Visitor: login Signup

SIGIS Abstract and Executive Summary

[Return to Previous] [Print Format]

Strategies of Inclusion: Gender and the Information Society. Final Report (Public Version) W.Faulkner, K.Sørensen, H Gansmø, E. Rommes, L.Pitt, V. Lagesen Berg, C.McKeogh P. Preston R.Williams, J.Stewart,

Keywords: Gender, Inclusion, ICTs, education, training, networks, culture, computers, strategies. guidelines, summary

Document Number:D08_Final_Public

File:SIGIS_D08_Final_Public.pdf download ->

Abstract

This document summaries the main findings of the SIGIS research on strategies to include women in the ‘Information Society. It includes a 30 page summary of the main findings for a general professional audience, and seven policy and practitioner briefings with guidelines for action.

Executive Summary

The Strategies of Inclusion: Gender and the Information Society (SIGIS) project started from the premise that overall more women than men are excluded from the information society, both as users and as designers of new information and communications technologies (ICTs). Our literature review at the start of the project confirmed that there is still a gender gap in terms of ownership of some ICT products and, to a less extent, in terms of access and use. It also confirms that gender cuts across other dynamics in the digital divide – income, occupation and age being generally more significant than gender, with other factors (eg, ethnic minorities, lone parent families) also intervening. The trend with respect to the use of ICT products is one of a closing gender gap, although it is clear that diffusion alone is not sufficient to close the gap all together; inclusion efforts are still warranted in this area. By contrast, there is a persistent and sizeable gender gap within computer specialisms and professions designing ICTs, with the proportion of women entering computer science and engineering courses in most countries static or in decline in spite of sustained inclusion efforts. So, the overall picture across Europe is a contradictory one: optimistic with respect to what we call women and ICT and pessimistic with respect to women in ICT.

The SIGIS project was concerned with inclusion initiatives rather than exclusion. The main research effort consisted in 48 case studies of different inclusion strategies, backed up by a sizeable cross-cutting analysis, presented in two reports: Designing Inclusion: The development of ICT products to include women in the Information Society (Deliverable D06), and Gender and Inclusion Policies for the Information Society (Deliverable D07). However readers wanting to know more about the research design and methodology adopted and the substantial body of detailed research findings that emerged should consult these volumes (available on the SIGIS website), as there is not space in this brief report to do justice to them. Together, these represent a huge resource for furthering both theoretical development and policy intervention in the area of gender inclusion in the information society. What follows is an overview of the main cross-cutting conclusions arising from this research, starting with an overview of the strategies investigated and finishing with the main policy guidelines we would highlight. Appended to this report is a set of guidelines targeted towards particular policy and practitioner audiences.

This report draws general conclusions some of which are relevant to any digital inclusion strategies while others concern gender inclusion specifically. We address the links between digital exclusion and inclusion, highlighting the general importance for digital inclusion strategies of heterogeneous packages of measures which together pay attention to ICT resources, competence, confidence and relevance. Gender inclusion strategies need to challenge gender binaries and stereotypes, and to build more plural and dynamic versions of masculinities/femininities and of ICTs. Precisely because of this diversity, ‘one size does not fit all’ in terms of strategies for gender inclusion in the information society. Effective tailoring of such strategies means paying attention to the specifics of how both inclusion measures and exclusion may be gendered, and bringing ICT to ‘where people are at’. In particular, because informal learning is a vital part of how people acquire ICT capability, there is a need for measures to encourage the growth and dynamism of ‘local ICT experts’, and so support the less computer literate or confident within their existing social networks and spaces. Finally, SIGIS research demonstrates the general importance to inclusion strategies, gender or otherwise, of quality – be it in ICT training and educational measures, or market based ICT products.

Various different types of inclusion strategies were investigated. Some operate by creating women-centred spaces. Women-only training is effective in raising confidence and self-esteem, women-friendly networks support women working in ICT, and web magazines for women act as a means of ‘self inclusion’. By contrast, our studies of ICT products indicate that it is not always more effective to design for women specifically as opposed to designing ‘for everybody’ including women. Ideally, the latter strategy acknowledges the interests and tastes of heterogeneous groups of girls/women and boys/men and, thus, gender plurality. Yet the market has not generally proved a very innovative mechanism for improving gender inclusion in the information society – in part because of its inherent conservatism, and in part because of heavy reliance on the I-methodology.

Many strategies geared to getting more women into ICT occupations address the ‘image problem’. One of the more unexpected conclusions of SIGIS research is that any image problem has more to do with the low relative numbers of women in ICT than with a presumed symbolic association of ICT and masculinity. Accordingly, we emphasise the need to make visible the growing numbers of computer enthusiastic and computer competent girls and women, and to send out the message ‘women are welcome here’. We further conclude that measures which directly increase the relative numbers of women in ICT, and achieve a ‘critical mass’, are particularly critical. The relative isolation of those women who do work in ICT means they experience the sector as a ‘chilly culture’, and this contributes to the ‘leaky pipe’ problem of poor retention. Networking and role models are important ways of empowering women in ICT occupations; but corporate measures, such as more employee-centre flexible working arrangements, are also needed.

Overall, although progress over women in ICT occupations continues to be slow, SIGIS research reveals many encouraging signs of a closing gender gap in the use of ICT products (what we call, women and ICT). It remains unclear how much these latter developments might impact positively on the position of women in ICT. What is clear, however, is that there is a serious lack of ‘joined up policy’ in most countries with respect to gender and ICT, whereby government support to bring women into ICT specialist work sits alongside wider digital inclusion efforts which are ‘gender blind’. The evidence collected by SIGIS indicates that gender gaps in digital inclusion will not disappear without intervention, and that gender blindness in digital inclusion strategies may even exacerbate the exclusion of specific groups (of men or women). If governments are serious about gender inclusion in the information society then a thorough gender awareness must permeate all digital inclusion strategies, be they education, work or community based.

download ->

[Return to Previous]