Doing and undoing gender & ICT

What is it about?

We depart from the experiences of a sample of women artists and computer technologists based in Barcelona. In order to select them we considered that both the concept of women as well as ICT could be fluid and mutable and therefore could be troubled. Understanding women and ICT in an inclusive and critical sense, we questioned the understanding of the categories imposed from outside, to understand them from the inside, in a way open to alternative interpretations of the same participants. Therefore, the sample included transgender experiences, and also other sexual orientations beyond being heterosexual. Similarly, we troubled ICT, understanding it beyond the studies and ICT occupations traditionally considered ICT and turned our attention to other areas than could capture their hybrid and transversal condition, such as technoart, where women seem to be better represented, at least in numbers. A qualitative analysis was carried out in a way that their experiences were collected through interviews and focus groups. Firstly, 22 episodic interviews, that combined the narrative and the semi-structured interview, were conducted in order to study their ICT trajectories in relation to gender. Secondly, 2 mini focus groups were performed in order to delve into key issues in a collective way. In total then, 28 women participated in our research; half of them were artistic technologists and the other half computer technologists. Those interviews and focus groups were transcribed and analyzed using Atlas.ti software in a bottom up process. In doing so we intended to answer the main question: how, and to what extent, the research participants were doing and undoing gender and ICT in their processes of self-inclusion in ICT?

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Why is it important?

Nowadays feminist research is moving from the concern of numbers and the digital divide, to focus on inclusion and the presence of women in ICT and analyze their experiences in technological fields. New opportunities entails ICT sector for women involved.