Gender Code : A Narrative Ethical Glance At Women Developers In Finnish Information Technology

This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details. Author(s): Title: Year: Version: Copyright: Rights: Rights url: Please cite the original version: CC BY-NC 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Gender Code : A Narrative Ethical Glance At Women Developers In Finnish Information Technology © 2024 the Authors Published version Kronqvist, Aila Johanna; Rousi, Rebekah Kronqvist, A. J., & Rousi, R. (2024). Gender Code : A Narrative Ethical Glance At Women Developers In Finnish Information Technology. In C. M. Gray, E. Ciliotta Chehade, P. Hekkert, L. Forlano, P. Ciuccarelli, & P. Lloyd (Eds.), DRS2024 : Boston. Design Research Society. Proceedings of DRS. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.501 2024 Design Research Society Design Research Society DRS Digital Library DRS Digital Library DRS Biennial Conference Series DRS2024: Boston Jun 23rd, 9:00 AM - Jun 28th, 5:00 PM Gender Code – A Narrative Ethical Glance At Women Developers Gender Code – A Narrative Ethical Glance At Women Developers In Finnish Information Technology In Finnish Information Technology Aila Johanna Kronqvist University of Jyväskylä, Finland Rebekah Rousi University of Vaasa, Finland Follow this and additional works at: https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers Part of the Art and Design Commons Citation Citation Johanna Kronqvist, A., and Rousi, R. (2024) Gender Code – A Narrative Ethical Glance At Women Developers In Finnish Information Technology, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston , 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/ drs.2024.501 This Research Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the DRS Conference Proceedings at DRS Digital Library. It has been accepted for inclusion in DRS Biennial Conference Series by an authorized administrator of DRS Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence. Gender code: A narrative ethical glance at women developers in Finnish Information Technology Aila Kronqvista,b,*, Rebekah Rousic aFaculty of Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland bSolita Oy, Finland cSchool of Marketing and Communication, University of Vaasa, Finland *Corresponding e-mail: [email protected] doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.501 Abstract: The Information Technology (IT) sector is the current Athens of all industry. It is no longer geeky, but chic, defining the modes and limits of modern civilization. IT in its numerous forms, provides the vehicle of expression and citizenship in contemporary times. While more women designers and software developers enter the field are they experiencing a stronger sense of equality? This paper reports a narrative inquiry that probed the experiences of women professionals in the IT field. Particular attention was placed on how females entered the field, the roles and tasks that they often found themselves undertaking, and social factors in organizational communication that were specific to being female in the field. The results indicate biased conditions. Historical discourse promoting men as creative and intellectual (I.e., technical) still thrives and women are seen as administrators (craftspeople). The paper ponders how these social dynamics affect the cognitive-affective processes of women developers. Keywords: women; gender; ethics; design; profession; information technology 1. Introduction Young, white, geeky (yet cool), and of course, male. These are supposedly the men (people) behind the global digital transformation. A digital transformation in which technology (tech) and technical skills become the artistic renaissance of the new design era (Arnšutu, 2011). Sound (look) familiar? While a million and one images of Silicon Valley and the Wild West of technology development come to mind, there are certain stereotypes that media, publics, and organizations live by (Cook, 2020; Hwang, 2005). Technology, its development, and its business hold strong positions in shaping the face of design today (Melbourne, 2015), and vice versa. Design has already been recognized as a strategic means to both market and manage the complexity of modern technology business (tech biz; Gharajedaghi, 2011). As Aila Kronqvist, Rebekah Rousi 2 such, the two play a predominant role in defining industry and society, and particularly the image of future professionals. For instance, according to the Hotmart (2023) blog for future digital professions, the top future professions are led by: 1) software developers; 2) specialists in user/customer experience; and 3) creators (e.g., digital influencers). There are both creative and engineering tendencies indicated within these titles that serve to appeal to various population segments (Capretz, 2015). All three areas require creativity and capacity for complex problem-solving, and all three influence the form and logic of digital products and services. Thus, the line between design, creativity, and software development is fine in today’s professional landscape. Coined by the Harvard Business Review, the term ‘information technology’ (IT) was first expressed to distinguish the difference between purpose-built machinery (i.e., a paper machine or tractor) from general-purpose machinery (i.e., digital computers used for other purposes – word processing, spread sheets, operations supporting business enhancement etc.) (Castagna & Bigelow, n.d.). Other terms used interchangeably with IT are information and communication technology (ICT), and computing. At the heart of IT and its associated industry is the development of computational and data-driven products. This includes all forms of computer programs (software), devices (hardware), and more recently artificial intelligence (AI), and related game-changing innovations by which our societies are becoming ever more dependent. Markets are becoming ever more concentrated towards tech biz and IT development, and more equality is seen in relation to who applies and gains employment within the field – male, female or other (Bolden-Barrett, 2019). Yet, simply because more women work in the sector, does not mean that equality applies to the roles and treatment of female or other professionals who do not meet the young (and in some cases, very young, see Stypińska, Rosales, & Svensson, 2023), white, male ideal promoted in Silicon Valley stereotypes (Burleigh, 2015; Hossfeld, 1990). Quite the contrary, as anecdotes and recollections of women’s professional experiences emerge, it is also seen that the quality and types of experiences of these professionals diversify from male counterparts (Erath, 2023). Studies reveal inequalities in work-life balance between women and male IT professionals (Bharathi & Bhattacharya, 2015), and that women’s pay levels are significantly lower (International Labour Report 2022-2023 cites 20% less pay on average). Women perform undesirable tasks furthest away from creative duties (Rosser, 2005). While these stories emerge, scholarly interest in aspects affecting women’s professional experiences in the IT field seems to be lagging, as witnessed in the relatively small body of literature available. This paper presents a study that probed the longitudinal work experiences of middle-aged women (40 to 60 years old) professionals operating in IT. This focus was decided on the basis of the authors’ experiences as women in IT. It was seen as imperative to begin with known territory, then branch out towards complexity by: a) isolating issues from a cross-section of themes that will be tested with a broader spectrum of gender identities; b) specifically utilizing this age group (as compared to a younger cohort) to identify whether changes have occurred over time; and c) examining factors that contribute to the under-representa- Gender code 3 tion of women in the IT field. The study is timely due to its emphasis on the intersection between the treatment of women professionals in IT and how they realize (actuate) their duties. Here, there is a keen focus on women in relation to creative duties. This is pertinent given the significant role that IT plays in shaping the rest of society’s everyday lived experience. Thus, a question underlying the study relates to how digital products are affected or neglected through gender bias and exclusion in design-based IT professions. By design-based professions the authors refer to information intensive, decision-making and direction defining roles that influence the design outcome of IT development, including the work of software developers. This means that the larger objectives of the current study are two-fold: a) how more creative and inclusive products may be developed by mitigating the effects of bias on the cognitive-affective performance of female IT professionals; and b) how through dissecting the factors contributing to negative experiences of female professionals in IT we can build social solutions to foster more ethical and equal modes of practice in the field. 2. Gender, profession, and cognitive-affective designer thinking Assumed roles based on gender are inherent to all cultures (Kimmel, 2000). Latent conceptions and new attributions of hunter-gatherers among male and female roles, persist in the 21st century (Hansen, Jensen & Skovsgaard, 2015). The concentration of women’s professional roles is mostly represented in the health, care, and education sectors (Erath, 2023). This means that globally, 97.78% of nurses (and their assistants) are female. From an administrative perspective, 88.45% of all receptionists are female, as are 95.65% of legal secretaries. Over 90% of the world’s primary school teachers are women (Statista, 2023). From a cultural perspective, 89.09% of dancers are female, and so too are 75% of all runway models (Zippia, 2023). It is internationally recognized that for national economies to fare well, women need to be active in the work force (UN Women, 2023). Yet, as we see in these figures, professional roles are distributed heavily according to lasting stereotypes. If women are not actively caring for, raising and educating others, they should exist for sexual and aesthetic pleasure. As Simon Davis (1990) states, men are “success objects” and women are “sex objects”. Sadly, despite great effort, still significant imbalance can be observed in the numbers of gender representation among IT professionals. In fact, only 28% of science, technical, engineering and mathematical (STEM) roles are held by women (White, 2023). Even worse, just 38% of all women who have graduated from university with a major in computer science actually work in the IT field (Zippia, 2022). These numbers are crucial when understanding the influence of the IT sector in forming society and its outlook. Not only does diversity in IT teams mean higher levels of employee engagement, better and more creative performance, as well as greater levels of employee retention (White, 2023), it also means fairer, ethical, and more carefully designed (thoughtful) systems (Greene, Hoffmann & Stark, 2019). Not only do the effects of equality and inequality reflect in the systems we are surrounded by on a collective level, but the implications of constant marginalization, exclusion and in Aila Kronqvist, Rebekah Rousi 4 some cases, gender-based harassment, carry with them psychological, cognitive, and performance-based ramifications (Hitlan, Cliffton & DeSoto, 2006; Syrjämäki & Hietanen, 2019) as seen in Figure 1. Figure 1 Professional gender assumptions and impact on design Figure 1 shows the role of gender in selecting or being selected for a profession. It indicates the factors of social interaction (across genders and cultures), the roles designated to professionals (formal and informal), the actual tasks that the professional engages with, and the subsequent output. It observes psychological barriers and stigma attached to the gendered workforce experience and cognitive load. The psychological barriers include the impact of negative interpersonal interaction on ‘self-talk’ - the way in which we inform ourselves how we are and how we exist in the world (Lefebvre et al., 2022). Research focusing on the impact of self-talk on performance has been particularly concentrated to the field of sports, observing factors such as anxiety and stress generated by negative self-talk (see VanRaalte, Vincent & Brewer, 2016). Another factor to consider as an outcome of the interplay between social interaction and role delegation is cognitive load. In other words, as seen in current international statistics (UN Women, 2023; Urwin, 2023; White, 2023; Zippia, 2022) women are all too often not only being excluded from technical and creative roles in IT - i.e., the interesting task areas – but, they are being burdened with excessive amounts of administrative work. There is an interaction between less interesting or stimulating work that is confounded by an abundance of (boring, repetitive) tasks (Vanneste et al., 2021). Moreover, studies have shown limitations in the capacity for women to control their own resources, goals, and outcomes (Acker, 2006). This, combined with the aforementioned factors, results in decreased wellbeing among women professionals (Alfrey & Twine, 2017). Creativity and the ability to exercise it in the workplace contribute to more than just wellbeing. Creativity and the ability to think and work like a designer engenders a form of agency and ownership within the professional and their team that carries into product (Umukoro & Egwakhe, 2021). Identity is a key component of how people experience agency, belonging, Gender code 5 and contribution, particularly within knowledge intensive work (Alfrey & Twine, 2017). Traditionally this too has been negated from the perspective of women. Looking back down the lines of design history we see earlier versions of the same phenomena we are currently experiencing in the IT industry. In Finland, while industry started to flourish during the late 1800s and early 1900s, women applying to schools of art and design were directed towards the textiles and handicrafts departments (Svinhufvud, 1998). This was because they were not considered intellectually capable of undertaking creative, decision-making tasks that would result in forging the direction of everyday living, its products, and society (Kronqvist & Rousi, 2023; Riska, 2008; Utriainen et al., 2014). IT design and development require multiprofessional teams – all team members being contributors to the design and direction of the products and services. The neglect to integrate the creative contribution of women weakens the quality and performance of designs in addition to their attributes of inclusivity, fairness, and sustainability. 3. Method Narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Caine, 2013) was employed to investigate the experiences and constructions of professional identity and approach of women working in the IT field. The aim was to examine designer thinking (cognition and affect when engaging in design and software development1 work) and how it was affected by being female in the sector. Participants were asked to write a free-form story about their own professional journey, beginning from when they decided to study IT, up to the present day. A set of questions were provided to the participants to support their writing. The questions were designed to guide the writing process and support what the participants were trying to explain. The data was collected from December 2022 to January 2023. 3.1 Participants When selecting participants, concentration was placed on women professionals who had been working in the field for over 10 years. Ideally, the participants would have gained substantial experience from several roles during their careers. This meant that the participants were over 40 years of age. The minimum participant age was 32 years old, and the oldest 68 years of age. The average age was 49.7 years while the mean stood at 48.1. Moreover, one criterium of selection was that participants were born female, meaning that they have not experienced life or career as a man or non-binary, as this would affect the results via both external (social) and internal (social psychological) factors. Focus was placed on women in more design-focused roles, including information architects and designers. Convenience and snowball sampling (Emerson, 2015; Parker, Scott & Geddes, 2019) was employed, and par1 These days various design thinking methods that encourage gaining deeper understand of users and problem spaces are also utilized by software developers (see e.g., Gama et al., 2023). Aila Kronqvist, Rebekah Rousi 6 ticipants were recruited either directly via Authors 1’s own network, the employer’s discussion channels (i.e., Slack and Teams), or via a call for participants posted on LinkedIn. Twenty-two women responded to the inquiry, while 17 ended up participating in the study. 3.2 Procedure and ethical research Upon responding to the call for participants, volunteers were sent an email with a Microsoft Word template featuring the support questions. As the aim was to capture free-form responses, participants did not need to follow this structure. In addition to the study template, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ethical research practice, participants were supplied with a research notice (information of the study), privacy notice (information on the data to be collected, processing, storage and publishing practices), and an informed consent form. Participants were asked to sign the informed consent before proceeding with writing their responses. They were then given two weeks to write their narratives, then send them to Author 1. Responses were on average 3.3 A4 pages long (with a mean of 3.1 pages – average word count 1028). 3.3 Analysis Once the narratives were received, Author 1 analyzed the texts with the aid of Atlas.ti software. In the software, data was coded and categorized according to the support questions and themes. The codes were further developed via interesting observations – aspects raised by the participants that the research had not previously accounted for. Specific attention was placed on matters that indicated a direct correlation between the participants’ experiences and their female identity. Analysis took place, step-by-step. The first step was to attain and aggregate the background information provided by participants. The second step entailed devising the codes in Atlas.ti, then engaging in a more detailed thematic narrative analysis (Bengtsson & Andersen, 2020; Ronkainen, Watkins & Ryba, 2016). The codes and themes were then reviewed by Author 2, and via discussion consensus was made on relevant themes emerging in the results that are thus, reported in this paper. 4. Results Fourteen participants held a higher education degree (Bachelors or Masters). Three reported that they had graduated from high school. Given the ages of the participants, from the time they had participated in school to the present, changes have occurred in the school system. Thus, most of the participants have completed high school and achieved the requirements of tertiary education entry (see Finnish National Agency for Education, 2023). Eight participants had more than one qualification such as vocational college in addition to their bachelor's or master's degree or more than one bachelor's or master's degree. Some of the participants reported high school diplomas they possessed. Three participants did not have an IT qualification or had not completed their education in the field (two participants). Two participants dropped out of IT education – one due to poor Gender code 7 career opportunities at the time (P3), and the other due to employment already during studies (P17). Owing to job demands, P17 never attempted to finalize studies. Three participants obtained their education in another field outside IT. For example, P10 graduated with a master’s degree in psychology, others graduated from Governmental Studies (P7, P12). These participants ended up in an IT profession without formal education in the field, by participating in IT-related tasks. Many transitioned to IT by chance. For this reason, they did not have any original career plans for this, and in particular, plans were not realized from this perspective. Many arrived in the IT field through work and later became interested in education in this area. Eight participants reported that chance was one of the reasons for entering IT. “I accidentally ended up in the IT field.” (P15) “I landed in the field coincidentally. After high school I didn’t know which direction to take, and I noticed from the Christian College newsletter a course for IT in the coming year… I continued along the IT line at Commercial School. I undertook a summer job in the IT department of Company A Ltd and through this got to know the work of the field. After graduating from commercial school, I applied for work at Company B, and I’m still here. I liked programming, flow charts, and still ‘love’ process diagrams.” (P1) “Before coming across to the IT field, it was clear to me that I wanted to study languages and work as an interpreter. When a general application round came up during my final year of high school, I couldn’t find an educational institution featuring my desired studies in my hometown. I did not even think of changing locations. Some of my acquaintances worked in the IT field and I decided to apply for education in this field.” (P5) Nine participants had reported that it was interest that led them to the field. Six possessed skills that were relevant to the field, and four of them were persuaded by job opportunities. One of the participants mentioned that they chose IT because of its status in society. During their professions, the participants worked in different sized companies. One of the participants was an entrepreneur. Overall, 23 work experiences were reported by participants about work in large companies (i.e., over 250 employees, see OECD, 2023). Thirteen mentions were of having worked for a public organization, 16 experiences were reported about working for mid-sized businesses (50-249 employees), and four participants for a small business (less than 10 employees). Ten mentions were made about working in other fields besides IT during their professional life. Participants had worked in various positions during their careers. Most of the participants had been in either project management or system development. Some of them had experience in leadership positions (team leaders or similar), sales, customer service or other organizational roles (i.e., research assistant). Table 1 Professions. Area Count Q3:1 Customer service 2 Aila Kronqvist, Rebekah Rousi 14 Davis, S. (1990). Men as success objects and women as sex objects: A study of personal advertisements. Sex Roles, 23(1-2), 43-50. Edmondson, A. C., & Lei, Z. (2014). Psychological safety: The history, renaissance, and future of an interpersonal construct. Annu. Rev. Organ. 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Journal of Futures Studies, 24(2), 55–62. http://doi.org/10.6531/JFS.201912_24(2).0007 40 TELLING WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY STATISTICS [2023]: COMPUTER SCIENCE GENDER RATIO. https://www.zippia.com/advice/women-in-technology-statistics/ About the Authors: Aila Kronqvist is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Kronqvist holds a MSc in Cognitive Science and possesses extensive work experience in the Information Technology sector. Kronqvist's research interests include ethics, design thinking and emotions in relation to professional experience in design and development. Rebekah Rousi is an Associate Professor of Communication and Digital Economy at the University of Vaasa. Rousi holds a PhD in Cognitive Science, focusing on human experience (semiotics, logic, philosophy of mind) with and in technology. Rousi’s research interests include technology ethics, trust and privacy, postcolonial theory, as well as embodied emotional experience, particularly in relation to physicalized robots and artificial intelligence.