Gender and Mobile App Development as a Career of Choice: An Exploratory Study In South Africa

Abstract

The underrepresentation of women in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector is a challenge despite the existing conducive opportunity for a career in ICT. In this digital era where smartphones are almost synonymous with urban living, this paper sought to explore the social sustainability of gender diversity as a degree of involvement of women in technically developing mobile apps (apps). App development is an emergent lucrative career choice today and is predicted to remain as such for the foreseeable future. The research drew on the individual differences theory of gender in ICT by Eileen Trauth (2006; 2004) to explore the extent to which the underrepresentation has similarly permeated app development. The findings from the exploratory study of 44 app developers in South Africa suggest that gender underrepresentation and bias has spread to app development. The results nonetheless reveal a similar degree of interest among women as men to attempt a career in app development, but more especially, that women have a preference for collaborative app development environments. For practice, the results call for more deliberate efforts and interventions to change female perceptions about app development and to stem the ever widening technological gender gap in a region where the mobile phone market has exploded. The study also lends support to the social constructionist view that women underrepresentation is ICT not primarily a result of essentialist differences between men and women but more a result of social and cultural habits.