Absent Friends? The gender dimension in information systems research

Abstract

This paper argues that research on gender and information systems, from both quantitative and qualitative traditions, is problematic as the concept of gender continues to remain under-theorized. We discuss why this may have occurred given that an interest in gender has begun to permeate other disciplines. We elaborate an extensive critique of research which utilizes a statistical approach, discussing four recent papers with one MIS Quarterly paper taken as the cardinal example. We also include a shorter discussion of qualitative literature on gender and IS which reflects the paucity of published literature in this area. Here we see similar tendencies at work, where both gender and technology are taken to be fixed, "essential", and even stereotypical categories and where authors have yet to grasp the nettle of solidly theorizing the concept of gender against the extensive gender and information technology literature which now exists. © 2001 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.