Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 8.3. Serendipity sub-themes
Illustrations from the data
Serendipity sub-themes
Skills
Participant #1: And I get on equally well drinking at the pub with the riggers
as I do talking to, when you're doing a customer presentation and talking to
management.
Participant #2: ... but I am a fairly, you know, organised kinda person so just
organise yourself and you get by.
Participant #7: I have a degree in maths and physics.
Outlook
Participant #4: I sort of suddenly began to realise that it was within my reach
to do something that was ... in demand and current like to me it just seemed
so ... oh, so exciting so ... my mind was set then.
Participant #4: And yet ... it was so easy when I did it.
Adaptive behaviours
Participant #6: Because lovely though they are, if you were a real sensitive sort
you would find some of their jokes really appalling.
Culture
As shown in Table 8.4, the final main theme of Culture is based on four sub-themes:
paucity of women in IS/IT, definition of IS/IT, gender traits and the distinction in ap-
proach and support. These sub-themes combine to create the environment within which
the women carry out their IS/IT work-related activities.
There was some sense that the low numbers of women in IS/IT may have impacted on
the culture and environment within the IS/IT workplace. Potentially, it has served to
perpetuate the dominant male culture. The nebulous nature of IS/IT was revealed by
the data, with no common perception among the women participating in the research.
From the data it was clear that there was a perception that men and women, in general
do have subtle inherent differences and that this impacted on the way they operate and
interact. There was also recognition that the description of gender traits relies heavily
on generalisation and stereotyping.
The distinction sub-theme encompasses discriminatory behaviour that the participants
had experienced. A common view from the data was that the women had not experienced
barriers within their workplaces, although they acknowledged the existence of barriers
in a more general sense.
Table 8.4. Culture sub-themes
Illustrations from the data
Culture sub-themes
Paucity of women in IS/IT
Participant #2: Yeah no, I suppose after 30 something years you get used to
working in that environment.
Definition
Participant #8: ... this is where I struggle a bit with being classified as being
in information technology (this participant included, among other responsibilities,
management of a WAN as part of her duties).
Gender traits
Participant #2: So then most women I suppose it's part of being a woman, you
kinda have a bit more … you accept that you're going to be asked questions
and you're prepared for it more whereas guys seem not to like that kind of
thing.
Distinction
Participant #6: And he actually complimented me by telling me I was almost a
bloke, almost a man, as far as my work went, you know.
Validity
Feminist research has been accused, in a similar way to interpretivism and critical social
science, of being wanting in the area of validity (Dallimore, 2000). To address the issue
in the present research, with reference to Dallimore (2000) and Neuman (2000), collabor-
ation, natural history, and member validation were applied.
In purposefully building rapport with participants, as consistent with a feminist ap-
proach, the researcher addressed validity through collaboration. The relevant industry
 
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