Doing IT

In this timely book Krista Scott-Dixon offers one of the first, if not the only, account of Canadian workers' experiences negotiating the complex, and sometimes perplexing, world of work in information technology. Drawing on interviews with women working professionally (or semi-professionally) in a range of information technology [IT] jobs in the Toronto area, she undertakes a detailed study of their labour market situation, asking such questions as: what kinds of jobs are women entering? what opportunities have they found? what obstacles? what are their work conditions and how much are they paid? (15) Doing IT: Women Working in Information Technology answers these questions by weaving together an industry analysis with personal narratives from 62 interviewees who tell the 'real story' of women working in the IT sector.

Although IT has been constructed, especially during the heady days of the dot-com boom in the 1990s, as the new nirvana for economic growth and prosperity that promises workers skilled in IT secure high-paying jobs in an expanding innovative field, the reality, as Scott-Dixon points out, is an industry undergoing tumultuous change which is more likely to offer moderately paid, precarious employment with limited economic gains for the economy. According to industry studies IT does not necessarily contribute significantly to increased productivity. (148) Nor is there an overwhelming demand for IT skills; in fact, industry analyses indicate 'no evidence of a generalized shortage of technical skills.' (68) Still, employment in IT grew significantly throughout the nineties, growing three times faster than the job growth overall of the Canadian economy between 1995 and 2000. (119)

It is against this backdrop that Scott-Dixon asks how women are faring in the IT industry. Are traditional gender job hierarchies being reproduced in the industry, or are women resisting sexist stereotypes and gender power structures, and moving into new employment categories customarily reserved for men? As new forms of IT work are being created, are women able to challenge masculine ideological conceptions concerning the value of technical skills and locate themselves in jobs offering greater skill and pay opportunities than those typically granted to feminized work? According to Scott-Dixon, 'IT work for women is complex and contradictory, neither wholly negative nor wholly positive. IT work can constrain and liberate, restrict and empower women. Women's situation in IT both reflects and challenges norms of women's role in the labour force.' (19)

Scott-Dixon demonstrates how gender is an overpowering factor shaping women's experiences in the IT field. Throughout the book 'gender,' more than any other social relation, dominates women's experiences: from their education and training in IT, to their relationships with employers and co-workers, to the workplace and industry culture, and, perhaps, most importantly, in regard to their perceptions about the technology. As Scott-Dixon explains, information technology work is infused with gender qualities symbolically manifest, for instance, in technical terms such as 'digital binary of 0 and 1 [where] the spiky linear O1' symbolizes the phallic skyward thrusting male, while the O0' indicates the lack, the void, the chthonic chasm of the female.' (98) In this symbolic schema in which the 'female zero signifies nothingness' women are erased, made invisible, in the masculine techno culture. Indeed, masculinized values seep into every dimension of IT work, a 'fact of life' that is not lost on the women trying to establish themselves in what, in their experience, is a deeply hostile and alien world. As one respondent explains: 'Male geeks are horrible, terrible, and unhelpful and incredibly misogynist. I never got promoted and get constantly overlooked in favour of males. Guys didn't like women coming into their little group.' (92) This woman explained to the author that while she was working hard to improve her skills for promotion, men spent their spare time downloading pornography.

I am struck by the immense force gender exerts in this industry, both symbolically in the culture of IT work, and in actual material terms where women are systematically discriminated against in employment in such areas as pay, promotion, and occupational designation. This is why Scott-Dixon's contention that 'women's awareness of their own situation allows them to make choices from options they feel are available to them' (22) does not sit well with me. While I agree there are times women may resist gender norms, the narratives of women IT workers convey a dominant masculinized discourse that overrides almost any attempts to defy the gender power hierarchies inherent in IT work.

This excellent book should be read by anyone interested in women and work, and would make an excellent contribution to a sociology, labour studies, or women's studies course syllabus. Scott-Dixon's writing is animated and accessible, and her use of personal narrative offers a fascinating look into the work lives of the 'new' IT work force in the expanding knowledge economy.

Being the sole computer geek in my crowd, you can imagine how fun parties are for me. Eyes glaze over at the slightest acronym (even HTML seems to spook people). I don't often find an opportunity to talk about what it's like to be a woman in the tech field, other than to defend my choice to get behind technology that is still built for a male world.

So curling up with Krista Scott-Dixon's book Doing IT: Women Working in Technology, was a bit like finding some friends to talk with about our passion for all things geek. I marveled at how informal learning, reminiscent of my own, was described again and again in Scott-Dixon's interviews with women working in the field.

The Canadian women (almost all from Toronto!) interviewed showed that women in the tech field continue to face barriers — no surprise — preventing them from reaching their full professional potential. Though the way work is done may be changing (with remote offices and flexible hours) as Scott-Dixon finds, the virtual organization is pretty much the same as the standard corporation. In the IT workplace, biases based on gender, race, class and ability, along with pay inequity, have not gone away and are perhaps more prevalent than in some sectors, Scott-Dixon describes a climate where non-white women (especially internationally) are seen as the "job-stealing enemies" who are willing to work for less money, undercutting white male professionals.

The very readable (though at times pedestrian) prose comes complete with a glossary (for those who are not initiated in geek speak) and appendices that chart pay inequities and gendered domestic-labour breakdowns, among other relevant facts.

In the end, the book shows that despite the obstacles, women in IT bring passion, wit, intelligence and kick-ass creativity together in order toe shape their careers. Women are doing IT, and IT is changing for the better as a result.

In this work, the author presents a lively, complex and readable account of the ways in which the latest technological revolution is shaping lives of Canadian women and men. Through the use of personal narratives, academic scholarships and industry studies, she argues that despite the promise and pitfalls of new technologies, they continue to reproduce existing gendered and racialized practices in unpaid and paid work. It offers a level of sophistication, depth of clarity found rarely in accounts of women's encounters with technology. It provided much needed content to reflect on and rethink the place of technologies in our daily lives. Students and women in gender studies, information technology and others will find this work readable ...