Situating gender: students' perceptions of information work

Authors: Roma Harris; Margaret Ann Wilkinson

Source: Information Technology & People, Volume 17, Number 1, 2004 , pp. 71-86(16)

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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Abstract:

Young people entering their first year of university studies were asked to give their impressions of 12 high knowledge and information sector occupations. Their perceptions yield a complex set of expectations that are consistent, in large measure, with experts' predictions of the information sector's occupational winners and losers. The majority of students aspire to be self-employed or to work in the private, rather than the public sector. Of the occupations included in the study, the students perceived the occupation "librarian" most negatively in terms of skill, status, compensation and future opportunity, unlike, for example, the similar occupation, "Internet researcher". The results are discussed in term of the complex interactions of gender, computing, and skill on the attractiveness of difference types of work.

Keywords: Sex and Gender Issues; Information Profession; Librarianship; Job Titles

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09593840410522189

Publication date: 2004-01-01