Technology, Gender and Organizations: A Systematic Mapping Study

Abstract

In this article, we employed a systematic mapping methodology to examine the existing literature at the intersection of technology, gender and organizations. While much has been written about gender in organizations, the research has not consistently considered that modern organizations are increasingly technology-driven – in technology may lie an underexplored lever that could help expand our understanding of gender issues at the workplace. By analyzing a final sample of 168 research papers, we found that two main forms of conceptualizing technology emerged: technology as culture and technology as tools. Papers in the first category are concerned with environments in which technology drives a large part of what is produced, and, therefore, heavily influences culture; authors employ this framing to study technology companies, roles, and entire economic sectors under a gender perspective. The second approach corresponds to the understanding of technology as tools that individuals can use to perform their tasks. A tool can be physical, based on software, or even combine hardware, software, procedures and people; authors employ this framing to study gendered use, or adoption, of technologies to work. We summarized all the extracted data to obtain a mapping of the literature and conclude with suggestions for future research at the intersection of technology, gender and organizations.