TY - GEN
T1 - Information technology education and employment for women in Kenya
AU - Kvasny, Lynette
AU - Payton, Fay Cobb
AU - Mbarika, Victor
AU - Chong, Jing
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - Sub-Saharan Africa women have historically assumed the roles of housewife and subsistence farmer. However, with the global growth of information and communications technologies (ICT) and digital divide interventions, women are enrolling in university programs which prepare them for employment in the formal workforce. In this paper, we present a study in which we interviewed 32 women enrolled in an ICT program at a Kenyan university. The interviews examined the women's responses to the program as well as the women's experiences in seeking and securing ICT-related employment. Our findings indicate that women were highly optimistic, embracing ICT as a practical mechanism for achieving entrée into the labor force and empowering women. However they perceive significant structural barriers, such as gender discrimination in hiring practices, organization's inability to recognize their mix of technical and business competencies, and national ICT policies which did not support the growth in the technology sector.
AB - Sub-Saharan Africa women have historically assumed the roles of housewife and subsistence farmer. However, with the global growth of information and communications technologies (ICT) and digital divide interventions, women are enrolling in university programs which prepare them for employment in the formal workforce. In this paper, we present a study in which we interviewed 32 women enrolled in an ICT program at a Kenyan university. The interviews examined the women's responses to the program as well as the women's experiences in seeking and securing ICT-related employment. Our findings indicate that women were highly optimistic, embracing ICT as a practical mechanism for achieving entrée into the labor force and empowering women. However they perceive significant structural barriers, such as gender discrimination in hiring practices, organization's inability to recognize their mix of technical and business competencies, and national ICT policies which did not support the growth in the technology sector.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33745847541&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33745847541&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/1125170.1125202
DO - 10.1145/1125170.1125202
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:33745847541
SN - 1595933492
SN - 9781595933492
T3 - SIGMIS CPR'06 - Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGMIS CPR Conference
SP - 114
EP - 119
BT - SIGMIS CPR'06 - Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGMIS CPR Conference - Forty Four Years of Computer Personnel Research
PB - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
T2 - SIGMIS CPR'06 - Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGMIS CPR Conference
Y2 - 13 April 2006 through 15 April 2006
ER -