ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. The Nordic countries are regarded as frontrunners in promoting equality, yet women’s experiences on the ground are in many ways at odds with this rhetoric. Putting the spotlight on the lived experiences of women working in tech-driven research and innovation areas in the Nordic countries, this volume explores why, despite numerous programmes, women continue to constitute a minority in these sectors. Contributors flesh out the differences and similarities across different Nordic countries and explore how the shifts in labour market conditions have impacted on women in research and innovation. This is an invaluable contribution to global debates around the mechanisms that maintain gendered structures in research and innovation, from academia to biotechnology and IT.

ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This volume centres on the lived experience of women working in tech-driven research and innovation areas in the Nordic countries.

ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. The Nordic countries are regarded as frontrunners in promoting equality, yet women’s experiences on the ground are in many ways at odds with this rhetoric. Putting the spotlight on the lived experiences of women working in tech-driven research and innovation areas in the Nordic countries, this volume explores why, despite numerous programmes, women continue to constitute a minority in these sectors. Contributors flesh out the differences and similarities across different Nordic countries and explore how the shifts in labour market conditions have impacted on women in research and innovation. This is an invaluable contribution to global debates around the mechanisms that maintain gendered structures in research and innovation, from academia to biotechnology and IT.

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) exert a great influence on global activities. ITC has affected the structure of governments, economies, cultures, and even human health. Another area in which ICT has had a tremendous impact is within the developing world and nations where women face repression and fewer opportunities. Overcoming Gender Inequalities through Technology Integration is a critical source for understanding the role of technology adoption within female empowerment and equality in developing nations and beyond. This publication examines the strategies applicable to the use of technology in the purist of societal recognition of women in addition to the trajectory and visibility of women in developing as well as developed countries in which they have access to ICTs. This book is an essential reference source for students and teachers of gender studies or information technology, women’s advocacy groups, policy makers, NGOs, and technology developers.

Even though the number of working women has steadily increased over the last few years, women are still significantly under-represented in STEM activities (i.e. mathematics, informatics, science and technology). In order to eliminate this under-representation, numerous education policies and corporate initiatives, particularly in the recent past, have been aimed at increasing women's enthusiasm for STEM activities and professions. According to the latest surveys, however, it is clear that these efforts have not yet led to the desired success. Compared to their male counterparts, women continue to do fewer STEM activities. One possible reason for this is that relatively little is yet known about the concrete impact of the above education policies on working with innovation and technology: What are the gender differences between women and men? Is it enough to recognize these differences, or should these differences ideally not only be recognized, but also treated appropriately or even encouraged? This anthology deals with current topics in technology and innovation management against the background of these and other gender-relevant aspects. Empirical analyses and experiments in collaboration with companies from various sectors provide a sound scientific basis on which new results and findings are presented: How do women and men deal with creativity and competition? How are technologies applied and how can differences in access to technology be deduced? Answers to these and other questions help decision-makers in politics and business to proactively use the differences between women and men to motivate women to work in the STEM field and to strengthen them by acknowledging existing differences.

Gender, Science and Innovation explores the contemporary challenges facing women scientists in academia and develops effective strategies to improve gender equality. Addressing an important gap in current knowledge, chapters offer a range of international perspectives from diverse contexts, countries and institutional settings. This book is an essential contribution to the literature for academics, researchers and policy makers concerned with improving gender equality in academia and seeking to learn from the experiences of others.

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.