The Nordic countries have been branded “superpowers” of gender equality,7 however, they still struggle to achieve gender balance in information technology (IT) education and work. The mismatch between a high score on international ratings of gender equality4 and a continuous gender divide in most fields of IT, has been labeled a gender equality paradox. The international footprint of the paradox shows a tendency for affluent countries with high gender-equality ratings to be less successful in recruiting women to IT than less-affluent countries with lower lower gender-equality scores in southern Europe,5 Asia, and Africa.2 While similar gender barriers, such as a masculine culture of technology and gender stereotypes making it less likely for young women to imagine a future career in IT than young men, have been found across the Anglo-Saxon world, the paradox appears even more extreme in the Nordic countries.
The low participation of women in IT in the Nordic countries has been interpreted as a result of national affluence producing lower career ambitions among women,3 or as a result of gender equality providing freedom that includes pursuing gender traditional careers.11 The book Reconstructions of Gender and Information Technology: Women Doing IT for Themselves3 tells a different story. Comparing the experiences of women studying and working in IT and school representatives’ attitudes toward recruiting young women to IT suggests that this paradox is not a result of low ambitions or the freedom to make gender-traditional choices, but rather a gap between gender-equality policies and a lack of engagement to achieve these policy ideals.
‘Can I Fit When I Only See Men?’
With the aim to learn from women who had already signed up for a career in IT, the book builds on nearly 80 in-depth interviews with female students in STEM-based IT degrees and women working in IT in Norway. Exploring women’s journeys from childhood to a university degree in IT, I asked what had motivated them to choose IT in a culture where the field is still mostly populated by men.1 The stories they told were not significantly different from stories told by women in other Western countries such as the U.K.11 and the U.S.8 Few of the women had any particular insight in what it meant to study or work with IT before they started higher education. Rather than considering different IT disciplines and the multitude of uses for IT competence, they navigated the educational landscape with references to gender stereotypes and a limited idea of what IT was. Their images of IT were populated by young male geeks, hackers, and hooded gamers who had been playing with computers since their early teens. Few of the women had identified themselves as interested in computers or IT as teenagers, and facing these images they questioned their own participation: “Can I fit when I only see men?”
Reflecting their lack of insight in IT, few of the women had followed a dedicated plan aiming for an IT degree. Most of them described more unconventional and unplanned routes into IT, less based on a dedicated wish to study IT and more on other factors. The same lack of insight in IT also made alternative interests and disciplines the strongest motivator for choosing IT: “I have always been very good at science. I kind of felt it was the same type of thinking. And I am very good at languages. […] I think in a way that programming is just learning a new language.”
Any discipline with which they identified could work as a safe platform for building their ability belief and self-efficacy while approaching the yet unknown field of IT. Similar with interest: while few described themselves as interested in IT, they identified a multitude of other topics as the basis for their interest in studying IT: “I am interested in the world, and technology is a large part of the world.”
What the Norwegian women had in common was the experience of study motivation produced by some kind of input such as hands-on experience, teaching them more about IT. Meeting female role models was important for demonstrating that the two seemingly contradictory positions of being a young woman and being interested in IT could in fact be combined.3 A big contrast to this was captured in interviews with women from southern parts of Europe and Asia who told a very different story—one of being encouraged to study IT because it was considered “one of the most appropriate studies for girls.”3
The Norwegian women’s stories described how they had navigated IT as a masculine space, questioning their own belonging in a field where they appeared to have the wrong gender, interest, and competence compared to the male stereotype. Despite their many unconventional and largely unplanned routes into IT, with few exceptions the women found IT a good match for themselves: “I can’t explain the joy I got from my first programming class.”3
A Postfeminist Trust in Gender Equality
Few of the women had experienced school as a place for support on their journeys to IT. Family, friends, and school can represent resources for learning about IT. Schools are particularly important because they can encourage all youth, including those who do not have families and friends with an interest in IT. Interviews with school representatives demonstrated that the same gender stereotypes that challenged women’s participation, were also prevalent at schools, with teachers and career advisors associating IT interest with young men rather than with young women. This, however, is where the gender-equality norm again enters the scene, as the school representatives expressed a high level of trust in this norm already having installed gender equality, illustrated by this quote: “It is the girls’ choice. […] There are quite equal opportunities [for men and women] in Norway. I therefore believe girls and women must have a wish to do it.”3
This “postfeminist” assumption taking for granted that all gender barriers had been removed left only individual choice and interest as a way for the school representatives to understand the gender imbalance in IT. This produced a negative spiral: Young women who had not yet expressed interest in IT were not perceived as interested and therefore were not invited to events for introducing young women to IT. “We can’t reach all, only those who are interested,”3 one of the teachers claimed. This illustrates a different paradox, wherein young women were more likely to be invited to learn about IT if they had already expressed an interest in IT.
The school representatives’ attitudes lean on the superpower narrative of the national gender equality norm. Simultaneously, they appeared ignorant to the women’s stories about how their lack of insight in IT had made gender stereotypes their main navigating tool when entering IT, making them question whether they could belong. Furthermore, the multitude of alternative competences and interests that had motivated the women to study IT, were not among the qualities reflected in school representatives’ decisions of whom to invite—of whom they defined as interested in IT.
The passivity of the schools illustrates how a widely accepted gender-equality norm can appear to have solved the situation simply by naming it. However, norms and policies become non-performative if they are not followed by action.1 In this case the gender equality norm appeared as a description of society, rather than a guidance to action, thus making doing nothing appear as the right thing to do for the schools. The mismatch between gender-equality policies and norms on the one side, and the lack of strategies and actions to achieve gender-equality goals on the other side, is one of the reasons for the continuous gender inequality in the Nordic countries.6
Failing the Women Who Had Never Imagined a Career in IT
Part of the answer to why the Nordic countries are failing to recruit women to IT can be found in the “superpower” narrative that ignites the postfeminist trust in gender equality already being achieved. This feeds the assumption that the gender imbalance has to do with women’s individual choices rather than cultural or structural barriers. This then leaves little space for schools to support young women’s discovery of IT as an exciting career path.
The most interesting category of women I interviewed, where those who had never imagined a career in IT, but still ended up in IT. They came via unconventional pathways, with a self-efficacy established in another discipline when entering what appeared as a mystic and masculine field. However, they also expressed a great joy of discovering the fascinating world of IT. These are the most vulnerable women when schools use “interest in IT” as a requirement for being invited to learn about IT.
The question that remains is how can we make a career in IT appear equally natural for young women as for young men in Nordic and other Western countries? Learning from the women’s narratives, we recognize that the male dominance and gender stereotypes are still producing notable barriers for women’s engagement in IT. Thus, young women need supporters, invitations, encouragement, and role models to show them that they can indeed belong in this field. This makes it even more urgent to ask what is needed to make schools become more supportive for all young women, including those who had never imagined a career in IT.
Comparing experiences of women with school representatives’ attitudes to recruit young women to IT illustrates how the superpower branding of the Nordic countries creates a postfeminist trust in gender equality already installed in society that undermines the goals of gender parity in IT. Although gender-equality ideals and policies are valuable assets for a nation, a policy without action cannot produce what it names.
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