This was the question if my field work. Is ICT meritocratic? There are several arguments for and against meritocracy in the technology industry.
The question also highlights the definition of meritocracy and its validity as an argument or justification for current social system, but this something which will be explored in later posts.
According to several women I met and interviewed during the course of my field work, the female gender are missing out on the opportunities present in technology because they are not perceiving technology beyond the common cultural perceptions of a lone male 'geek.' A woman proudly proclaimed to me that she had never experienced being held back in her career because she was a woman. No opportunity ever was denied to her by employers because of her gender hard work; blood, sweat and tears were everything.
From my field work in ICT and interviewing many coders and developers on their experiences of gender in the workplace, a common refrain was that the technology industry can be meritocratic, at least in so far as coding itself is a mental activity which is beyond gender.
This was broken down for me by a software developer who told me that jobs in the west have progressed beyond the physical where gender differences are more pronounced, to the mental, where men and women (though this is still debated) are on an equal playing field.
Though evolutionary scientists still argue that men are more technologically minded than women, and even recent research into autism confirms a strong link between autism technology and male brains, there is evidence which points to more culturally based factors which keep women out of technology.
For instance, according to Arisidis and Jordaki, who studied students in tertiary education in Greece, women achieve equal grades to men in computer science degrees, but are far less likely to continue in a technology career (Georgiadou 2009:280).
So this question of meritocracy in ICT struck me as fascinating, because it subverted my expectations entirely. ICT is famous for sexism in the media, and to encounter perspectives that in fact ICT did have a more level playing field, in at least the
But not all my informants felt the same way, and one female coder told me that it was who could about the loudest which made it in the work place.
How far is it true that female and male work is indeed given equal worth, and how much 'culture' creeps in to an seemingly culture less logical product?
Bibliography
Georgiadou (2009)
The question also highlights the definition of meritocracy and its validity as an argument or justification for current social system, but this something which will be explored in later posts.
According to several women I met and interviewed during the course of my field work, the female gender are missing out on the opportunities present in technology because they are not perceiving technology beyond the common cultural perceptions of a lone male 'geek.' A woman proudly proclaimed to me that she had never experienced being held back in her career because she was a woman. No opportunity ever was denied to her by employers because of her gender hard work; blood, sweat and tears were everything.
From my field work in ICT and interviewing many coders and developers on their experiences of gender in the workplace, a common refrain was that the technology industry can be meritocratic, at least in so far as coding itself is a mental activity which is beyond gender.
This was broken down for me by a software developer who told me that jobs in the west have progressed beyond the physical where gender differences are more pronounced, to the mental, where men and women (though this is still debated) are on an equal playing field.
Though evolutionary scientists still argue that men are more technologically minded than women, and even recent research into autism confirms a strong link between autism technology and male brains, there is evidence which points to more culturally based factors which keep women out of technology.
For instance, according to Arisidis and Jordaki, who studied students in tertiary education in Greece, women achieve equal grades to men in computer science degrees, but are far less likely to continue in a technology career (Georgiadou 2009:280).
So this question of meritocracy in ICT struck me as fascinating, because it subverted my expectations entirely. ICT is famous for sexism in the media, and to encounter perspectives that in fact ICT did have a more level playing field, in at least the
But not all my informants felt the same way, and one female coder told me that it was who could about the loudest which made it in the work place.
How far is it true that female and male work is indeed given equal worth, and how much 'culture' creeps in to an seemingly culture less logical product?
Bibliography
Georgiadou (2009)
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