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Gender, Technology, and Development in South India

Gender, Technology, and Development in South India. Meredith Anderson Louisiana State University. Why do women in the developing world have more difficulty pursuing research careers than their male counterparts?.

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Gender, Technology, and Development in South India

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  1. Gender, Technology, and Development in South India Meredith Anderson Louisiana State University

  2. Why do women in the developing world have more difficulty pursuing research careers than their male counterparts? • Based on data gathered in 1994, Campion and Shrum (2004) identified some key areas in which female scientists in Kerala are disadvantaged in comparison to their male counterparts • Location of Higher Education • Travel Abroad • Social Networks

  3. The Patrifocal Context • Gupta and Sharma (2002) define patrifocality as • subordination of individual interests to the welfare of the family; gender-differentiated family roles with females being associated with the ‘private’ sphere; gender differentiated family authority structure (with authority of same-generational males over socially equivalent females, such as husbands over wives, brothers over sisters); family control of marriage arrangements; patrilineal descent, inheritance, and succession; patrifocal residence, with daughters shifting allegiance to husband’s family after marriage; and an ideology of ‘appropriate’ female behaviour that emphasizes chastity, obedience, and modesty (902).

  4. Methodology • 90 face-to-face interviews conducted in 2003 and 2004 and analyzed with QSR NVivo software • Location of Higher Education • Organizational Involvement • Visits Abroad • Professional Contacts • Internet Use and Access • Research Related Email Transactions • Gender Discourse

  5. Results • Educational Localism • Women were disadvantaged in terms of location of higher education rather than level of education • “We cannot move out freely after the household chores. My husband is not the kind who is supportive ...My husband is very orthodox. He would get irritated with studying after marriage. He wanted me to have job but did not like me studying after marriage.”

  6. Results • Travel Abroad • Women were found to travel less than men and to travel for shorter periods of time • What seems to have increased with the diffusion of the Internet is female scientists’s consciousness of the importance of international opportunities

  7. Results • Professional Contacts • In contrast to Campion and Shrum’s findings, women were discovered to mention far more international than local contacts. Men, however, listed far more local ties. • “[My] contact has become a lot, really, otherwise contact was very less. Even when I go for training there also I get some help, otherwise we do not communicate…We have stopped letters. We are ladies, you know, either phone or email, letters are very rare.”

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