Gender, Skilled Migration and IT: a comparative study of India and the UK

The global Information Technology (IT) sector is characterised by low participation of women and the UK is no exception. In response, UK organizations (e.g. Women in Technology), committees (e.g. BCS Women) and campaigns (e.g. Computer Clubs for Girls) have been set up to address the problem and increase the small and falling number of women in IT education, training and employment. To complement and provide an evidence base for future interventions this project will adopt a new approach, differentiated from existing research by considering the problem from two unexplored angles simultaneously. First, India, in comparison with most OECD countries, has a much higher proportion of women working as IT specialists; the project will compare the experiences of IT workers in India and the UK to see what the UK can learn from the Indian case. Secondly, the research will explore the insights of migrant women and men who move between UK and India and have experience of both work cultures in order to obtain new insights into gender norms in each country as well as best practice. Through this multidisciplinary, comparative analysis across the two countries, and of the experiences of migrants, 2 significant but separate fields of academic research will be brought together: 1) gender issues in IT, and 2) gender and skilled migration.
The questions the research seeks to answer are:
a) What are the patterns of gender differences in the labour market among migrant and non-migrant workers in the IT sector in India and the UK? This aims to identify differences in occupational roles, wages, and whether size of firms or other demographic variables matter;
b) What processes have led to different gendered patterns of workplace experiences among migrant and non-migrant workers in the IT sector in India and the UK? This question's comparative approach will address a specific knowledge gap by exploring the perspectives of men as well as women, migrants as well as non-migrants, in both countries;
c) is oriented around the concerns of businesses and policy-makers and asks, what is the role of firms, industry and national regulations and cultures in creating barriers and opportunities for migrant and non-migrant men and women's career entry and progression and labour markets? The answers will be sought from HR managers and policy makers in both countries;
d) acknowledges that many firms are already trying to develop organisational cultures and career pathways to address the gender disparity in the IT sector; it asks, what are the best practices for integrating women into firms in each country and how does this differ by migration status? This question involves exploring the experiences of migrant men as well as migrant and non-migrant women, and establishes mechanisms for sharing best practice between firms and between the two countries.
To ensure the research is timely, relevant and will generate useful information, it was developed through conversations with the Indian and UK IT sectors' key professional and trade associations, chartered bodies, IT education campaigners and advocates, and multinational IT companies. During the project, individual representatives from 5 of these organizations - a Professional Advisory Group (PAG) - will meet regularly with the researchers, to discuss the findings and offer advice. The IT companies will facilitate the research by introducing the researchers to voluntary cohorts of men and women IT employees in each country. Because of the urgency of the issue the firms and PAG have asked for 3 best practice guides during the project. At the end of the project, the researchers will produce a targeted report for the PAG organisations and for firms. Through the PAG, this report will be disseminated to their corporate memberships, numbering in the thousands, and to UK and Indian policy makers through focused workshops. Other users of the research include the OECD and IOM with which the researchers have links.

This project will have a range of beneficiaries and benefits:
1. Participating firms will gain information about internal (workplace cultures, firm-level factors, HR management) and external factors (migration and employment policies) implicated in women staying or leaving the sector, and whether they take up opportunities for inter-company transfer. They will also have data on factors affecting the integration of migrants into their firms and how transcultural learning can take place. Firms contacted thus far have shown interest because they aim to be at the forefront of learning best practice from other firms, especially those working in India, in order that they can improve their reputations as women-friendly national and global employers. Within the context of IT skills shortage firms are keen to get a competitive edge in recruiting and retaining the best talent possible. They have therefore requested regular briefing papers because they felt that the urgency of the issue warrants early implementation of insights from the research. In the long term this project will aim to lead to better alignment between the firms' economic goals and national migration and employment policies.
2. UK and Indian professional and trade associations and business councils, whose main benefit will be the ability to use up-to-date knowledge about women IT specialists' collective needs, to better support and guide members' human resource policies. Targeted reports will also be disseminated to their corporate and individual members and to relevant government departments about improving women's uptake of inter-company transfers, so facilitating the circulation of coded skills and knowledge across the sector globally. These organisations will also be better equipped with knowledge about migration and employment policy to make representations to government about how to maximise the benefits of skilled workers in the UK.
3. UK policy-makers: This project will have medium term impact by contributing to evidence-based policy-making at the national level on how to stop and reverse low and declining participation of women in the IT. It will strengthen existing relationships between the UK government (via BIS) and global-level IT business interests. The project also has the potential to enhance the economic competitiveness of the UK in the long run by making it a more attractive destination for inter-country intercompany transfer of individual specialists and raising its profile as a skilled woman-friendly country to work for migrants and non-migrants alike.
4. Indian policy-makers: The IT sector is seen as the beacon of 'new India' and is an important sector for drawing in Foreign Direct Investment. Both the image and the policies of the industry are therefore considered crucial for the country. The IT scorecard and best practice guide will provide insights to help maintain the global positioning of the Indian IT sector.
5. Migrant and non-migrant men and women IT specialists in the UK: It provides an opportunity to have individual and collective stories heard and recorded, recognising that the work and position of women and migrants in the workplace matters beyond their individual circumstances. Improved culture at firm-level, more incentives for intercompany transfer and career trajectories inclusive of family/social/cultural needs are other likely short and medium-term impacts.
6. General public: In the UK, the project, through its partners, has the capacity to alter the image of women in the IT sector, to foster recognition that IT has much to offer women, especially those seeking international career paths and to improve perceptions of outcomes of STEM-related study and careers. In India NASSCOM is interested in using India's positive participation figures to further increase the appeal of the sector to women and girls.
7. The findings will also be of interest to 'women in tech' organisations in other OECD countries such as NCWIT in the US.