Studying Gender, ICTs & Development using New Institutionalism Sharon Morgan, IDPM

1. Studying Gender, ICTs & Development using New InstitutionalismSharon Morgan, IDPM • background & rationale • scope & perspectives on gender, technology & development • New Institutionalism as a conceptual framework • practical research issues

2. Background & Rationale the importance of ICTs for development: • information access and ownership • opportunities for economic growth and diversification • predictions: greatest potential for global job creation are within the core ICT sector, and that these will become the most valued occupations (ILO in Hafkin & Taggart, 2001) • recognised need for ICT professional workforce to develop local content software to design, develop and maintain both the ICT infrastructure and its software content (Chapman and Slaymaker 2002)

3. Background & Rationale the importance of men’s and women’s participation: • women are recognised as a key economic resource but face “…systematic discrimination ... in accessing basic technologies and resources...” • importance of increasing women’s share of waged employment is a recognised poverty reduction strategy • an ICT industry using half the available talent and creativity poses an economic problem • a technology “.. marketed by men for men..“ threatens the effective deployment of ICTs, and risksrelegating women to being only users rather than shapers

4. Background & Rationale the problem: women’s participation • impact of globalisation on the gender division of labour in developing countries has been generally negative (Hafkin and Taggart, 2001; Randriamaro, 2002) • female participation in science and technology world-wide is lower than males at all levels (Derbyshire 2003) More technically and cognitively oriented, better-paying ICT jobs rely heavily on an educational background in science and technology • in 2001 only 5.5% of senior government officials in charge of ICT in developing countries were women (Hafkin & Taggart, 2001)

5. Engagement with ICTs As well as access to ICT resources, full engagement with the technology covers participation in: • the decision-making and control of ICT deployment • the design and use of hardware and software • the design and form of the information content • the training and education programmes available for technology users and designers and consideration of: • the employment conditions and opportunities available • the nature of education and training programmes

6. Perspectives & Scope Perspectives vary from a focus on the individual to a focus on the context in which women exist Feminist perspectives: • gender as variable • feminist standpoint • post-structuralist/post-modern/post-feminist • critical-interpretive

7. Perspectives & Scope Gender and Development: • women in development (WID) • women and development (WAD) • gender and development (GAD) • women, environment and development (WED) • southern theoretical perspectives

8. Perspectives & Scope Gender and Technology: • women in technology • technology as culture (Henwood 1993) • gender & technology as socially defined (Cockburn 1985) • experience of daily life (Rowbotham 1995) • technofeminism (Wajcman 2004)

9. Perspectives & Scope Additionally, multiple gender roles need to be considered: • reproductive roles (childcare responsibilities) • productive roles (income-generating responsibilities) • community roles (often unpaid)) and the different types of gender needs: (Moser cited in Reeves and Baden 2000, p14) • practical needs: "… needs identified by women to assist their survival in their socially accepted roles, within existing power structures." • strategic needs: "… needs identified by women that require strategies for challenging male dominance and privilege"

10. Perspectives & Scope Adopting a suitable gender perspective for researching ICT-based enterprises/projects, the following need to be accommodated: • the non-gender-neutral nature of technology, • ICT engagement goes beyond mere participation, • engagement with ICTs appears to be universally gendered (ie. women globally appear to share a marginalised position), and • gender relations are embedded in their environmental context

11. TechnoFeminism [Wajcman 2006, 2004] • rooted in socio-technical studies => technical artifacts are socially shaped and “a technological system is never merely technical: its real-world functioning has technical, economic, organizational, political and even cultural elements.” • but extends beyond design and production and incorporates a gender dimension • recognises a mutual shaping between technology & gender =>sees “engagement with the process of technological change as key to the renegotiation of gender power relations” => argues “technology is both a source and a consequence of gender relations” which provides a space for agency in transforming technology • recognises the interpretive flexibility of technology “ different groups of people involved in a technology can have very different understandings of that technology….the users can radically alter the meanings and deployment of technologies.”

12. New Institutionalism Institutions (North 1990; Scott 1995; Lowndes 1996; Santos 2005) • humanly-devised constraints (structures) that shape human interaction and agency, where constraints are - rules, norms, procedures that govern behaviour - enforcement mechanisms & sanctions (for non-compliance) • arise to reduce uncertainty (choice?) in human interaction by providing a stable (but not necessarily efficient) framework • have legitimacy (valued in themselves beyond the preferences of individuals) and show stability over time • can be formal (eg. economic/political/judicial rules, formal agreements, etc)or informal (eg. Interpretations/modifications to formal rules, norms of socially accepted behavior etc) • are dynamic (can be changed over time) • are embedded within a particular context, space and time

13. New Institutionalism • are shared within a particular community/organisation => convey a social dimension • serve those with bargaining power => convey a political dimension • are dynamic (can be transformed to bring about change) • have 3 interacting components which can impact on actors differently (adapted from Scott 1995 cited in Bresser et al 2003) Regulative:formal & informal rules, violations, sanctions,etc Normative: norms & values desirable/appropriate/correct behaviour, moral obligations Cognitive: internal to individual, ‘taken-for-granted’ness, interests Coercive pressures Social pressures Cognitive pressures

14. New Institutionalism as a Framework • accommodates contextual nature of human interaction with technology • recognises social and political dimensions (cultural norms, power relations and structures, etc) • recognises interpretetive nature of agency/choice • recognises different “layers” of pressurising structure • accommodates agency and (transformative) change

15. Researching Women ICT professionals in a development context Sample research question: What is it about technical ICT work that appears to turn women off/exclude them? => what factors are external to the individual? Are these regulatory (eg. working hours and conditions) or normative (eg. social expectation & view of gendered work, family pressure, cultural restrictions on working environment for females)? => what factors are internal to the individual? What personal assumptions/values/beliefs are they based on (eg. views on nature of technical work, preferences)? => what [compensating] strategies has she used to address barriers?