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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2009

Gender and the attraction for IT in career paths : a French study

Résumé

Different feminist theories have endeavored to explain the relationship between masculinity and technology. However, most of these theories focus on women's under representation, and little attention has been paid to women who are attracted by technology. This communication describes an exploratory study carried out in an IT company located in France. We based our research on Hennion's theory of taste as a practice, and we conducted nine semi-structured interviews with male and female IT professionals (IT architects, managers and consultants). Textual analysis and structural analysis have provided the following results: Most interviewees share an attraction for IT because of the ever-changing nature of IT and the diversity of their jobs. However, some differences were clearly expressed; male interviewees assume a hedonic posture, whereas women emphasized the empowerment they feel through mastering technology. Social recognition in the workplace appears to play a major role for women in pursuing a technical career.
Under representation of women in IT is a complex issue which has given rise to a considerable body of research. Since the early eighties, government measures aimed at attracting female students and professionals to the IT industry have met with little success. Three dominant theories in gender literature have endeavored to explain the relationship between gender and technology. However, they mainly focus on women's withdrawal from the field, and little attention has been paid to women pursuing IT careers. The research presented in this communication is directed at exploring the ways successful IT professionals (both male and female) perceive their relationship to technology. We first summarize the different theoretical trends and position our research in this framework. Then, the qualitative survey and methodology are described. The analysis of the data is based upon the idea that taste is experienced and nurtured by actions, as described by A. Hennion in his theory of taste as a practice [Hennion, 2004]. The third section summarizes the main features of Hennion's theory, which is based on the analysis of the behavior of music lovers. We adapted this theoretical framework to explain the attraction for IT that the professionals expressed during the interviews. Lastly, the results of our analysis from a gender point of view are presented.
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Dates et versions

hal-02458201 , version 1 (28-01-2020)

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  • HAL Id : hal-02458201 , version 1

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Chantal Morley, Martina Mc Donnell, Marité Milon. Gender and the attraction for IT in career paths : a French study. AMCIS 2009 : 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems, Aug 2009, San Francisco, Califormia, United States. ⟨hal-02458201⟩
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