The main question to be discussed in this article is: Why do women not program? In other words, why, in an activity that appears similar to others where women have gained ground, one cannot find an analogous process of incorporation? We propose a scheme of five related factors in order to analyse the genealogy of women’s exclusion from the world of software. First, we discuss the relation between gender and technologies in general, focusing on the initial stages of socialisation. Second, we fast forward a few years in the lives of boys and girls and we analyse their first interaction with digital technologies. Next, in relation to puberty or adolescence, we inquire into peer-group dynamics which are established by those who dedicate much of their time to computers. Fourth, we take into account the gender gap in college or bachelor degrees related to informatics. Lastly, we analyse the common representations of and beliefs about gender that employers hold in relation to informatics workers. These five parts of the explanation have different foundations. Some rely strongly on our qualitative fieldwork in Buenos Aires; others are based on texts or statistics which belong to other authors.
The Argentinean software and information services (SIS) sector has grown steadily over the last decade. However, academics, policy makers and managers agree that the shortage of computer science (CS) degree-holders has been (and is) jeopardizing future growth. This paper depicts the situation of formal education in CS and related areas in Argentina, providing the necessary basis from which to call into question the assumption that the primary driving force of a powerful SIS sector is CS graduates. After presenting figures of enrollment, graduates and researchers, we find that while it is true that there is a mismatch between the trends of formal education in CS and that of Argentinean SIS, it is not clear at all that the sector is limited because of that. First, international comparisons with the US and the UK show that the proportion of graduates is not necessarily the main driver of a highly innovative SIS sector. Secondly, qualitative sources underline the relevance of informal learning in the acquisition of the software skills actually used by workers. Additionally, the particular evolution of SIS wages could be limiting the inflow of graduates into the sector.
The aim of this study is to investigate the different types of access to scientific literature used by Argentinean researchers. This paper focuses particularly on the extent to which the illegal route is resorted to, the motivations for resorting to it, representations of legality and moral acceptability, and the relationship between productivity and different access routes. In order to tackle these topics, a survey was carried out among CONICET researchers. The main findings are as follows. The use of the illegal route is massive and widespread; it does not replace but rather coexists with the use of legal routes; there is a striking disconnection between the representations of legality and morality, and the motivations for using the illegal route are both practical and axiological.
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