Gender Relations and Working Conditions in the ICT Sector

By Martha Blomqvist

Jobs in the Information and Communications technology (ICT) sector symbolise the new working life.

The media presents very different pictures of the sector's working conditions and gender relations. On the one hand, the sector is presented as anti-women and sexist, with long working hours, burnout and stress. On the other hand is it also presented as a sector that welcomes women, offers interesting work tasks and the potential for personal development. A Swedish project compares these differing narratives. The focus will be on (1) the transformation of gender relations and working conditions in the ICT sector into research results and (2) the transformation of research results into news items.

For further information contact Martha Blomqvist PhD, Centre for Feminist Research, Uppsala University. martha.blomqvist@cfr.uu.se

FAS Newsletter (Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research; July 2002, no. 2)