Gender Issues in Information Technology (original) (raw)
2013, RESEARCH PAPER
The contribution of information technology (IT) cannot be underscored in the current century. Information technology is driving everything and has reduced the whole world into a global village. There is a low participation of females in information technology as compared to males due to their gender and roles. Gender is a social construct defining differentiated roles of males and females. Gender equity is promoting equal opportunity and fair treatment for males and females. Acquisition and application of information technology requires that one creates time and has resources. At work places rarely do organizations spare time to train their human resources on information technology. This means one has to learn information technology during free time. People with more roles to perform outside their daily work tend to be disadvantaged and thus lag behind in information technology. In Africa, gender roles are clearly defined. Females play most of the family chores that eat into their time heavily. This affects their technological advancement. The paper seeks to examine how roles ascribed to gender affect their acquisition and use of information technology. It will also assess whether gender equity as advocated by affirmative action has had an impact in bridging the gap between men and women in information technology.
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