Abstract
This paper aims to attend the under-theorisation of gender within the Information Systems (IS) literature by adopting a critical and feminist approach to the organisational context of IS development and use. The IS are conceived of as innovations with theoretical concepts and observations for comprehending the innovation process advanced within Social Studies of Technology being described and applied to IS. Consequently, a conceptual framework for studying gender and IS is constructed by combining insights derived from: (1) gender and computing, concerning the differences and inequalities of development and use of IS; (2) gender and society concerning the existence of gendered spheres; (3) studies of gender and organisations concerning the social division of labour; and (4) gender and technology, concerning the masculinity of technology culture. The developed framework is tabulated, areas for future research suggested and potential research questions outlined. The latter employ examples from the field of nursing to illustrate their tangible application. The framework constitutes a contribution to IS research by providing access to additional explanations for organisational phenomena (such as user rejection); by deepening our understanding of the innovation process; by improving IS practice through increased awareness of social issues (especially gender); and by promoting further potential topics for IS researchers.
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Notes
SS of Technology is a broad church, incorporating several approaches including systems thinking (Hughes, 1983 looking at infrastructures; the SCOT (Pinch and Bijker, 1987) emphasising interpretative flexibility and relevant actors; and, actor-network theory (ANT) (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1987; Akrich, 1992) dealing with networks, inscription, translation, and irreversibility.
In common with determinism, essentialist approaches ascribe differences between men and women to innate characteristics. In so doing, they are criticised for universalising the experience of women and for failing to attend to the contingency of gendered roles and characteristics. As Segal (1994: 142) explains: ‘any theory which pays only lip service to the actual variations, complexities, dialectics and history of social relations inevitably becomes raw material for essentialist analysis and politics’. Equally, descriptions of males as ‘naturally’ oppressive contain strong essentialist overtones. With specific reference to the under-representation of women in computing, Grundy (1996: 108) criticises the fact that men are seen as logical, rational and intelligent and women as intuitive, non-rational and emotional. Further, Lloyd (1984) argues that these stereotypes relate to older ideas that connect women with the body and men with the mind.
‘Innofusion’ refers to the local redevelopment of the software takes place (Dutton et al., 1995: 28).
The term critical here does not necessarily refer to a Habermasian approach. Rather, I am making reference to the Labour Process tradition that originates from Braverman (1974) and his radical aims (see Spencer, 2000).
In her paper for Social Studies of Science, Wajcman refers to the broader discipline and audience of Science and Technology Studies (S&TS). Here, I apply her comments more narrowly to SST as this discipline is more familiar to IS audiences.
A radical challenge to the notion that women are not technically minded is to question the way in which technology is defined in terms of male activities. So, for example, women, as early horticulturists, are likely to have used tools and methods involved in this work (Faulkner and Arnold, 1985). Other technologies are not included in the technology equation: for example, the knowledge needed to prepare food, healing, making clothes and caring for children (Cockburn, 1986; Knights and Murray, 1994).
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Wilson, M. A conceptual framework for studying gender in information systems research. J Inf Technol 19, 81–92 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000008
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000008