IT, arbejde og køn i anvendelse: Samproduktion i det kvindedominerede administrative arbejde

The use of IT is now taken for granted in many areas of work, especially administrative work. The point of departure of this thesis is a puzzlement concerning the processes that exist in day to day administrative work making IT to be taken for granted to the extent which the use of IT in administrative work is hardly recognised as a competence. In general, administrative work is numerically dominated by women. This is in particular the case in those trades in which the qualitative interviews for this thesis were conducted, namely in employment centres and in production work in banks. It is therefore an obvious question to ask whether gender plays a role in the taken for grantedness of the use of IT, and, if so, how this has come to be.

The analytical focus of the thesis is on IT as it is being used at work. It advocates an understanding of IT as its mode of use (in this case at work), rather than as a specific technology that is implemented at work without affecting or being affected by the content of the work. This focus on the use guides the thesis' approach to studying IT and work as well as gender. This perspective places the social construction of IT, work and gender as meaning, at the centre of the study. The study emphasises the reciprocity of this process of social construction, in other words, on the co-construction of IT, work and gender. Moreover, it emphasises what consequences it has for the employees that the specific co-productions of IT, work and gender make some constructs meaningful in a particular context, while others are rejected. On this basis, the thesis' central research question is:

How are IT, work and gender co-constructed in the female dominated administrative work, and what consequences does it have for the employees?

The question is answered through the chapters of the thesis. To begin with the conceptual apparatus and analytical strategy are clarified. Then they are put to use in the analysis of an employment centre and a production department of a bank. On the basis of the two cases, the thesis then develops a series of focal points, on which practical work on IT, work and gender can develop in workplaces and organizations:

In Chapter 1, A perspective on the use of IT in administrative work, the basis for the thesis is explained, and the key issues and approaches outlined.

In Chapter 2, The co-construction of IT and gender - a theoretical entrance, the project's problems are deepened and clarified through a discussion of literature on use of IT/technology and gender. It takes up theoretical as well as empirically based issues. It begins with a discussion on the development of feminist Science & Technology Studies seen as an interaction between primarily constructivist technology studies within social science and women and gender studies. Then it zooms in on the thesis' key concepts in relation to technology: technology-in-practice and co-construction. It is debatable whether, and eventually how, the shift from heavier mechanical technology to IT as the dominant image of technology is important for the co-construction of technology and gender. Following this, some problematizations of how gender has been involved and theorized in feminist technology studies are discussed.

In Chapter 3, Analytical strategy, the thesis' discourse analytical strategy is developed, starting with Foucault's ‘Archaeology of Knowledge' (Foucault 2005 [1969]). Given that the perspective of co-construction only provides inadequate guidance for an analytical strategy, a discourse analytical approach is selected which can be used to analyze the meaning attributed to IT, work and gender in interaction with each other. Since the purpose of the analysis, as well as the empirical field and material, in essential respects differs from the starting point in the ‘Archaeology of Knowledge', an analytical strategy is developed and described with a number of different purposes: For example, the analysis is a contemporary analysis of a point in time, rather than an analysis of a historical process. Furthermore the material consists of interviews conducted with the analysis as its end, rather than documents existing prior to the study. Subsequently the design of the study is described.

In Chapter 4, "If one weighs the documentation more than the personal interview" - case work at the employment centre, the case study of the employment centre is presented and analysed. Based on the interviews, four strategic spaces which are important in the articulation of the work of the employment centre are highlighted: Employment, IT policy, professionalism and gender segregated work. The presentation of these strategic spaces provides background for the following reading of the analysis. The presentation of the analysis of the interviews from the employment centre is organised under themes formed by the interviews with the employees at the employment centre: ‘Law & right', ‘The personal interview, ‘System-difference', ‘IT as a tool' and ‘Gender'. The themes thereby also become the pivotal point of the analysis' stories about how IT, work and gender are co-produced at the employment centre. The stories unfold around the quotations from the interviews which partly tell their own story, and partly are opened through explicit use of analytical concepts discussed in Chapter 3. Together they constitute an image of the work, where IT-registration takes up a lot of time in relation to the modest importance the employees ascribe to it. As such it is in play in the fundamental changes of the work. The image of the work also includes gender as an essential part of the definition of core functions.

In Chapter 5, "But we don't do anything, which is not in a computer system" - the production work of the bank, the case of the bank production is presented and analysed. In the bank production administrative procedures concerning client matters are executed. The interviews from the production also highlight four strategic spaces. Initially these are presented as: The changing banking sector, the bank and its survival, professionalism, and finally also gender. The main thematic points are almost all articulated in close relation to the reorganization of work through the implementation of lean organisation in the department, apart from the themes ‘IT as taken for granted' and ‘Practically only women'. The themes related to lean organization are named: ‘The hard years', ‘Piles versus full cases', ‘Standards' and ‘Common responsibility'. The analysis provides a picture of a workplace where IT has been central to the restructuring of operations, and where gendered understandings of the work are reproduced diligently. The shift to workflow-procedures, with fragmented operations, weighs standardisation more than difference. While this is praised by some, others articulate it as destructive to the meaning of work.

In Chapter 6, Focal points for working with IT-use, work and gender, four focal points are highlighted as being co-constructed with IT, work and gender. They are presented as a suggestion for what ought to gain attention in connection with the ongoing changes in IT based administrative work: 1) What is seen as the core functions, 2) Ideas about professional quality, 3) Ideas about efficiency, and 4) Trust/loyalty in the organization. Each of the four focal points is qualified through discussions in the light of the two case studies. It is argued that these focal points, taking the current context into account, are obvious focal points for the analysis of co-construction of IT, work and gender, as well as in union work related to IT, change in work and gender.

Chapter 7, Conclusion - use of IT, work and gender, picks up on the thesis' main questions and conclusion, and puts them into perspective. It is emphasised how the co-construction of IT and gender is not primarily a direct reciprocal relationship, but goes through the gendering of employment. Furthermore it emphasises that the relationship between IT, work and gender should be handled as a continuous, reciprocal process.

The thesis is part of the research project control, gender and psycho-social working environment in IT-based administrative work, which has been supported by The Working Environment Research Fund