product of the short-

termism inherent in project-work. Constant movement between projects is

compulsory, a lack of job security intrinsic, and lateral progression often the only

option for career development in an environment of limited scope for vertical

movement. In this way, careers are the result of prescribed project-work structures

rather than the expression of individual protean orientations.

In sum, organisational employment and (some) vertical progression remain

important beyond organisational careers, while self-direction and lateral

progression are vital for careers within and across organisational boundaries.

Therefore, the distinctions between the two career forms become ever more

ambiguous. The implications of this finding for understanding modern careers is

significant.

Firstly, it implies that the current focus on contrasting ‘organisational’ and

‘contemporary’ careers may be of limited use in some contexts, especially project-

based occupations. As discussed, doing so can lead to an overstatement of career

actor agency, and the conflation of voluntary action with constrained choice

regarding job mobility and security. The recommendation is that careers not be

viewed as singular static typologies, but rather as occupying a place on a continuum

of work elements, formed between two ‘ideal-type’ career forms. Avoiding

dichotomisation allows for an understanding that workers can be protean or

boundaryless in some ways, without undermining the continuing importance of

elements more typically associated with organisational careers.

Secondly, these findings reinforce the need to research and understand career forms

over the whole life course rather than at any one specific point in time. Careers are

by definition a ‘sequence’ of activities, yet there is little focus in the extant literature

on how forms may change over time. Experiences in this study demonstrate how

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careers may morph over the life course, and this can lead to an incomplete

understanding of the precedents that shape latter career experiences, preferences

and expectations.

The supposition that organisational boundaries, either non-existent as in the

boundaryless metaphor (Arthur and Defillippi 1994) or easily transversable as in the

protean metaphor (Hall 1996) are the prime determinant of career form is the central

tenant of contemporary career theory. Yet this study supports Clark’s (2000)

contention that although organisational career boundaries are becoming more

flexible, this does not mean that they are becoming any less salient. Nor does it mean

that they are the only, or indeed the most important, constraints that people face in

forging careers. From this research, personal, occupational and socio-institutional

factors have been identified as additional constraints on an individual’s ability to

express agency in career development.

This study shows a substantial number of interrelated multi-level career

constraints. These constraints are argued to be more usefully conceptualised as

‘career boundaries’ in a similar way to that suggested by Gunz et al. (2007). A

boundary conceptualisation offers greater scope for more nuanced and dynamic

consideration of the interaction of agency and context, through consideration of

both the extent of the boundary and how workers experienced and navigated

them. Previous boundary-based research has used the notion of a boundary to

denote groups of inclusion and exclusion (Rodrigues and Guest 2010), yet evidence

presented here shows the effect may not be so binary if consideration is given to an

individuals’ capacity to respond to, or mitigate, a boundary. By adjusting a

contextual factor (or factors), individuals may be able to permeate a boundary

completely (i.e. boundary cross) or partially permeate and thus weaken or reshape

the boundary while remaining constrained to some extent by it. Therefore, a more

detailed conception of the strength and permeability of each boundary is essential

in order to understand its effect on career trajectories.

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This approach also offers benefits in capturing gendered elements of contemporary

careers. Different people have demonstrated that they perceive boundaries as

qualitatively different according to their context and ascribe to them varying

degrees of physical and psychological permeability, with issues of gender, life stage,

and family circumstance strongly influencing people’s perceptions of and

motivations for crossing career boundaries. Boundaries and permeability in the

extant literature have been constructed as gender-neutral metaphors (as argued in

Sullivan 1999; Ituma and Simpson 2009; Sullivan and Baruch 2009), yet the

outcomes of this study suggest that, in reality, gender is an essential dimension of

boundaries, boundary salience and boundary permeability, rather than merely

another variable. Gender moderates the relationship between other characteristics

of salience and permeability identified in this study (for instance life stage,

occupation, parental status) in such a way that women will inherently face more

bounded careers than men and face deeper boundaries that are harder to

permeate. The gendered nature of boundary formation can be more accurately

theorised by adopting gender as a variable, forming part of the characteristics of

the individual and determining the permeability and salience of boundaries for

that individual. The gendered effects examined suggest that while some women

can shape their careers and align them more with male experiences, others cannot.

Women still face career boundaries that men do not based on socially-constructed

expectations relating to the domestic sphere. Table 8.4 illustrates the difference

between approaching gender as a variable of career boundaries and gender as a

dimension of career boundaries.

The notion of gender as a dimension of career boundaries is consistent with Acker’s

(1990; 2006b) view of gender in the inequality regimes approach. Acker focuses on

how the practices and processes organisations use are fundamentally gendered and

can create and replicate inequalities in an organisational context (Acker 2006b;

Acker 2012). A gendered boundary approach similarly seeks to consider the way that

gender is embedded in the processes and practices organisations employ but, in a

departure from the inequality regimes approach, it looks beyond a single

organisational context. Gender is embedded in the norms and practices relating to

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occupational characteristics and broader socio-cultural and institutional features

which are both influenced by, and influence, organisational processes. This

approach is arguably more useful when discussing contemporary careers, which are

fundamentally concerned with multiple organisational contexts, often

simultaneously, as well as the boundaries formed by the expectation of cross-

organisational movement.

A boundary approach also provides flexibility to consider how constraints and

opportunities intersect with the multiple interlinked factors over the life course. As

argued in the literature review, this approach is vital for understanding careers as it

allows for the significance of chronological events even when illuminating a non-

linear career (Sabelis and Schilling 2013; Tomlinson et al. 2017). What women

experience as a boundary now (e.g. primary childcaring role) will vary in the extent

to which it is deemed to be restrictive to their careers in the future. Some boundaries

will, however, have a lasting effect. For instance, while women may experience less

direct restrictions from their primary childcare role once their children are older and

no longer require the same extent of childcare, women may still be bounded by their

history of taking more time away from paid employment. This fluidity combined

with the complex interrelation of influencing factors means that individuals are

reacting to and negotiating career boundaries all the time. In this way, a more

accurate conclusion is to consider boundaries ‘reshaped’ rather than removed from

contemporary careers.

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Table 8.4 Gendering of personal characteristics that influence career boundaries

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Characteristic Neutral impact Gender issue

Parental status and family arrangement

Typically, those with children are more bounded than those without; and those acting as a primary caregiver are more bounded than those acting as a secondary caregiver.

Women continue to be socially expected to undertake the primary childcare role. Even when using additional childcare, women take on the management of childcare role or are the back-up to other arrangements (e.g. school calls mothers)

Family income Those acting as the main income earner into the household are more bounded in a sense. While they are more risk averse regarding mobility, they are also granted more freedom in prioritising their career over that of their partner. The difference between an individual’s income relative to that of their partner also influences their boundaries. Where the difference is lower and significant, they are more bounded by need to accommodate the career of their partner at the expense of their own. Equal salaries can result in greater negotiation between partners, leading to the emergence of different career boundaries.

Women, however, are typically paid less than men and the gender pay gap continues so that, even for doing the same work, women are positioned as more likely to make concessions in their careers when deemed necessary.

Life Stage Early career workers are typically younger, with fewer domestic responsibilities and so consider their careers less bounded in terms of their willingness and ability to move. In contrast, mid- and late-career workers are more restricted by their domestic circumstances and the structures that support them (i.e. family, childcare)

In all of these life stages, however, women are shown to take more responsibility for the organisation of the domestic sphere as well as childcare. Therefore, they are liable to always perceive themselves as more constrained by domestic structures than men.

Reputational Capital Those with high reputational capital may encounter fewer boundaries to career maintenance and advancement than those with less reputational capital. They have access to informal and formal networks and are considered more in demand, therefore are better able to gain access to preferable projects.

Women may be considered less technically competent and committed to employment due to both gender and mothering stereotypes. Reputational capital is also created through informal networking and social events. Women may be less comfortable/more excluded from male dominated events. As such they are likely to possess less reputational capital than men.

Human Capital Those with high human capital (also considered skills) or the ability to develop more human capital is better placed to capitalise on emerging projects through greater range of options for work. In the absence of formal qualifications, human capital endowments are less formal and based on subjective assessments.

Women may experience less favourable assessments of their competence, which cannot be offset by formal qualifications. Mothers may be time burdened in undertaking self-development activities to gain human capital.

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8.4 PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS

This study points to several practical changes that companies could implement to

help improve the recruitment, advancement and retention of women in the IT

industry.

Concerning recruitment, companies could pay more attention to facilitating the

alternative routes into the industry highlighted in this research. Some larger

companies are already removing technical prerequisites from graduate application

processes, but this study shows scope to expand this to include more technical roles

and for more experienced hires. First-hand, practical exposure to technical

occupations has been shown to help women consider a wider range of occupations.

One mechanism to promote this type of contact would be to use graduate

recruitment schemes that provide rotation across different divisions before being

allocated to a full-time role. With the correct support and training in place, these

experiences may encourage women to consider, and hopefully select, more technical

occupations at the end of the period of rotation. As women have been shown to

come to pursue IT work later in their careers, female recruitment could be bolstered

by extending the period after graduation that entrants are eligible for formal

graduate programmes, or by providing a ‘transition track’ scheme offering similar

levels of support to those further into their careers.

In response to the existence of a continuum of career forms, it is pertinent of

companies to develop a range of development opportunities and rewards to satisfy

advancement according to a wide variety of values, motivations and constraints.

Specifically, there is a need to provide technical career development options which

can complement standard vertical career paths. These would be more suitable for

those seeking rewards associated with formal promotion but without people

management responsibilities.

Many challenges have been shown to persist relating to the combination of home

life (especially childcaring) with fluctuating project-based working schedules. As

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such, companies also need to consider ways in which they can further assist with

work-life reconciliation by altering the organisation of work and amending the

appraisal and promotion mechanisms to recognise the contributions of participants

regardless of their gender or their working arrangements.

It is only through a broader acceptance of the need for, and benefits of, work-life

balance options in the culture of IT that part-time working mothers will gain greater

inclusion in formal and informal networks. Therefore, the discourse surrounding

work-life measures has to be changed. The current rhetoric positions work-life

balance measures as ‘favours’ extended to workers in return for acceptance of poorer

conditions or career prospects. Instead, the focus should be on the value of these

measures for achieving a sustainable, productive and innovative workforce. A lack

of clear communication as to why flexible working is beneficial for employees and

companies reduces the incentive for managers, project leaders and other employees

to support those wishing to utilise them. Encouraging the use of employee-friendly

flexibility for reasons other than childcaring can help create a 'norm' of flexible

working that is more inclusive and accepted. In addition, companies could offer of a

range of sabbatical options open to all employees and maintain a pragmatic

approach to succession planning that allows for managed career interruptions

without creating undue pressure on their workforce. All of these measures help

facilitate a broader acceptance of non-standard career paths more generally.

This study has revealed substantial scope to improve female participation though

adjustments to the organisation of work. In particular, there is a need to mitigate

the pressure of project deadlines which have been shown to create a culture of long

hours and singular focus on work. Building greater contingency into project bids and

expected timescales would assist with relieving some of the pressure created by ‘ebb

and flow’ project cycles. Focusing efforts on improving the accuracy of systems that

determine the scope, timescale and resources allocated to projects would reduce the

need for front-line staff to compensate for scoping deficiencies with their own time.

Providing a functioning mechanism for employees to highlight instances where

projects are too ambitiously scoped (with no associated career penalties), mean that

companies are able to pre-emptively adjust either client expectations and/or project

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resources and avoid pressures on front-line staff. In addition, adopting project

methodologies that set shorter project life cycles, or multiple cycles within projects

(such as Agile) may also assist with dissipating the pressure associated with longer

deadlines, creating more regular working times.

Employers should also assume more responsibility for moderating the expectations

of clients in relation to the working time of their project teams. By emphasising the

compatibility between greater work-life balance for the workforce and more

consistent and excellent service they can take the lead in promoting a more balanced

working culture across their client base. This could be further reinforced by a change

in the process of billing. The extent of employee overwork on projects would be more

obvious to both clients and to employers if workers were charged on an hourly basis

rather than the standard day rate found in this study. In combination with

promotion of the advantages of workers with balanced lives, this may help dissuade

clients from making excessive time demands on project teams.

In managing client expectations and resourcing more proactively, these measures

also reduce the burden on project managers to work to such tight margins, leading

to them accepting allocation of workers who can go above and beyond the ‘typical’

workload. In theory, these measures could help make project leaders more accepting

of part-time workers and those with parental responsibilities.

Internally, understanding and accepting that employees will have career pathways

over the life course - vertical, lateral, opt-out, interrupted, part-time – but that use

of different career paths does not denote current or future capability or commitment

is key to greater inclusion of women. On a practical level, this can be achieved

through the amendment of appraisal systems to help remove subjective bias.

Measures could include making performance reviews more frequent and formalised,

to help limit the need for those on career breaks to have to ‘catch up’ with colleagues

on an annual basis – instead focusing on the most recent contributions. Developing

more inclusive criteria in conjunction with those carrying out the role allows for

measurements of all aspects of the work, explicitly linking measurement to role

requirements. The tendency to undervalue some aspects of the role is reduced, and

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moderation of rating made more effective. A lack of clear communication why

diversity is beneficial for companies and employees removes the incentive for

managers and project leaders to invest in the more significant efforts required to

recruit and retain women. In particular, employers need to ensure managers 'buy in'

to the diversity agenda and hold them accountable for the promotion and

advancement of women.

Greater and more robustly enforced time allowances for undertaking self-

development activities, such as training and skills development, performance

management cases, promotional cases and networking events, would also assist in

reducing the pressure on already time-burdened workers, creating a more even

playing field for carers and flexible workers to compete upon.

With respect to gender-specific career development interventions, there is much

scope for improvement. Currently they simply reinforce and replicate ‘ideal worker’

norms through their nomination-based recruitment and through their aims and

composition rather than challenging them. This could be somewhat overcome by

the introduction of self-nomination and a more considered criterion for involvement

which seeks to avoid masculine notions of merit and talent. Although tailoring these

schemes to each individual context is not practicable, more nuanced interventions

are possible. If companies assumed that participants in these schemes were all single

parents with limited access to childcare their design would ensure greater

accessibility in terms of scheduling and composition of activities. There is currently

a lack of concrete information on which companies make claims about the efficacy

of their diversity and inclusion approach. Measuring the efficacy, both in terms of

retention and advancement of women is crucial. Previous studies have supported

the adage that "what gets measured, gets done" on the diversity agenda (Kirton et al.

2016).

Ideally, the combination of all of these changes would lead to the ability for workers

to use non-standard careers paths without fear of career penalties. In reality,

however, this would constitute a more wholesale, transformative change which lies

beyond the scope of this project. Real change necessitates a fundamental

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reconsideration of many taken-for-granted assumptions about how to work, how to

care, about men and women’s roles in society, and about the roles and

responsibilities of organisations and social institutions.

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9 CONCLUSION

Despite the reported shortage of IT professionals and the purported benefits of

fostering diversity in the technology industry, women remain largely

underrepresented and vertically and horizontally segregated within the IT

workforce. Some authors (for example Kelan 2008) had proposed that contemporary

career forms and the knowledge work based nature of IT work could offer significant

advantages and opportunities for women. Intellectual and technologically enabled

work held the promise of spatial and temporal flexibility, offering potential for

improved reconciliation of work and non-work responsibilities – particularly

important for women as primary caregivers. These expectations and features of

knowledge work aligned well with the optimism of the ‘new careers’ frameworks.

However, evidence presented in this research does not support the presumption that

protean and boundaryless IT careers would free women from male dominated,

organisationally-structured paths and enable them to forge successful flexible

careers across organisational boundaries

This study contends that rather than representing the ‘new career reality’ proposed

in the literature, IT careers are characterised by elements of both ‘old’ and ‘new’

career forms over the life course. Despite suggestions of greater autonomy and

power in the employment relationship associated with possession of intellectual

capital, IT workers remained reliant on organisations as architects of their careers.

Particularly at the early stages of career, it is through organisations that workers

accessed career resources required to build career capital so necessary to forge

careers beyond organisational boundaries, including training, practical experience,

access to client and colleague networks and reputational capital.

Moreover, this research has queried the foundation of the boundaryless and protean

career metaphors which indicates that that organisational boundaries are the prime,

and indeed only, influence on career form. This research has demonstrated a how

gender interacted with personal characteristics, organisational dynamics,

occupational features, and socio-cultural and institutional factors to form different

career constraints for women and men over the life course. These constraints shaped

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career trajectories in IT over the life course, specifically in relation to school-to-work

transition, on-going employment opportunities, and family and care

responsibilities. These interactions went a long way in explaining the persistence of

female underrepresentation.

Firstly, the empirical findings of this study have shown how alternative routes of

entry to those indicated in the ‘educational pipeline’ approach have been used to

access the IT industry and were particularly vital for women. Yet, evidence would

suggest that these routes are becoming less viable due to numerous changes in

contextual conditions that had previously enabled them. Expansion of higher

education and development of a formal IT educational pathway allows companies

to shift responsibility for training externally and narrow entrance criteria, while

emergence of flatter hierarchies, new employment relationships, and processes of

automation and offshoring have reduced entry-level positions and training support

for those without experience. These changes particularly disadvantage women who

typically study STEM subjects in lower numbers and in develop an interest in IT

work at a later stage.

The existence of the alternative career paths fundamentally undermines efforts to

position female underrepresentation as a product of low IT and STEM educational

uptake by girls. Women have entered the industry without STEM degrees and have

forged successful technical and non-technical career paths. Therefore, the

disproportionate policy emphasis on improving female participation in IT education

is argued to be misdirected.

Women’s careers are still disproportionally constrained compared to men. ‘Ideal

worker’ norms, such as meeting cyclical project demands, dedicating long hours, and

maintaining physical and virtual availability, remained embedded in formal HR

processes placing those with care responsibilities at a disadvantage in achieving

career and/or pay advancement. In addition, ‘contemporary’ elements of IT careers

did not appear to be particularly advantageous for women. Self-management of

career required creating and maintaining networks of contacts, continuously

training and reskilling, and proactively seeking out career opportunities, which can

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disadvantage both women and mothers. They face peer judgements aligned to

masculine notions of competence and commitment, and risk exclusion from

informal networks based upon these judgements. The expectation they will

complete career management activities simultaneously with undertaking

demanding jobs creates expectations they cannot meet. In this way the need to

manage careers simultaneously within and across organisations created a form of

double disadvantage for some women, especially mothers.

Yet, there was considerable heterogeneity amongst women which is acknowledged

infrequently in studies of female careers. The salience and effect of these career

constraints varied according to the personal characteristics and context of the

individual woman. Resources such as reputational and skills capital, and a network

of colleagues and clients have been shown to help create resilience to career

constraints. However, disadvantage in the processes of work allocation, performance

management and promotion linked to gender, motherhood and flexible working

restricted women’s ability to accumulate these assets. Likewise, the extent to which

these resources determined the ability to shape or negotiate constraints is

dependent on their interaction with personal context, particularly parenthood

status, family care arrangements, skill set, experience, and seniority. These elements

change according to life stage and circumstances, creating different challenges and

potential processes of exclusion for women over the course of their career.

Responses to career constraints tended to result in career moves that implicitly

reinforced occupational and vertical segregation, rather than challenging them.

Lastly, efforts by companies have failed to address the root of disadvantage focusing

instead on overcoming the ‘problematic’ nature of female careers by offering tools

to help them align with persistent, masculinised ‘ideal worker’ norms. Indeed, the

research has shown ‘ideal worker’ norms to be ascribed substantial legitimacy by IT

workers, underpinned by pervasive meritocratic and individualistic discourses. In

conjunction with women's varying ability to negotiate career constraints, these

aspects create subsets of female IT workers in which some can remain and be

successful, while others experience substantial marginalisation. As reported here,

the relative success of a few women in IT work appear to skew perceptions and

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understandings of gender disadvantage and reduces the impetus for companies to

address systemic issues of female disadvantage.

Through its close examination of careers and gender over the life course, these

findings have underlined the need to reintroduce boundaries into career research. It

has called for boundary conceptualisations that consider not only boundaries in of

themselves, but their characteristics of relevance, salience and permeability on a

multilevel basis over the life course. These elements determine career responses to

boundaries, and shape career trajectories, and need to be adequately understood to

capture the complexity of female careers.

Gender is a dimension of all the factors that shape and influence career boundaries,

such that it cannot be isolated or removed as a variable of inequality. Nonetheless

the majority of ’new career’ research approaches examine career boundaries as a

gender-neutral process. This study concludes there is a pressing need to make

gender a more explicit consideration in the processes of identifying and defining

career boundaries. Both the multilevel career-influencing factors (and their

interactions), and the personal characteristics of the worker over the life course need

to be viewed through a 'gender lens', before it can accurately identify relevant

boundaries.

The qualitative evidence presented here has provided insights into the type of issues

that women face in creating, persisting and advancing IT careers. It has highlighted

possible processes of exclusion or marginalisation for women but has not sought to

quantify or determine the extent to which these issues are prevalent across the

industry, or for groups of people within the industry. There may be other issues that

this particular qualitative approach and limited number of research participants did

not capture. Further research with larger samples may provide insights that create

greater depth and breadth in this approach, by considering how career boundaries

are shaped and influenced by different intersectional characteristics, and/or national

and organisational contexts. Understanding how race, ethnicity, gender identity and

sexuality interact to affect the boundaries faced by different workers needs to be

examined, tested and measured in more detail - particularly if companies wish to

285

make IT occupations more accessible to a wider pool of talent. As contextual features

influence many of the boundaries, comparisons across different national and

occupational contexts would also be a fruitful avenue for future research.

On the basis of these findings, it is recommended that increased attention be paid

to the retention element of women in IT. This study has established that female and

male career trajectories differ, and that women experience more constraints on their

careers. Due to the focus on current IT workers it cannot, however, adequately speak

to the contribution towards underrepresentation of attrition rates. Additional

research exploring how negative career experiences and boundaries shape women’s

greater propensity to leave IT work would be a valuable contribution to the research

agenda. In particular, there is value in examining ‘opt-out’ decisions to determine if

women are opting-out of the specific occupations, companies, or career forms; what

influences those patterns; and whether these choices can be considered voluntary or

involuntary. Tracking the future career trajectories of male and female 'leavers' to

establish where they end up would contribute an important piece to the

underrepresentation puzzle.

Looking beyond the IT industry, the insights provided in this study into the

challenges faced by contemporary women in their careers, particularly in relation to

the hybrid elements that this study found in knowledge work may not be exclusive

of the IT industry.

Future research could employ a gendered boundaries approach to examination of

work in other professional fields to provide further insights into female experiences

of work more generally. Comparison of IT work with more established and

structured professions, those that are not dominated by project-work, or those that

are female-dominated (such as teaching) would offer useful insights relating to the

influence of different organisational dynamics and occupational characteristics on

female careers, allowing further refinement of contemporary female career

conceptualisations.

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APPENDICIES

315

APPENDIX 1: List of female CEOs

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APPENDIX 2: Aide-memoire for career history interviews

AIDE MEMOIRE: CAREER HISTORY INTERVIEW

Warm up: introduction: a brief description of research, confidentiality, right to stop

OQ1 “Can you tell me how you came to be where you are in your career?”

SQ1.1 Educational background: Institutions/qualification/motivations

SQ1.2 Motivation/draw to IT work

SQ1.3 Previous work history and entry mechanisms

SQ1.4 Career plans and changes to these over time

SQ1.5 Critical incidents in career to date

SQ1.6 Career challenges and negotiation strategies

SQ1.7 Barriers to career advancement

SQ1.8 Success assessment: measure and perception of success

OQ2 How do you feel your personal circumstances have influenced, or shaped your career?

SQ2.1 Family situation – relationship/parental/living

SQ2.2 Extent to which perceived to have influenced career

SQ2.3 Domestic division of labour

SQ2.4 Childcare arrangements and division of labour

SQ2.5 Issues with home and work reconciliation

OQ3 How do you see your career developing?

SQ3.1 5 years, or 10 years plan

SQ3.2 Occupational choice, IT or other

SQ8.3 Changing vision over time, why

OQ4 To what extent do you feel the nature and culture of ICT work are supportive of/fits in with your specific

needs?

SQ4.1 Day to day work

SQ4.2 Challenges to own objectives/career plans/work-life reconciliation

SQ4.3 Divers for success in current and past roles

OQ5 To what extent do you think the specific organisational context affects your career?

SQ5.1 Organisation(s) viewpoint on gender

SQ5.2 Company efforts to improved gender parity, own perceptions of

SQ5.3 First-hand experience of these/observed effects

SQ5.4 Companies’ specific E&D policies or initiatives

SQ5.5 Company structure and culture supportive of/fits in with own specific needs

SQ5.6 Formal IT training policies, and perception of substantial investment in self by company

SQ5.7 Promotional perceptions and experience of the process

SQ5.8 Support do you get for career development/advancement (e.g. Mentors/role models/research/from your

current and previous organisations)

SQ5.9 Any extra/supplementary training or support/qualifications

FQ Is there is something I have not asked that you think is important, or that you think I should know?

(NB/ OQ: Open question, SQ: Follow up specific question, FQ: Final Question)

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APPENDIX 3: Sample interview guide for HR representatives

INTERVIEW GUIDE: HR REPRESENTATIVE

Warm up: introduction: a brief description of the research, confidentiality

General

• What do you think are the biggest challenges facing [YOUR COMPANY] in terms of its

people management strategy? And how are you responding to those challenges? More specifically:

1. Recruitment strategy

• What is your focus for recruitment, and what are your biggest challenges?

• Mentioned intent to increase recruitment from university sources: how does this support

your wider people management strategy?

2. Pay framework

• How is this monitored and reported?

• How are pay rises awarded/administered?

3. Appraisal and promotional mechanisms?

• How do you allocate work/projects?

• Issues with presenteeism? How is ‘success’ measured?

• What is your promotional process?

4. Flexible work policies?

• What is the offering and how do employee get access to this? Limitations to this?

• How do these policies work with employees i) on projects, ii) acquired through other

companies? Increased complexity?

5. How are these policies communicated down the managerial ranks, monitored and

enforced?

• Managerial training? How do you ensure consistency?

• Issues?

Gender Specific

• Is there a gender disparity in your organisation? Do you have an overt ‘gender’ goal?

o Do you track diversity? Across business units? Is this communicated to managers?

o Do you feel you have a recruitment or retention issue, in particular with female

workers?

o Is this considered to be an issue?

• How did [YOUR COMPANY] enact their process of allocating funds to rebalance men and

women’s salaries last year?

• How is the E&D agenda consistent with your overarching HRM strategic objectives?

o What would you expect the return to be from achieving greater parity?

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o Who controls the E&D Agenda? HR? Outside of HR? What statistics do they

maintain?

o How are these priorities and strategy communicated and enacted to the rest of the

organisation?

• New initiatives aimed at increasing access to development and promotions for women and

other underrepresented groups are now in place – what are these?

• Proactive adding of women to ‘top talent lists’ and commitment to exec positions?

o Measurement of efficacy, on-going support?

Career Form

• Have you seen a noticeable change in the types of career people are expecting or actively

pursuing over the last 10-15 years? What are the features of this and how has [YOUR

COMPANY] adapted or changed its HRM policies to adjust to this change?

o How are you organising HR to tackle those challenges?

o For example, recruitment methods/appraisal expectations/pay levels and training

and development?

o When and how are ‘high-talent’ individuals identified and developed?

o How does this fit with the formalised flexibility policies “connected workplace” drive

and their expectation? (Current 1 in 4)

• What practical changes have been implemented to accommodate this: how does this

flexibility work in practice? What have you seen the advantages and limitations be to this?

o What has management reception been? Any pushback?

o How have you ensured consistency across multiple business units?

o Are you tracking uptake/demographics of uptake/productivity?

o Are you tracking hours worked? How are employees balancing home and work when

working from home?

• From a strategic perspective, do you utilise different types of employees to support your

business needs (namely freelance, contingent and part-time workers)? How do you manage

the tension between their needs and preferred flexibility, with that required by the

organisation?

• How are the ideas of the ERG fed-back and what changes have they resulted in terms of HR

practice?

o What is their designated purpose and remit? What kinds of activities take place?

How is the success of these measured?

o How is access to these initiatives granted? (Open to all/nomination/management

selection?)

• Do you feel a reliance on employee-organised schemes is the best way to increase equality?

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APPENDIX 4: Definition of IT workers

List of standard occupational codes comprising the IT professions (SOC 2010)

NB/ The way in which occupations are classified in the Labour Force Survey was changed in 2011 when the

current version of SOC (2010) was incorporated within the data collection process. Therefore, historical

comparisons of workforce data have been made through a SOC mapping exercise, which must be

considered when concluding the datasets.

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APPENDIX 5: Definition of IT companies

List of standard industrial codes comprising the IT industry

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APPENDIX 6: Career history participants – Female

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APPENDIX 7: Career history participants - Male

APPENDIX 8: Participant recruitment flyer

WHYARETHERESTILLSOFEWWOMEN?EXAMININGGENDER,MOBILITYANDCAREERSINTHEUKICTSECTOR:AQUALITATIVEAPPROACHAnAllianceManchesterBusinessSchoolResearchProjectFundedbytheEconomicandSocialResearchCouncil(ESRC)

PROJECTSUMMARY

DespiteconsiderablemediaaRenSontothelowproporSonofwomenintechnologyandeffortstoredressthisgenderimbalance,therehasbeenliRleimprovementintheactualnumbers.Whilstwomenmakeup49%oftheUKlabourforcetheysSllonlyaccountfor16%ofInformaSonandCommunicaSonTechnology(ICT)professionals–andhavedonesoforthelast10years.ThisstagnaSonhasoccurredoveraperiodthatsawsignificantprogressinfemalerepresentaSoninmostotherprofessions.SowhynotinICT?

AnESRC-fundedresearchprojectatAllianceManchesterBusinessSchoolwilladdressthisquesSon.WiththepurposeofsheddinglightonthecharacterisScsoftheindustrythatpromoteorhindergenderequality,thisprojectseekstounderstandthecareerexperiencesofwomenandmenthatwork,orhaveworked,intheUKICTindustry.ItwillexaminehowdifferentcareerformsandorganizaSonalstructurescontributetoshapepeople’sabilitytoengagewithICTworkatdifferentpointsintheirlives.

ClarificaSonofthesechallengeswillprovideinsightstoaidthedevelopmentofgender-inclusivepoliciesandequalitynotonlyinICT,butalsoacrossSTEMoccupaSonsmoregenerally.

KEYQUESTIONSFORTHERESEARCH

•  WhyandhowdomenandwomenbecomeICTprofessionals,andhowdotheydevelopcareersinthisindustry?

•  Towhatextentarecareerchoicesandpathsinthisindustryshapedbyanindividual’sgender,history,preferencesandfamilysituaSon?

•  TowhatextentarecareeropSonsintheindustryshapedbythewayworkisorganised?

•  Doequalityanddiversitypolicies,andcompany-specificiniSaSveshelpredressgenderimbalanceinICTfirms?

TheresearchprojectisbeingcarriedoutbyRobynJelley.RobynworkedintheITsectorfrom2006to2014;bothasaconsultantforOracleCorporaSonUKandasanindependentcontractor.SheisnowaDoctoralResearcheratAllianceManchesterBusinessSchool.IfyouwouldlikemoreinformaSon,ortoparScipateinthisresearchproject,pleasecontact:

Tel.UK:+447854654833Email:robyn.jelley@manchester.ac.uk

CONTA

CTS

RESEARCHMETHODS

TheresearchcombinesquanStaSveanalysisofOECDemploymentdataandsurveyresponses,withcompanycasestudiesandqualitaSveinterviewswithrelevantstakeholdersandkeyinformants.InparScular:

•  Semi-structuredinterviewswithmenandwomenwithahistoryofemploymentinICTwork(employees,contractorsandrecentleavers)

•  Semi-structuredinterviewswithICTfirmandrecruitmentagencystakeholders(managerialstaffandHRrepresentaSves)

306

325

APPENDIX 9: Initial coding scheme

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APPENDIX 10: Sample consent form for career history interviews

Women and the UK ICT Industry – PhD Project

CONSENT FORM

If you are happy to participate please complete and sign the consent form below

Please initial box

I agree to take part in the above project Name of participant

Date Signature

Name of person taking consent

Date Signature

1. I understand that my participation in the study is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time without giving a reason and without detriment to any treatment/service.

2. I understand that the interviews will be audio-recorded

3. I agree to the use of anonymous quotes

4. I agree that any data collected may be passed as anonymous data to other researchers

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APPENDIX 11: Digital apprenticeship equivalencies

Apprenticeship Level Digital Apprenticeships Available

Equivalencies

Intermediate Level 2 5 GCSE passes at grades A* to

C Advanced Level 3 Digital marketer

Infrastructure technician

Software development

technician

2 A level passes

Higher Level 4, 5,

6 & 7 Network engineer

Software developer

Cyber security technologist

Data analyst

Business analyst

Foundation degree and higher

Source: British Computing Society (2017)