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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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
37
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.
53
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
56
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)
57
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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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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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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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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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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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
284
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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Graduates: Investigating the Leaky Pipeline' in Pande, R. and van der Wade, T., eds., Globalization, technology diffusion and gender disparity: social impacts of ICTs, Hershey, PA: ICI Global, 184-199.
Wright, R. (1997) Women computer professionals: Progress and resistance,
Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press. Wyer, M. (2003) 'Intending to stay: Images of scientists, attitudes toward women,
and gender as influences on persistence among science and engineering majors', Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 9(1).
Xie, Y. and Shauman, K. (2003) Women in Science: Career Processes and Outocmes,
London: Harvard University Press.
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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
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:[email protected]
CONTA
CTS
RESEARCHMETHODS
TheresearchcombinesquanStaSveanalysisofOECDemploymentdataandsurveyresponses,withcompanycasestudiesandqualitaSveinterviewswithrelevantstakeholdersandkeyinformants.InparScular:
• Semi-structuredinterviewswithmenandwomenwithahistoryofemploymentinICTwork(employees,contractorsandrecentleavers)
• Semi-structuredinterviewswithICTfirmandrecruitmentagencystakeholders(managerialstaffandHRrepresentaSves)
306
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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)
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