What Happens to Female Employees in Skewed IT Project Teams in Sri Lanka? Revisiting Kanter

Abstract

Post-war Sri Lanka is heavily dependent on the promising future of the Information Technology (IT) industry to contribute considerably to the economic and social development of the country. Given the reported skill shortage and gender imbalance in the IT sector, female participation and retention is greatly advocated and promoted. In this milieu, we aim to understand what happens to female employees in male-dominant IT project teams, and the challenges and issues they face, as well as the related causes, using Kanter’s Theory of Group Proportions as the theoretical lens. Such understanding will provide a backdrop to develop ways and means of attracting and retaining females in the IT industry in Sri Lanka. Employing qualitative inquiry, we carried out in-depth interviews and focus-group discussions with 14 informants—10 female team members and four male team counterparts—from six IT companies. We identified four main challenges and issues females face in working alongside males where females strive to prove their technical and leadership capabilities, gain acceptance of the dominants in the team, overcome role entrapment and gain due recognition for their hard work. In facing these challenges females use various strategies and changes of behaviour which can ultimately lead to work pressure, strained relationships and anxiety for females. While these challenges are largely comparable to the main phenomena and experiences explained by Kanter, it appeared that gender-role stereotyping and sexist attitudes prevailing in the work setting, rather than the numerical minority status of females as mentioned by Kanter, gave rise to these situations.

Perceived diversity in software engineering: a systematic literature review

“…But, intercultural competencies are seen as very important in tasks with high levels of communications [SLR(Holtkamp et al 2015 )], and (3) some cultures can lead to strong stereotypical beliefs that challenge women in teams dominated by men. These women have perceived difficulties having their work recognized, proving themselves, and feeling members of their team [SLR(Adikaram and Wijayawardena 2015 )].…”

The advancement and persistence of women in the information technology profession: An extension of Ahuja's gendered theory of IT career stages

“…A third theme found in the articles referencing Ahuja () has to do with the IT work environment and perceptions of exclusion (Adikaram & Wijayawardena, ; Wentling & Thomas, ) and the negative influence of this exclusion on women's career opportunities (eg, Orser, Riding, & Stanley, ; Raghuram, ). For example, Adikaram and Wijayawardena () found that women in Sri Lanka working on project teams containing primarily men were treated as “outsiders” and constantly had to prove themselves to their colleagues. This undermined the women's ability to advance within the organization.…”

Compromising gender identities

“…They are generally exposed to different cultures, maintain a sound command of English language and are exposed to people coming from different backgrounds (Fernando and Cohen, 2013). Even with that exposure, “gendered” work norms bring difficulties and hardships for the few women engineers employed in the IT sector in Sri Lanka (Adikaram and Wijayawardena, 2015). For instance, there is an increasing trend of teamwork within IT firms (Perera and Fonseka, 2011; Jayawarna and Fonseka, 2011) in the form of multi-functional and multi-skilled project teams, which require the few women employed there to be interconnected with their male team members (Adikaram and Wijayawardena, 2015).…”

“…Even with that exposure, “gendered” work norms bring difficulties and hardships for the few women engineers employed in the IT sector in Sri Lanka (Adikaram and Wijayawardena, 2015). For instance, there is an increasing trend of teamwork within IT firms (Perera and Fonseka, 2011; Jayawarna and Fonseka, 2011) in the form of multi-functional and multi-skilled project teams, which require the few women employed there to be interconnected with their male team members (Adikaram and Wijayawardena, 2015). The expectation in the industry is that everybody will perform equally, regardless of gender, if they have similar levels of skills and qualifications.…”

“…One reason for the under-representation of women in IT may be that women who are successful in the actual engineering/technical work face difficulties in working within an engineering culture (Powell et al , 2009). Corroborating this, recent findings indicate that women working in the Sri Lankan IT sector must prove their technical and leadership skills, strive to gain acceptance of the team, overcome role entrapment and gain due recognition for their work, in addition to carrying out their duties in a male-dominant work environment (Adikaram and Wijayawardena, 2015). Hence, further empirical research on this topic is a necessity to inform scholars and practitioners alike about the complex and often hidden ways in which women engineers in Sri Lankan IT firms are challenged, constrained and thereby excluded from the IT sector.…”