The WINIT International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Gender, Technology and the ICT Workplace

Information Systems Institute (ISI), University of Salford , Greater Manchester , UK

Tuesday 21st March 2006

Call for Papers - Submission Deadline for Full Papers is 19th December 2005

(emergency deadline 16th January 2006)

The under-representation of female ICT workers remains a source of frustration for all concerned with gender issues in relation to contemporary workplaces, and in relation to ‘new' technologies. The male dominance (in both statistical and symbolic terms) of ICT workplaces continues to have immediate and wider consequences. In immediate terms, those few women who do enter the ICT workplace may have to contend with direct and indirect discrimination, issues of gender identity and isolation (Richardson et al 2005), working patterns which impact unfairly on women (Kodz et al 2002, Platman and Taylor 2004), and barriers to career progression (Liff and Ward 2001). Despite many initiatives over the last thirty years, women are still not entering the ICT industry in significant numbers. Even fewer have managed to reach the higher echelons of the profession. Indeed female ICT professionals are leaving the industry in disproportionate numbers (IBM 2003). In a wider sense, the fact that women have practically no voice in the creation of the major technological innovations currently being interweaved into our lives must be to the detriment of the industry, to society as a whole (Selby and Young 1997) and to women themselves (Faulkner 2004).

To continue and extend dialogue on these concerns, the Women in Information Technology (WINIT) team present a one day international and interdisciplinary conference based at the University of Salford, UK. Papers are invited from academics and practitioners looking at the under-representation of women in the ICT industry, including structural and cultural issues, the characteristics of ICT workplaces though a gender lens, and gender/ICT relations. PhD students and early-stage researchers are welcome. Papers may be either long (up to 7000 words, 20 minutes presentation) or short (up to 3000 words, 10 minutes presentation). Lively discussions/debates will be encouraged throughout the day. Papers are encouraged, but not restricted to, the following themes:

•  Gender & ICT workplace cultures

•  Gender & ICT working practices (flexible working, work-life balance, mentoring etc)

•  Gendered identity/subjectivity in relation to ICT/ICT workplace

•  Gender & ICT: Narratives, accounts and stories

•  Gender & technology relations

•  Comparative/‘global' studies of gender & ICT

•  The ICT workplace: gender & best practices

•  Feminist epistemologies & methodologies

•  Gender & ICT: the future?

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