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experience of the researcher helped to frame the questions and assisted in drawing out
rich and detailed responses. This personal interest could be perceived as providing po-
tential for bias. This was readily acknowledged and in so doing the likelihood that it
would be successfully managed was increased. Validity can also be demonstrated in the
manner that the findings truly represent the views of the participants. In this research
participants were offered the transcript to review and provide feedback on its accuracy.
Only one woman chose to review the transcript and that participant did not request any
changes to its content.
In the present research, the researcher has provided a detailed description of the philo-
sophy, processes, methods and approaches in order to comply with a natural history
test of validity (Neuman, 2000). The researcher set out to faithfully record all aspects of
the research to ensure validity in the eyes of other readers.
The final method of validation used within this research was that of member validation.
When the findings of the research are provided to the participants and they are able to
identify their situation as reflected in the findings, its validity is supported. Member
validation can, however, be difficult to achieve. Despite the research presenting a
truthful portrayal, participants may have personal motivations for disagreeing with the
findings. This was evidently not the case in the present research:
Thank you ... for sending me your findings. I can identify with a lot of what
you say, especially 'It would appear from the data that being valued, encour-
aged and supported in their family and career was important …'
and:
I can definitely identify with the findings of your research and with the other
women interviewed. Especially the serendipity theme - we all think we're just
lucky but in reality we're pretty damn good aren't we?
Discussion
In addressing the objective of this research the application of a feminist research approach
has proved to be beneficial. It could be argued that some of the factors influencing the
careers of women in IS/IT and the characteristics of these women may have been identi-
fied using a positivist research approach, and others obtained from the use of a qualitative
approach. However, it is proposed that the findings have extended to uncover subtle
factors and characteristics of individual participants that could only come from the use
of a feminist approach. Central to this is the fact that the research was conducted for
women, not on women. In addition, in the context of feminist research the extent of
rapport and element of trust between the participants and the researcher is critically
important, and in the research reported here it was clearly very good. Unless this rapport
and trust exists then participants do not feel comfortable giving comprehensive, open
and truthful responses. The high level of rapport and trust is evidenced by the fact that
the only woman who asked to read the transcription of the data subsequently did not
request any changes to her interview dialogue. In addition the remaining participants
obviously had confidence in the researcher to the point that they did not even want to
review the transcription of their interviews. There was also a general consensus that the
women readily identified themselves in the findings of the research. This implies that
the women taking part were given a voice and not just treated as a stereotypical group
based on their biological sex. This research has, therefore, provided a new perspective
with the ability to extend understanding in IS gender research.
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