Environmental Context and Women in the IT Workforce

Abstract

The rise of the network society involves a transformation of employment, in which power relations shift with the flow of capital, leading to downsizing, subcontracting and networking of labor. These processes facilitate flexibility and individualization of contractual arrangements in information work. As a whole, there is an increase in self-employment, temporary work, and part-time work, particularly for women (Castells, 1996). This transformation of employment brings heightened consideration about the characteristics of the labor force. Thus, one need is to examine environmental context and the possible connections between economic and cultural factors of a region and the experience of women in the IT workforce. This article summarizes an empirical study presented in greater detail in Trauth, Quesenberry, and Yeo (2005) that explored the influence of environmental context on women in the IT workforce by using the Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT (Trauth, 2002; Trauth, Huang, Morgan, Quesenberry, & Yeo, 2006; Trauth, Quesenberry, & Morgan, 2004).