Barriers to the Employment and Work-Place Advancement of Latinos

Glass Ceiling ReportGlassCeilingBackground10Latinos.pdf: 7771 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

The Glass Ceiling and Persons With Disabilities

Glass Ceiling ReportGlassCeilingBackground2PersonsWithDisabilities.pdf: 8336 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

The women in IT (WINIT) final report

The Women in IT (WINIT) project was funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) from March 2004 until April 2006 under HE ESF Objective 3: Research into equal opportunities in the labour market. Specifically the project came under Policy Field 2, Measure 2: Gender discrimination in employment. The project was run in the Information Systems Institute of the University of Salford. One of the Research Associates has an information systems (IS) background, the other has a background in sociology. We begin this report with an overview of the current situation with regards women in the UK IT sector. Whilst gender is only recently being recognised as an issue within the mainstream IS academic community, thirty years of female under-representation in the ICT field in more general terms has received more attention from academics, industry and government agencies alike. Numerous research projects and centres (such as the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology) exist to tackle the under-representation of women in SET careers, although the figures for women’s participation in the ICT sector remain disheartening, with current estimates standing at around 15% (EOC 2004). Various innovative initiatives, such as e-Skills’ Computer Clubs for Girls, appear to have had little impact on these low female participation rates. Additionally, these and other initiatives have been interpreted as a means to fill the skills gap and ‘make up the numbers’ to boost the UK economy (French and Richardson 2005), resulting in ‘add more women and stir’ solutions to the ‘problem’ of gender in relation to inclusion in IS and ICT (Henwood 1996). Given that there have been decades of equal opportunity and related policies as well as many government initiatives designed to address the gender imbalance in IT employment patterns, sex segregation in IT occupations and pay and progression disparity in the IT sector (including the latest initiative- a one million pound DTI funded gender and SET project), we could be forgiven for assuming that these initiatives have had a beneficial effect on the position and number of women in the IT workforce, and that even if we have not yet achieved gender equity, we can surely argue that there are positive moves in the right direction. Although we do not wish to make definitive claims about the success or failure of specific initiatives, our research, backed up by recent major surveys, paints a picture that remains far from rosy. Indeed a recent comparative survey of the IT workforce in Germany, Holland and the UK indicates that women are haemorrhaging out of the UK IT workforce (Platman and Taylor 2004). From a high point of 100,892 women in the UK IT workforce in 1999, Platman and Taylor (ibid., 8) report a drop to 53,759 by 2003. As the IT industry was moving into recession anyway, the number of men in the industry has also declined, but by nothing like as much, so the figures for women are stark. When it comes to number crunching who is employed in the UK IT sector and when trying to make historical comparisons, the first obstacle is defining the sector itself. Studies vary quite substantially in the number of IT workers quoted suggesting there is quite a bit of variation in what is taken to be an IT job. The IT industry has experienced considerable expansion over the past twenty years. In spring 2003 in Britain, it was estimated that almost 900,000 people worked in ICT firms, and there were over 1 million ICT workers, filling ICT roles in any sector (e-Skills UK, 2003). This growth has resulted in talk of a ‘skills shortage’ requiring the ‘maximization’ of the workforce to its full potential: ‘You don’t just need pale, male, stale guys in the boardroom but a diversity of views’ (Stone 2004). In spring 2003 the Equal Opportunities Commission estimated there to be 151,000 women working in ICT occupations compared with 834,000 men (clearly using a different, much wider job definition from that of Platman and Taylor (2004)) , whilst in the childcare sector, there were less than 10,000 men working in these occupations, compared with 297,000 women (EOC 2004). It is estimated that the overall proportion of women working in ICT occupations is 15% (EOC 2004). In the UK, Office of National Statistics (ONS) statistics indicate that women accounted for 30% of IT operations technicians, but a mere 15% of ICT Managers and only 11% of IT strategy and planning professionals (EOC 2004). Although women are making inroads into technical and senior professions there remains a ‘feminisation’ of lower level jobs, with a female majority in operator and clerical roles and a female minority in technical and managerial roles (APC 2004).

Tracking Chart 2004 VF, El Salvador 34032282C

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.FLA_2004_VF_TC_El_Salvador_34032282C.pdf: 7 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Barriers to Work Place Advancement: the Experience of the White Female Work Force

Glass Ceiling ReportGlassCeilingBackground17WhiteFemaleWorkForce.pdf: 8903 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Tracking Chart 2004 Adidas Group, El Salvador 34032282C

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.FLA_2004_AdidasGroup_TC_El_Salvador_34032282C.pdf: 10 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

The glass ceiling : is it a state of mind?

Much is written in the literature and press about women having to break through the glass ceiling, but is there indeed any truth in this theory? For some women, working their way up the promotion ladder can be a challenge, but is it really as difficult as it is perceived? It would be naïve to think that all women are as ambitious as to want to break through the glass ceiling, and indeed in certain categories of employment such as advertising and marketing, they do appear to have made their mark, but science, engineering and technology, do not seem to attract females in the same numbers. We would argue that this lack of advancement is not necessarily due to a lack of opportunity. This paper addresses the role of women in science, engineering, and technology, assessing the support mechanisms offered to them to succeed in their chosen occupations. The investigation identifies factors that have led to women achieving senior levels in higher education, business, and government in the UK, thus making it through the glass ceiling. The methodology undertaken in this study includes, desk-based research, analysis of surveys, observations from literature search and surveys, and interviews/case studies of a number of prominent and internationally successful women; and final conclusions. All comprise the three components of the Triple Helix - influence of government through legislation, uptake in academia, and attendant support mechanisms, and impact in industry

Technological Change and Gender Wage Differentials

This paper investigates the impact of non-neutral technological change on the recent narrowing of the gender wage differentials. The relation between technological change and relative wages of female and male workers is modeled through a constant elasticity of substitution production function that incorporates male and female labor inputs by occupation in each industry, a non-labor input and a productivity parameter function that captures non-neutral technological change. Data from 1979 to 2001 on employment and wages by industry and occupation come from the Current Population Survey. Using non-linear two stage least squares with cross-equation restrictions, the estimated results provide evidence that non-neutral technological change partially explains the documented narrowing of the gender wage gap during the 1980s and 1990s, even after controlling for unexplained differences in gender relative wages. Specifically, changes in non-neutral technological change explain between 5 % and 9 % of the overall increase of women’s wages relative to men’s in the sample. The strongest effect is found for the highest pay occupation level, while the smallest effect is found for the lower pay occupations. Finally, this paper brings evidence that ignoring the unexplained component of the gender wage differentials could result in a biased estimation of the effect on non-neutral technological change on the gender wage gap.