Why There Are Few Women Working in Technology - Literature review Example

Why There Are Few Women Working In Technology Article Analysis Technology is continuously dominating an enormous part of the daily lives of the people. Technology, engineering, and science subject have posed a problem to many women. Men are domineering in the field of technology, with an alarming rate of women dropouts from the engineering field. Technology advancement is among the most notable trends in the global context. Many people are bracing new technologies in order to remain relevant to the current global demands. There are numerous occupational opportunities in the field of technology. A statistical comparison of people’s attitudes towards technology displays a gender gap that attests to the fact that most women’s attitudes towards technology are distinctively different from that of their male counterparts. This gender gap in technology has a negative impact on women causing them to be insufficiently equipped to contribute to the requirements of a technologically advanced twenty-first century. Unfortunately, the number of women pursuing technology jobs is fewer in comparison with the number of men (Kiss, 1st October 2012). This creates shortages since the demands for these services are higher, and women shy away from the jobs. Technology and computers play a significant role in today’s world, thus it is critical that more women acquire knowledge in these areas in order to compete favourably with men. Inadequate women representation in the field of technology has social, economic, and cultural impacts. Some values originating from cultural and social perceptions are some of the factors that aggravate the problem (Hill et al, 2010). Women attitudes and cultural values have a significant contribution to the fewer number of women representation in the field of technology. Some women perceive technology to be a complex field, which only men are capable of pursuing. Women prefer pursuing simpler subjects, which are less demanding, and this contributes to the few numbers (Wajcman, 2000). In some cultures, men are considered superior than women, and are therefore, expected to study disciplines such as technology while women are expected to pursue field like humanities and social sciences. Women who take up the challenge are fewer and are considered as aggressive, and stubborn. According to Kiss, there has been a significant decrease in the number of women taking technology trainings over the last 10 years (Kiss, 1st October 2012). This statistics is worrying since the contribution of women in the field of technology is of significant economic value. Women representation creates gender balance and reduces the stigma associated with technology courses. Stereotypes hold that technology jobs are reserved for men. Women have not explored their potential fully due to cultural and social stereotyping, associated with technology jobs. Engineering and technology training colleges’ record fewer number of women, interested in technology related jobs. The government, leaders, and parents have a responsibility of encouraging and supporting the girl child into taking technology courses. This greatly reduces the negative perception concerning technology courses. The world has changes and people need to move away from the conventional way of thinking and encourage women to study the subject. Economic consequences Some women take technology jobs as unfeminine, thus their preference for other social and humanities jobs (Wajcman, 2000). Organizations, which have women employees in their technology department reports increased profits. This shows the potential of women in this field that remains unexploited. Women perceptions about technology jobs, hinders economic development since women have a lot to offer and move the technological field to greater heights. Unfortunately, most women do not believe in their potential to excel in the technology field. They are held down by fear and stereotypes, which results in fewer women in this field. Cultural consequences Parental and societal attitudes towards gender are an active contributing factor of the women representation predicament. Parents sometimes, tend to make distinctions between the capabilities of the girl and the boy-child, which heightens their perceptions concerning the various academic disciplines. Children who have been brought up with fewer distinctions and limitations believe in themselves and can take up academic challenges. Their parents do not affect a mental image of possibilities and impossibilities in any form of career (Wyer, 2001). These children can pursue challenging field because they believe they have all it takes to meet the challenge. Social consequences The negative attitudes impacted on children during their upbringing are deeply entrenched in their minds, which may be difficult to change. Various women pioneers in the field of technology have unsuccessfully tried to eliminate these attitudes (Kiss, 1st October 2012). Employing of various strategies such as making the field of technology seems glamorous and factoring in public female figures in the field has borne little fruits. Some gender activists and female pioneers dismiss their efforts after futile trials and work with anyone who is willing regardless of gender. Engineering and technology are male dominated, and this creates a perception that only men are capable of meeting the challenges. Kiss 1st October 2012 article emphasizes on the feminine things, which the female pioneers have used in order to change the perception of technology career. This however has not borne the expected fruits. In comparison with the male dominion, the adverts focus too much on feminine stuff, instead of focusing on the real world of programming and other technological essentials. Societal perceptions and attitudes favour male when it comes to technology, and this affects the prospects of women participation. Gender issues in the field of technology have been present for ages. Women have been deemed unequally competent to perform on the same stage as men when it comes to dealing with technology. Alternative perspectives It is necessary to enlighten every person in the society on the importance of women participation since; both feminine and masculine gender posses the wrong impressions concerning women participation in a male dominated careers. Men may not believe that women can outsmart them in the field of technology and engineering, and are uncomfortable with women who challenge them in this field (Hill et al, 2010). Some women claim that the field is boring, but rarely do they attempt to change their attitude or realize the contributions that they can make in this field. The most significant form of change should begin from parents since the can impact positive attitudes relating to career choices towards their children without gender bias (Wajcman, 2000). The media should place successful technology women professionals in the limelight. Lack of women role models in the field is a contributing factor. Most of the information provided by the media shows men dominion in the field. Women grow up in an environment where the media portrays powerful women in fields like medicine and law while men are portrayed in engineering and technology related field. Media promotes stereotyping since they display images of men in these fields, with women dominating other social fields. The media can promote female development in the field through creating programs that encourage women participation in these fields. Women have fears that men have more experience; hence, it will be difficult to compete with them. Interest in technology subjects need to be nurtured from a tender age. The availability of role models among professionals, teachers and students consist of an essential constituent of growth for young women in the technology field. Due to the undersized proportion of females in technology today, female students who may be interested in the field have a key challenge in meeting role models of media where women are recognized for their intellect and ability in technology. Lack of role models can make female students lose interest in pursuing careers in technology, change their minds and switch to other careers or even lose hope and confidence in succeeding in their future undertakings (Gattiker, 1994). When female students recognize that there are other females, in addition, who are actively involved in professions of technology and have overcome the challenges, their confidence will be boosted and they will become role models themselves for the future generation. Incorporating successful females by coming up with relevant mentorship programs in schools and colleges is one sure way of bridging the participation of women in technology. Suitable programs can be adopted to expose young girls to other females in the diverse fields of technology so that they have individuals to look up to as they study. By having students study without physical proper guidance from past successful women in technology, the system in essence allows learning in darkness without any sense of direction further widening the gap between women and men in technological fields. It is imperative that guidance is therefore, provided from a tender age through such mentorship programs to help in narrowing the divide seen in technology between the two genders. It has for example been seen that since the first woman worked at NASA, there have been a list of many females joining the Us space agency as a result of the belief that is one woman could do it, so could the many others. This is the spirit such mentorship programs intend to instil in female students Schools can make use of female-only classes as an effective alternative to provide female students with opportunities to build affirmative attitudes towards technology and by offering a conducive learning environment to students learning technology skills. The current educational system does not offer an effectively engaging atmosphere to women learning technology and this proposed method will provide females with the advantages of learning in a more peaceful and comfortable environment in which teachers can develop classes that are more interesting to the female gender. Similarly, all female classrooms reportedly give female students a higher level of confidence, enabling them to participate more actively and comfortably. However, educators face challenges with these classrooms, as some believe that the students will not fully gain from them. Young girls can be persuaded to pursue science and technology courses through organizing fairs and workshops in order to give the girls a chance of acquainting themselves with these courses (Hill et al, 2010). Schools can invite female engineers to mentor young girls about the profession. The media ought to magnify the successful women engineers in order to increase their visibility and combat the stereotypes. For instance, women engineers are behind the success of face book features, like photo view and news feed. Many people are currently using this social media tool in their daily lives. If the media would amplify such role models, perhaps the young girls can receive empowerment to venture into technology fields. “Most women routinely interact with people and technologies, some even develop strong emotional attachments to artefacts they use a lot, are it a washing machine or a pager” (Berg, 1997). However, they still shy away from technology due to the lack of confidence and stereotyping technology jobs. The availability of role models among professionals, teachers and students consist of an essential constituent of growth for young women in the technology field. Due to the undersized proportion of females in technology today, female students who may be interested in the field have a key challenge in meeting role models of media where women are recognized for their intellect and ability in technology. Lack of role models can make female students lose interest in pursuing careers in technology, change their minds and switch to other careers or even lose hope and confidence in succeeding in their future undertakings (Gattiker, 1994). When female students recognize that there are other females, in addition, who are actively involved in professions of technology and have overcome the challenges, their confidence will be boosted and they will become role models themselves for the future generation. Educators and parents can substantially influence girls to pursue science and technology courses. Unfortunately, cultural setbacks and fallacious beliefs that boys can do well in technology subjects than girls, still persists despite the remarkable progress that girls have made in these courses, over the years. Negative stereotypes concerning girls’ potential handling technology has detrimental effects. Stereotypes influence girls’ interests of pursuing technology and engineering careers. Active combating of stereotypes can considerably enhance girls’ performances, and spur their interest in technology career (Hill et al, 2010). Teaching students about the threat of stereotypes can enhance the performance of girls in technology. Teachers should create a growth mindset environment that fosters positive attitudes. It is essential to offer female students information that illustrates the viability of a careers choice in technology. Once these students lessen the old stereotypes regarding such careers, they will definitely gain interest in such professions. Educators should take a different approach to encourage students. Female students get more motivated and have more interest in learning environments that permit them to explore their creativity. Teachers should demonstrate to students how technology could be creative and artistic while remaining educational at the same time. The educators also need to develop numerous diverse illiteracies for the present day multicultural society. The educational system needs to incorporate emerging technological and social trends to help generate new kinds of literacies. It is essential to seek other strategies to make female students be more interested in technology in case the methods mentioned are unsuccessful. Various corporations and companies have started initiatives aimed at encouraging women to take up professions in the fields of technology and retaining those already in such professions. The Intel Corporation has developed an engineering forum for women focused on offering women a platform to display their research, foster mentoring and solidarity, relieve isolation and support creativity. Similarly, Johnson & Johnson launched a program known as ‘Crossing the Finish Line’, which provides career development resources to high potential women. The program also gives them senior sponsors who are tasked with offering guidance to them. Restart, a program initiated by general electric company in their Bangalore global research center aims at reaching out to women professionals who have left to look after young children and facilitating their return to work when their children are old enough to go to school. Lastly, Cisco systems Inc instigated the Executive Talent Insertion Program for hiring senior women and multicultural talent. These are a few of the initiatives meant to tackle the problem of gender gap in technology. Other strategies include offering secondary and post secondary scholarships to women who have excelled in technology subjects in order to encourage them to pursue careers in the field. Social biases intrinsic in the regular technology workplace make it appear like a less appealing environment for women, who cope with off-putting workplace experiences like bullying or exclusionary cliques more frequently than do their male colleagues. Women are also more likely to experience downbeat workplace incidents, making them to be less pleased with their jobs. Many women undertake technical jobs while many men lack technical competence. Gender presents enormous mismatches between the practice of technology and image (Wajcman, 2000). It is critical to analyze the link between continuous male domination in engineering, and masculine illustration of technology, and the manner through, which the illustrations are sustained. The early childhood role-playing developed outside the learning institutions forms the various responses from the boys and girls in technology courses. For instance, girls will be more likely to have confidence in health and social sciences, and anticipate failure in the face of technology fields. These stereotypes arise because of cultural backgrounds, which harbour bias on the role of the boy and the girl child in the society. Conclusion Bias against women can prevent them from pursuing technology careers. These implicit biases originate from cultural values and are deeply engrossed in the mind. It is hard to achieve a sudden change to the cultural norms, which discourage women participation in engineering and technology fields. However, the society can dedicate itself to changing the stereotypes and norms that prevent women from exploiting their full potential. Women have potential in technology courses since they are instances of extremely successful women in this field. The media has a role of highlighting these women in their campaign for increased women participation in technology jobs. In spite of all these challenges and growing opportunities and needs in technological areas, women under-representation in the field of technology remains a concern. Studies argue that society generally believes that women possess a lower level of technological proficiency compared to men. By eliminating these assumptions and stereotypes, acknowledging women who have successfully made it in science, more women will be motivated to pursue careers in the field of technology. The motivation from the educators, parents and others in the community will encourage potential women who lack confidence to achieve interest in technology. This will create a rise in the number of women and possibly get rid of or narrow the gender gap that currently exists in technology. We can therefore conclude that there are few women in technology professions primarily because few women choose technology related careers. The reasons for this can be summarised into three; they think it is not interesting, they assume they would not be good at it and they think that they will be working alongside a number of persons that they would feel unhappy or uncomfortable working with. In today’s world where technology is progressively more dictating what we do, in almost all professions, there is nothing more critical than having equal representation of both women and men pursuing careers in technology to in order to maintain competitiveness. Overall, practitioners and policy makers engaged in strategies focused on increasing women’s participation in the field of technology must consider the relative significance of various challenges identified, the strategies required to minimise these challenges and the most appropriate, affordable programmes that can be employed to tackle them. References Berg, Anne-Jorunn. (1997). Digital feminism. Dragvoll, Norway: Senter for Teknologi of Samfum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Rapport nr Gattiker, U. E. (1994). Women and technology. Berlin: W. de Gruyter. Hill Catherine, Christianne Corbett Andresse, St. Rose. (2010). Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Breaking through Barriers for Women and Girls | AAUW. Jemima Kiss. (2012). Why are so few women working in technology? The Guardian, Monday 1 October 2012 22.58 BST Retrieved from \http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/whysofew.pdf Wajcman, Judy. (2000). Reflections on gender and technology studies: In what state is the art? Social Studies of Science 30(3) Wyer, M. (2001). Women, science, and technology: a reader in feminist science studies. New York: Routledge. Read More