Analysis of Discrimination in the Workplace within the IT Industry

This essay provides a detailed analysis of workplace discrimination, specifically focusing on sexism within the technology sector. It defines occupational sexism and highlights the historical context, including the contributions of women in early programming. The essay explores the structure and functions of the IT industry, emphasizing the growing importance of IT departments in managing computer-based technologies, including security and data management. It examines the potential impacts of discrimination on the IT industry, citing examples of companies facing accusations of gender-based disparities, harassment, and unfair treatment of female employees. The essay also discusses potential ways to address the issue, emphasizing assertiveness and persistence while avoiding aggressive approaches. The conclusion emphasizes the challenges faced by women in the technology sector, including the tendency for women to leave the industry due to factors such as career stagnation and exclusion. The essay references multiple sources to support its claims.

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Student Name
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Contents
Introduction to the issue.............................................................................................................3
Description of IT industry..........................................................................................................3
Potential impact of the issue on the IT industry and on the conduct of practice.......................4
Description of the ways to deal with the issue...........................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
Reference....................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction to the issue
The essay will discuss in detail about the issue of sexism in the technology sector. Any kind
of discrimination especially sexism in this sector is considered as an occupational sexism. It
has been argued a lot of time in media that there is a high ratio of women and men, rates of
graduation for number of engineering based degrees as well as culture of the industry itself
are the main reason of sexism in the technology sector (Nadal et al, 2014).
While looking at the industry, one will understand that the first programmer in the world
happened to be a woman. In the year 1843, a woman called Ada Lovelace developed the very
first theoretical algorithm in software. The vision presented by her was based on analytical
engine that can weave any kind of pattern like Jacquard loom can weave leaves and flowers.
The vision of her should have become an embody or the lifeblood of technology industry
along with invention and pushed boundaries of various possibility. However, her efforts and
legacy want into haywire with today’s age modern programming where the existence of
women in this industry has become dangerously gendered (Collins, 2011).
Description of IT industry
The word information technology often called as IT are widely come in used in organization
as well as filed of computing. People using the terms in this field are generally referring
towards many kinds of computer based work with sometime people confuses with the
meaning. For more than ten years there are many corporation that have created a distinct kind
of IT department to manage the computer based technologies associated for the business
(Webster, 2014). Whatever such departments worked on becoming the main definition of IT,
one that has evolved over a period. In the present time, IT department have accountability in
following areas: -
1. Technology support from computer

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2. Business based computer network as well as database administration
3. Software deployment from business point of view
4. Security of information
The computing system and capabilities are expanding across the world along with data
overload which is becoming a critical challenge for many professionals in the sector.
Efficiency based processing covers huge data that can produce useful business based
intelligence which need large amount of processing based power with sophisticated software
as well as analytical skills of a human being (Wright, 2011).
Communication as well as teamwork based skills have also become important in many
organization to manage the different complexities of IT based systems. There are many IT
professionals that are accountable for providing right kind of services to business user who
are not properly trained in computer based networking system or other technologies however
who are not rightly trained in computer networking (Whittaker, 2011).
Then there is system and network based security challenges that become the main concern for
many business managers as any security case can largely damage the reputation of the
company and cost based larger sum of money.
Potential impact of the issue on the IT industry and on the conduct of practice
There is a potential rise in the number of women that are accusing technology based
companies that are having an apathetic stance on harassment as well as inequality. In last few
months, companies like Google has been largely accused of having a systematic kind of
disparities in compensation that exist between all genders in the company (Campos-Soria et
al, 2011). As per the reports, approx. two thousand and eight-hundred-word blog post consist
of all kind of allegations against much hyped case of Uber that led to two important
investigations with twenty dismissals and the current resignation of Uber executive in

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previous or last harassment allegations. In the recent time, the company’s investigation has
mainly aimed on company board members to deal with claims that were toxic for the
company’s culture. The case was gone out of hand, the executive got fired for completely
mishandling the reports from medical department of the woman who was raped by the
employees of the company. The chief executive of the company directly came under much
scrutiny along with board of directors debating a leave of absence for three months. In
another case in Silicon Valley, a company called Upload VR which is San Francisco based
company for virtual reality was sued claiming of sexual harassment at workplace which led to
unbearable culture for female workforce and thus the lawsuit was filed against them. It was
also claimed by victim that the treatment was systematically prejudiced towards female’s
staff and disregard for the overall safety of the workforce (Whyte, 2017). The culture of the
company was defined as hostile for female staff in the year 2013 when she specifically joined
the organization as a manufacturing engineer where she was also paid less in comparison of
male counterparts who work she took over. In addition, whenever there were meetings she
used to be the only female employees among forty and fifty men. In fact, all chief executive
was positioned at the company were held by male members and out of approx. thirty vice
presidents only two were women. In addition, in Silicon Valley, the overall average of tech
based board of director of company is just eleven percent female (Lam, 2012).
Description of the ways to deal with the issue
Being assertive and persistent is the most important thing to do and it is also important to
note aggressive approach will not help at all. There are number of women in technology
company that are pretty used to holding minority status at work. However, it doesn’t make
them the only female among many male members any better. There are so many times when
there is only one women member in the room and when notice a pattern of male colleagues
evaluating the female member’s every move and actions (Reagle, 2012). In this kind of

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situation, one can feel to be in a catch 22 case and it is difficult to decide the action. In case
of fighting back, one might see an extra sensitive or shrill side but in case of no action, one
could come off as a weak gender. As per the recent research women with certain masculine
traits like high self-confidence are perceived as more competent then any set standard of
feminine women. However, they can also be taken as a less socially skilled and thus further
suffer a backlash kind of impact.
Conclusion
It is a challenging time for females in technology sector. In fact, women employees are
choosing out of the technology industry work, an element blamed as a part of the industry
based pattern of sexism. As per the recent study in Talent innovation, the study says the
women in science, technology and engineering are forty five percent more likely than male
members to entirely leave the work or the industry (Prescott & Bogg, 2011). There are
number of reasons discussed above, some says it is a feeling of being stalled in the career
graph or completely excluded from the workplace based culture or the whopping half which
claims that workers believes that men have an advantage in science or another subject.

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Reference
Campos-Soria, J. A., Marchante-Mera, A., & Ropero-García, M. A. (2011). Patterns of
occupational segregation by gender in the hospitality industry. International Journal
of Hospitality Management, 30(1), 91-102.
Collins, D. (2011). Business ethics: How to design and manage ethical organizations. John
Wiley & Sons.
Lam, A. C. (2012). Women and Japanese management: discrimination and reform.
Routledge.
Nadal, K. L., Davidoff, K. C., & Fujii-Doe, W. (2014). Transgender women and the sex work
industry: Roots in systemic, institutional, and interpersonal discrimination. Journal of
Trauma & Dissociation, 15(2), 169-183.
Prescott, J., & Bogg, J. (2011). Segregation in a male-dominated industry: Women working
in the computer games industry. International Journal of Gender, Science and
Technology, 3(1).
Reagle, J. (2012). “Free as in sexist?” Free culture and the gender gap. first monday, 18(1).
Webster, J. (2014). Shaping women's work: Gender, employment and information
technology. Routledge.
Whittaker, A. M. (2011). Reproduction opportunists in the new global sex trade: PGD and
non-medical sex selection. Reproductive biomedicine online, 23(5), 609-617.
Whyte, J. (2017). Girls into science and technology: The story of a project. Taylor & Francis.

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Wright, D. (2011). A framework for the ethical impact assessment of information
technology. Ethics and information technology, 13(3), 199-226.