Women and Digital Technologies: Comparative Analysis of Australia, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Women and Digital Technologies: Comparative Analysis of Australia, Chile and India

Kim M. Thompson SIS Research Seminar Series 2017 17 May 2017

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Gendered involvement with digital technology

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Gendered involvement with digital technology

“The great equalizer” “Gender neutral”

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How do we gender

library science/archives (stereotyping, Dewey) digital technologies (apps, layouts, usability) the Internet (content, hierarchies) information behaviors (socialisation) Wikipedia (only 15% written by female authors) programming (code like a girl)

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How do we gender

Until 1984, women were the “programmers” and men were the “hardware” side of computing

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Digital technology designed for women

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Honeywell Kitchen Computer, 1969

• First wave of computers

marketed for home use

• 16-bit mini-computer
• Memory 4K to 32K
• Save and retrieve recipes

(built in cutting board)

• Create and organize menus
• Save shopping lists
• Balance family checkbook
• $10,600USD ($70,600USD today)
• 2 week training course
• 1000 recipes
• Pastel cotton apron
• No record of any being sold

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Domestic life

Takes place in the home, and specifically in common spaces in the home Needs organisation Needs storing and retrieving of information Needs calculation, basic mathematics Can be enhanced with technology

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Why does it matter if women do not adopt, use and enjoy digital technology?

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Digital fluency acts as an accelerant at every stage of a woman’s career

Education Employment Promotion Leadership

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Who writes our social and cultural history?

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Quality is enhanced by diversity

We know that results and solutions are improved if people with a diverse range of skills and bringing a diversity of experiences are allowed to contribute to decision-making processes.

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Technology reflecting the society it serves

The purpose of digital technology is to benefit

• society. The designers, coders, and

programmers are shaping what is noted as being

• f beneficial to society.

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IT students and workers drawn from whole population

Courses aim to attract the highest achieving students into degree programs, while simultaneously growing the number of students

• enrolled. This can only be done through

improving equity in female/male enrolments.

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Digital leadership and senior leaders

E-government Virtual communities Online education Digital inclusion

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Does everyone need to code?

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Digital fluency

Mindset Willingness to try new things Non-gendered career choices A digital world can empower historically disadvantaged and underserved groups

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How and why do women use technology?

Women's use of ICT is important to understand as it can help in accommodating their needs in the

• verall ICT development and policy

implementation of a nation.

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One model: Technology Acceptance Model

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Technology Acceptance Model

perceived usefulness -- how much the technology is seen to be enhancing job performance perceived ease of use -- how little effort might be required to use the technology

Davis, F. (1986). A technology acceptance model for empirically testing new end-user information systems: Theory and results (doctoral dissertation). Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management. Davis, F. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319-340.

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Technology Acceptance Model

men motivated by productivity factors, i.e., usefulness of the technology for completing work women motivated by perceived ease of use and “the degree to which an individual believes that people who are important to [her] think [she] should perform the behavior in question” (p. 119).

Venkatesh, V. M., & Morris, M. G. (2000). Why don't men ever stop to ask for directions? Gender, social influence, and their role in technology acceptance and usage behavior. MIS Quarterly, 24(1), 115-139.

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Technology Acceptance Model

female adoption of technology is more colored by emotional factors such as perceived playfulness

• r enjoyment of the technology

males are more interested in the perceived use of the technology

Padilla-Melendez, A., Aguila-Obra, A. R., & Garrido-Moreno, A. (2013). Perceived playfulness, gender differences and technology acceptance model in a blended learning scenario. Computers & Education, 63, 306-317.

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Technology Acceptance Model

gendered approaches to information technology are socially constructed and “gender roles have a strong psychological basis and are relatively enduring, yet open to change over time” (p. 449).

Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003). User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS Quarterly, 27(3), 425-478.

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Technology Acceptance Model

perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are not static personal attributes with increased experience a user will feel more capable and feel less anxiety about technology

Venkatesh, V., & Bala, H. (2008). Technology acceptance model 3 and a research agenda on interventions. Decision Sciences, 39(2).

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Adoption, use, confidence and enjoyment

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Purpose of the study

…to enhance the utility of digital technologies for the benefit of the community through a focus on identifying adoption and use of technology by women.

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Kerala, India NSW and QLD, Australia, Valparaiso and Santiago, Chile

Literacy rates for women Economic development Gender equity

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Demographics

• 1. Females aged 25-50
• 2. Tertiary qualification
• 3. Use technology in the workplace
• 4. Used ICT for at least five years
• 5. Owners of current and relevant ICT such as

mobile phones, laptops, tablets, etc.

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Snowball sampling

At least 3 strands per country

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Researchers Teachers Professors University administrators Nurses Doctors Dentists Entrepreneurs Engineers Government workers IT professionals

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Preliminary findings…

Thompson, K. M. & Paul, A. (2016). “I am not sure how much it will be helpful for me”: Factors for digital inclusion among middle- and upper-class women in India. The Library Quarterly, 86(1), 93-106. Paul, A., Thompson, K. M., & Heinstrom, J. (2015). After access: An inquiry into ICT use factors for Indian women. Proceedings of the 78th ASIS&T Annual Meeting: Information Science with Impact: Research in and for the Community, 52(1), Article 35. Paul, A. (2015). Use of information and communication technologies in the everyday lives of Indian women: A normative behaviour perspective. Information Research, 20(1).

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Works in progress…

Paul, A. & Thompson, K. M. (under review). Women in digital India: An in-depth analysis of the e-government preparedness of middle-class Indian women. Thompson, K. M. & Paul, A. (in process). Comparative analysis of women and digital technology adoption, use and enjoyment in India, Australia, and Chile. Thompson, K. M. & Santelices, C. (in process). Women and digital technologies in Chile. [working title] Thompson, K. M. (in process). Women and digital technologies in Australia. [working title]

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Similarities across countries

The participants who had technologies in the home as a child (even VHS) and were encouraged to use them tend to feel more confident in their digital technology use as adults

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Similarities across countries

The participants who had technologies in the home as a child (even VHS) and were encouraged to use them tend to feel more confident in their digital technology use as adults (particularly if their father praised them/played with them)

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The participants whose mothers used ICT feel more confident (even if it was just computer typing up sick notes for school)

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The participants whose mothers used ICT feel more confident (even if it was just computer typing up sick notes for school)…but very few within our demographic have mothers who used ICT

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Working with ICT daily as an adult does not necessarily make someone feel confident in their abilities or increase levels of enjoyment

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Using ICT for social media throughout the day does not necessarily make one feel confident in their abilities or increase levels of enjoyment

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Younger participants (aged 25 to 30) did not necessarily feel more confident in their ICT skills and abilities or enjoy using technology more, but almost all participants thought they were better than their friends, family members and peers who were older than them

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Participants often felt stronger in their information seeking abilities online than in their technology skills

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Participants often felt stronger in their information seeking abilities online than in their technology skills—felt stronger than their husbands and

• ften stronger than their friends and colleagues

(older than them) in information seeking; felt not as strong in troubleshooting

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Participants often felt stronger in their information seeking abilities online than in their technology skills—felt stronger than their husbands and

• ften stronger than their friends and colleagues

(older than them) in information seeking; felt not as strong in troubleshooting—felt younger generation were better with technology, but that they still might be better at information seeking

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Differences across countries

Indian mothers who do not enjoy or feel confident with digital technology were motivated to use and explore digital technologies to support their children’s learning

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Australian mothers indicated less engagement with teaching children technology use—relied on schools more—but did indicate they help their children with information seeking Chilean mothers expressed heavy reliance on schools to teach technology use and information seeking

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Chilean participants very conscious of the social implications of technology use/overuse Australian participants indicated embarrassment, surprise, and/or disappointment regarding how much they use digital technologies

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Implications

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Discussion

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Dhanyavaad Gracias Thanks mate!