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? 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

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).

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

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.”

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

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.”