Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Women Studies / Gender Studies, grade: Excellent (A) (Sehr gut), Vienna University of Technology (Institut fur Managementwissenschaften), course: Master of Business Administration - Entrepreneurship & Innovation, language: English, comment: - Ausz. Kommentar: Viele politische Initiativen in Europa drangen derzeit darauf, Frauen in die Erforschung und Entwicklung von Technologien zu integrieren. Dennoch zeigen bisherige Massnahmen wenig Erfolg. Henrike Patz geht dem Phanomen auf den Grund, wie die Entwicklung und Nutzung von Technologie mit der Erzeugung von sozialem Geschlecht verschrankt ist. Erst ein solch grundlegendes Verstandnis ermoglicht, wirksame Massnahmen gegen die Marginalisierung von Frauen insbesondere in den mannerdominierten naturwissenschaftl. und techn. Bereichen zu entwickeln. - Best Thesis Award TU Wien 2011, abstract: In the era of user-centered design several scholars have started to take a closer look at gender as one of the decisive factors for successful innovation. While technology, and specifically information technology (IT), has become the backbone of almost all industries and a key driver for innovation, women are still largely absent from these fields. They are heavily underrepresented as technology designers and neglected as autonomous users with individual needs. This thesis sets out to demonstrate the importance of gender for technology design; it analyzes the reasons for the lack of women in technology using a feminist perspective, and proposes a number of possible approaches how gender awareness could be increased in IT with a special focus on the organizational aspects of business software design. The findings are based on an in-depth literature review and are validated by means of several case studies of female IT professionals in the global software industry. The demographic situation in the 21st century as well as the respective literature and research provide clear evidence of"

Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Gender Studies, grade: Excellent (A) (Sehr gut), Vienna University of Technology (Institut für Managementwissenschaften), course: Master of Business Administration - Entrepreneurship & Innovation, language: English, abstract: In the era of user-centered design several scholars have started to take a closer look at gender as one of the decisive factors for successful innovation. While technology, and specifically information technology (IT), has become the backbone of almost all industries and a key driver for innovation, women are still largely absent from these fields. They are heavily underrepresented as technology designers and neglected as autonomous users with individual needs. This thesis sets out to demonstrate the importance of gender for technology design; it analyzes the reasons for the lack of women in technology using a feminist perspective, and proposes a number of possible approaches how gender awareness could be increased in IT with a special focus on the organizational aspects of business software design. The findings are based on an in-depth literature review and are validated by means of several case studies of female IT professionals in the global software industry. The demographic situation in the 21st century as well as the respective literature and research provide clear evidence of the social and economic benefits of increasing the ‘female factor’ in technology design. Women are a key – and heavily underused - driver for innovation, organizational performance and financial success in most companies. Yet, when analyzing the gendered nature of technology it became clear that its inherent masculinity has to a large extent been responsible for the absence and marginalization of women from IT until today. Current approaches to overcome the ‘women-technology-dilemma’ are often either seeking to help women adapt to the male norm or are over-emphasizing feminine connotated values for technology design. The findings in this thesis underline the social constructivist perspective that neither technology nor gender can be taken as fixed and given but are cultural processes subject to negotiations, contestations and transformation. As a consequence, one of the most important prerequisites for the software industry to make sure the results of their application design fit with the needs of a variety of stakeholders, including female users, is the establishment of a gender aware organizational mindset and a respective design framework using gender as a ‘lens’ and apply it every time new applications are being planned and implemented.

An interdisciplinary investigation of the co-creation of gender and technology Each of the ten chapters in Women, Gender, and Technology explores a different aspect of how gender and technology work--and are at work--in particular domains, including film narratives, reproductive technologies, information technology, and the profession of engineering. The volume's contributors include representatives of over half a dozen different disciplines, and each provides a novel perspective on the foundational idea that gender and technology co-create one another. Together, their articles provide a window on to the rich and complex issues that arise in the attempt to understand the relationship between these profoundly intertwined notions.

This report aims to 'crack the code' by deciphering the factors that hinder and facilitate girls' and women's participation, achievement and continuation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and, in particular, what the education sector can do to promote girls' and women's interest in and engagement with STEM education and ultimately STEM careers.

"This two volume set includes 213 entries with over 4,700 references to additional works on gender and information technology"--Provided by publisher.

This book reports on recent advances in software engineering research and practice. Divided into 15 chapters, it addresses: languages and tools; development processes; modelling, simulation and verification; and education. In the first category, the book includes chapters on domain-specific languages, software complexity, testing and tools. In the second, it reports on test-driven development, processing of business rules, and software management. In turn, subsequent chapters address modelling, simulation and verification of real-time systems, mobile systems and computer networks, and a scrum-based framework. The book was written by researchers and practitioners, the goal being to achieve a synergistic combination of research results achieved in academia and best practices used in the industry, and to provide a valuable reference guide for both groups.

How can information technology (IT) paradigms and design processes be studied from a gender perspective? What does IT design look like when its construction is informed by gender research? Though gender research and computing science seem like two separate worlds, this book proves how inspirational a confrontation and combination of those worlds can be. A deconstructive analysis of advanced fields of computing shows the multiple ways in which software design is gendered and how gendering effects are produced by its use. Concepts and assumptions underlying research and development, along with design tools and IT products, teaching methods and materials are studied. The book not only offers a gender analysis of information society technologies, it also shows practical examples of how IT can be different. A gender perspective on IT design can serve as an eye-opener for what tends to be overlooked and left out. It yields innovative ideas and high quality software systems that may empower a large diversity of users for an active participation in our information society.