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New Book on Gender in Technology Work Published

Published on September 26, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

A new book looking at gender in technology professions has just been published by Palgrave.

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Performing Gender at Work develops a new understanding gender: that gender is not something one is but rather something one does. This means that we perform gender and are performed by gender. Drawing on detailed academic research in the IT industry, the book outlines three implications of performing gender for the workplace.

First, many skills that are needed for at work today have a gender dimension. Skills like listening and nurturing are said to be perfect for building teams, creating networks and fostering innovation and they are also seen as feminine. However as this book shows it is not women who profit from showing feminine skills: it is men who are valued for performing what is seen as atypical gender behaviour.

Second, telling your own career story is something that is increasingly important in the workplace. The book argues that there is a gender difference in how men and women perform their career stories. Women tend to tell their careers as if they were due to coincidence and luck, whereas men appear to be on a mission to success. Organisations tend to expect the latter in their hiring and promotion decisions.

Third, the book explores the sentiment that gender problems are solved today. We live in a time of ‘gender fatigue’ where we know of the importance of gender equality, but people lack the energy to talk about and address gender inequality. Because of this gender fatigue, we do not have the right language to address gender inequality leading a situation where gender inequality exists but cannot be talked about.

The book urges us to think about stereotypes and biases when we evaluate skills, to give validity to different career stories and to develop a language, which allows us to address gender inequality. The book illustrates vividly how gender is something that is performed in the workplace and which implications this has.

The Female Economy

Published on September 23, 2009 in Interesting and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

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This month’s HBR echoes  much of what Lady Geek has been highlighting for the past 18 months-perfect timing for my upcoming Symbian talk.  Firstly, that women represent the largest market opportunity in the world- in aggregate, the opportunity is bigger than China and India combined.

Secondly that despite this, most companies continue to market to men and fail to explore how they might meet women’s needs. Or they target women as an afterthought through patronizing initiatives.  Dell’s Della being a perfect example.  The NY Times said Dell needed to go to the ‘school of marketing hard knocks.’

And namely, that those companies that can offer tailored products and services are in prime position to win, when the economy recovers.

Interviewing over 12,000 women about everything ranging from their jobs and education to their hopes and fears, BCG found that women are vastly underserved.  Women feel few companies have responded to their need for products and services specifically designed for them. Too many businesses behave if women had no say over purchasing decisions.  With the recovery in sight now, women will represent one of the largest opportunities and are an important force in spurring a recovery.  One of the findings echoes Wave 1 of the Lady Geek Brand Survey;

I hate being stereotyped because of my gender and age, and I don’t appreciate being treated like an infant.”

Interestingly, the research highlights that women are happiest in their early and later years and the lowest point is early and mid forties.  Women struggle to cope with both children and aging parents, so are most receptive to products that help them better control their lives and balance their priorities.

I could not agree more with their final point;

A focus on women as a target market-instead of a geographical target- will up a company’s odds of success when the recovery begins.

I am a PC and I am 4 and a half

Published on August 10, 2009 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

I am loving the evolution of the I am a PC campaign.  Its warm, personal and positions Microsoft as a champion of humanity rather than a cold, distant high functional technology brand which mainly appeals to men. Women use technology as a means to creativity and to provide meaningful human interaction in their life.

One of the ads features a 4 and a half year old Kylie (too cute for words) who uses Windows Live Photo Gallery to send a picture of her fish to her parents.  The strategy is simple: technology so simple that a 4 and a half year old could do it.  Another features a small boy has a large construction ranged all around the kitchen, and demonstrates taking lots of pictures of different parts of it, transferring those from the camera to a laptop, and then stitching them all together to make one.

Its a thankful departure from Microsoft’s unsuccessful retort to the Apple ads which was the wrong strategy for a myriad of reasons I have discussed before.  This is about what Microsoft stands for and gives them a narrative that goes beyond their product.

Its not about the piece of kit.  Its about how you use technology to enhance your home.  Its not about the spec.  Its about what that spec enables you to do.  Its not about the photo.  But the memory and signal you are sending to those who you send it to.

It starts to take Microsoft from being part of ‘my office life’  to being at the ‘centre of my home. ‘   Not a bad place to start.

Faux Nostalgia

Published on August 6, 2009 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , .

Everyone will have noticed that nostalgia is enjoying something of a revival these days. It is, of course, connected to the recession and a need to feel reassured and cosy when things are a bit stressful out there. But it is also driven by many other underlying and longer-term consumer desires – a connection with national brands, an appreciation of heritage, a tendancy to view the past with rose-tinted spectacles.

But it doesn’t necessarily need to stop there. Which is why I think the ‘faux’ element is potentially more interesting to forward thinking companies and those of us with an appreciation of technology and more futuristic innovation.

Let me explain…

We have an appetite for the past – but one, we would argue, that never really existed; so housewife afternoons of baking and tea parties for some but without quite so much cleaning and male-dominated territory. Like I say, while we may yearn for the bygone, we’re keen for the new too.

It’ll keep on working because it can be cheap innovation. Because sometimes its quirky and fun. Because its hugely malleable – it can have a foreign feel, more than a hint of sarcasm and sometimes it provides just simpler, cleaner branding (think apple). Currently selling in traditional nostalgia format;

-Cadburys – just relaunched crème egg in a bar. Vile. But it is selling like there’s no tomorrow. Cadburys is currently kicking most other chocolate manufacturers off the shelves.

-Bold – new washing powder, old packaging – its all rainbows and 70s.

-Cath Kidson – the modern housewife. Not for everyone but it just keeps getting bigger.

-Good Housekeeping (magazines and books) – more of the same – who’d have thought so many modern guides to keeping home would invade our shelves.

But what I’m most taken with is the future’s view of nostalgia and Selfridges clever use of their past to market the future. They’re currently celebrating their 100 year anniversary with an A-Z of products to expect by 2109. Clearly a lot of it is clean, futuristic fun, like the animal translator, designed to help you understand your pets in up to 12 different languages, but it has created an amazing gallery of fun technology ideas that are bound to catch the fun window shopping female’s attention.

My bet – there’ll be a few more copies of faux nostalgia to come and a smart mobile or technology player will almost certainly make good use of this sometime soon.

Smart girls don’t choose IT

Published on August 5, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: .

On June 22nd I spoke with Anna Liu, Associate Professor at UNSW. Anna’s career in IT spans 15 years. I will be posting more from my conversation with Anna, so watch this space.

When asked how she first became interested in IT Anna says that it was in the third grade when she chose to go to a Computer Summer Camp. She also sites an earlier episode, when her father identified her interest in mathematics on a first-grade enrolment form. Did she really stand out as a mathematician so early on or did she respond to proactively live up to her father’s expectations? She doesn’t know for certain, but it seems that she certainly had her parents’ encouragement from an early age.

“But what,” I asked, “about the coolness factor? Were you not worried about what your peers would think?”
Anna laughs “Well I think I was already classed as one of the geeks!”

We chuckle; neither of us were trend setters at school. But does Anna still see the coolness factor as an issue for female high school students with the potential to enter IT studies and careers? Is there still a perception that IT is uncool and does that really prevent women from pursuing IT studies?

“I think that perception has changed a lot” she says, “IT is the cool thing right now, and I can see women getting into it, particularly the social networking aspect.”

We decide that coolness is not so much the issue at the moment, but Anna raises another point:

“We don’t see enough female participation in the IT industry because we are failing to attract the hardworking female with good HSCs…”

“Generally speaking, girls who get good marks and who enjoy science and maths go straight into medicine. Those who enjoy the communications and English language aspects go straight into law. I don’t know if it’s a matter of dollars or that we haven’t publicised and marketed top IT executives.”

It seems a valid point; most of us know lady doctors and lawyers, and I dare say could name a few fictionalised TV characters in those professions too. But there are fewer recognisable people, in real life or TV who demonstrate the success and enjoyment that women can achieve in technical roles.

So how can we encourage women in technical roles to come forward and share their experiences?

IT Careers and cultural stereotypes

Published on August 5, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: .

Veronica is a successful software developer. Here she shares some of her experiences in the gender-stereotyped world of IT:

“During the first year of my Computer Science course at USYD, there was no shortage of female students — the ratio was about 50/50. Most of them Asians, very few of Anglo-Saxon background. I think in Asian culture, “geeky” girls are not classed as uncool at all (at least not in Hong Kong, where I grew up — they are often viewed as well informed and thus cool).

“After the first semester, numbers of females started to drop drastically. I have asked a lot of friends why they dropped out, and they generally say how they don’t really care about IT as much as say Economics or Commerce, or Law, so they switched. Of those, there are also many that felt like it’s hard to compete with people (mostly guys) who grew up programming and full of “techniness”, while they are just starting to take an interest and learn for the first time.

“My Computer Science course in uni was full of guys who were proud of their hard core programming abilities, and often they would paint females as ‘noobs’ and ‘wannabes’ — in a group work intensive uni course, this is a big disadvantage for female students who are generally interested and want to do well, but were labelled as lame and pretty much ostracised from the group.

“Many I found, dropped out thinking “I don’t have to put up with this crap”, and end up in other courses where they felt they were taken as equals.

“I also think fewer females start being interested in IT when they’re young because of that mental image of a computer nerd with thick glasses who can’t communicate — can’t help that, it’s a popular stereotype.”

Thanks to Veronica Luke for sharing her experiences.

The Death of Dixons?

Published on July 16, 2009 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Tesco Tech Support advert

Women want brands that offer certainty and trust. Tesco have levels of trust reaching 70%, higher than any financial institution. My research has highlighted women are reassurance addicts when it comes to technology- they will rely heavily on the sales staff or “phone a friend” before they buy technology.

Tesco entering the IT support market is a smart move.Positioning it as a female friendly service is an every smarter strategy. My research with 800 British women highlighted women often feel dumb walking into Dixons or PC World. It’s hard to ask a spotty teenager what “RAM” means. As one women said to me when I asked her first impression of Dixons: “There was a strong scent of man”

But give women a female friendly environment where they feel they can ask silly questions and they will buy. Not only will they buy but they will buy along with their eggs, meat and the rest of the shopping. Hence tech shopping stops being a painful diversion and becomes a less-scary add-on to the shopping list. The no commission business model will also stand Tesco in good stead as so many women talk without feeling under pressure to buy.

My advice to Tesco would be to extend this service to compete with the Geek Squad and offer women help installing and servicing their consumer electronics in their home.

1) Demystifying technology.

2) Going to women’s environments rather than asking them to come to yours.

3) Using women to recruit other women.

4) No commission based business model.

With a strategy like this, who ever needs to smell the scent of man in Dixons again?

Women know your place: The Boardroom

Published on June 15, 2009 in Games and Uncategorized. 2 Comments

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I feel like a Russian doll. I get smaller and smaller as the testosterone in the boardroom gets bigger and bigger. I tell myself I am a confident woman yet the environment I am in makes me feel I must change my persona and adapt to my ‘male’ surroundings. I must cut across people when they speak. I must hammer my point home with authority. I must emit an odour of superiority. I must show the world I am King. After all, this is advertising. ‘Cojones’ are the order of the day.

So many women behave like men in the Boardroom in advertising agencies. They feel they must emulate men to be successful. Many of the senior women I work with are not women I would aspire to be like. More like men in drag. This lack of appeal is one of the reasons why only 6% of women make up company board members in the UK compared to a directive in Norway where 40% of all board members have to be female. The reason Norway has chosen this approach is that a boardroom with women on it, improves turnover and attracts more talented women.

I want to propose a new style of Boardroom where women can openly use the traits they have: femininity, intimacy and authenticity. To create an agenda that is open, transparent and supportive. The Boardroom should not be a place for corporate politics but a place for productive intimate business.

Gestalt talks about how boards of directors tend to operate in ways that seek to minimise ineffectiveness. Trevor J Bentley, in relation to Gestalt, says

“Relationships on boards are often tenuous, superficial and dishonest. They are quite often transitory subsytems of people who support each other out of personal interest. The best that most boards achieve often through share option schemes, is to align the self interest of individual directors with the interest of shareholders. This approach tends to create a short term price focus that is nearly always to the detriment of the long-term sustainable growth and well-being of the business.”

This pretty much sums up why we are in a financial crisis. A group of money hungry men had short term personal goals of becoming richer without thinking about the long term consequences of their actions.

I want a far more ‘intimate’ and ‘authentic’ environment: Bentley states that there are 2 parts to working in an intimate system.

The first is knowing what I am prepared to offer others is what they want.

The second is knowing that what I want is what others are prepared to offer me.

My experience is that most people in meetings are never clear or open about what they want. It takes a series of long pointless and frankly ineffective meetings before you start to find out the other party actually wants. You have to “play the game” (countless times I have been asked to “play the game”-each time I am told this, I feel myself revert back to my Russian doll).

Once you are finally clear about what the other parties want, the quality of contact increases and people relate to each other with a degree of authenticity. Its a bit like when you have the frank conversation with your new boyfriend about what you want from the relationship. Once the hazy fog of second guessing has been lifted and everything is so much simpler and more enjoyable.

Today in the boardroom in agencies, I watch women emulate men, leaving the men to dictate the rules of the boardroom. Women must be prepared to use their feminine skills in a productive way and men must be prepared to build cultures that thrive on diversity and tolerance not conformity.

More senior women will attract talented women. Women want role models and female mentors that can support and nurture them. Not to mention, women will design products for other women. And when according to the New York Times, 80% of all products are bought by women, this is a profitable and commercially sound strategy.

PC World not selling PC’s

Published on June 3, 2009 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

It seems that the UK is falling out of love with the kings of out-of-town box-shifters, PC world. This is a typical comment that I found on YouTube.

The sad truth is never purchase any computer, laptop, or components from PC World. They are the cowboy’s of the computing industry, who over charge, mislead, and sell awful products often to those who know no better. Thankfully, I’ve heard they are in some deep brown stuff financially. Source: YouTube

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These days almost nobody has a good word to say about this troubled retailer. The company has built-up a reputation for low standards of service and an unimaginative lack of innovation. Do they have what it takes to re-invent themselves for the post-crunch era? Yes, if M&C Saatchi continue to have their way:
However, their latest TV ad and print campaign by is a real creative departure because it presents an actual business strategy (TV is much better than the print). The campaign is all about home-media and entertainment. It shows a PC user who loves films and how he can use his PC to download movies and other kinds of entertainment. PC World is positioned as a company that can help him design his media-centre, and it positions the PC as the new focus of the living-room.
Its a smart realisation on 2 counts: Firstly. that the PC market is totally commodified. It’s no longer profitable to sell generic “beige-box” PCs as there are hundreds of web-retailers who can sell a similar product cheaper than PC World. Secondly, that people, in particular women, do not buy technology in a functional way. Its an emotional decision. It may often be justified by a set of rational criteria but that is very rarely why people purchase technology. People need to be given a reason to want a new PC.
For a DSG company to realise and act on this is a paradigm shift. For a long time, we have been led to believe that people buy technology akin to how they buy technology in a vending machine. My research found that its the opposite. Its emotional, intuitive and for women, often impulsive.
As to how the store experience will change in line with the more emotional and human campaign, I am yet to be convinced. Today’s PC World looks more or less as it did a few years ago. But if DSG were to believe in their new positioning they could use it as a basis to transform themselves into a place of computer-driven entertainment. They could finally move away from their current ‘cowboy’ box-shifter image. PC World’s goal should be a champion of trust akin to what Martin Lewis has done for financial services.
When I shop for technology, I want an authentic experience not a functional per-functionary transaction. I want to be spoken to in a way that does not make me feel stupid but gets to the heart of what I need. I want an environment that is akin to my home and the place where my technology will live. I want to know and understand the magic that this technology will bring for me and my family. And not trying to flog me a PC on its spec is a good start!

The New CEO of Xerox

Published on May 30, 2009 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

There are not many female CEOs of companies around. Although women are traditionally underrepresented in technology professions, there were a number of high profile CEOs in the US in recent years. We can think here of Carly Fiorina, formerly of HP, and Anne M. Mulcahy, of Xerox. Now Xerox has entered history books by appointing the first African American female CEO to lead a major US corporation: Ursula Burns. Interestingly enough she is also the first female CEO who succeeded another female CEO.

 

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Burns had a long-term career at Xerox. Burns, who holds degrees from NYU and Columbia University, joined Xerox in 1980 first as a summer intern and then in product development and planning. In 2000, she was named senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Services and in 2007 she became president of Xerox.

Business Week suggests that part of reason that Xerox appointed two female CEOs in a row is Xerox’s commitment to diversity. 30% of Xerox’s executives are women and 22% are minorities. Xerox has a long tradition of affinity networks. Xerox also had a Executive Diversity Council early on. In addition there are leadership programmes that foster diversity and managers are evaluated in their performance reviews on their ability to recruit, retain and promote underrepresented groups. If they fall short of expectations their chances of promotion are diminished and they pay is negatively affected. This shows that diversity programmes do have an impact – even though it might take decades for them to unfold their power.