Gender and Technology
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Item Gender-Focused Technology Design and Care Ethics Integration: Addressing Social and Practical Challenges(2025-01-07) Forattini, FernandoThis paper examines the integration of care ethics into the design of gender-focused technologies, addressing the socio-political and practical challenges in the IT sector. It argues that these technologies often reflect interests embedded within predominant social structures and ethical conceptions, with the underrepresentation of women in tech leadership roles as a symptom, perpetuating existing disparities rather than addressing the actual needs of marginalized groups. Drawing on an extensive review of gender-focused technology literature and care ethics case studies, we critique traditional ethical frameworks for their failure to address these challenges. We explore how care ethics, emphasizing relational and contextual morality, can provide a more inclusive and effective approach while highlighting theoretical and practical issues that hamper implementation. We propose addressing and reinterpreting these criticisms as opportunities to leverage the strengths of care ethics, creating technologies that empower and resonate with user groups, fostering a more equitable future.Item Navigating Gendered Anthropomorphism in AI Ethics: The Case of Lee Luda in South Korea(2025-01-07) Oh, Jiwon JennThe Lee Luda controversy was a pivotal moment that inaugurated nationwide discourses surrounding AI ethics in South Korea. As a conversational chatbot designed to simulate lifelike conversations, Luda quickly gained attention for its human-like interaction capabilities but soon became the center of controversy due to its use of private human conversations for training, leading to unintended disclosures of personal details and generating responses filled with hate speech and sexual content manipulation. This incident prompted widespread public concern and regulatory scrutiny, leading to suspension of the service and subsequent fines imposed by the government. In response, ScatterLab introduced an ‘AI Chatbot Ethics Checklist’ to address ethical concerns in AI development. This study examines the aftermath of the Lee Luda incident, focusing on ScatterLab’s ethical response and the broader implications for AI ethics and gender in Korea, underscoring the need for inclusive and ethical AI design practices to mitigate biases in AI technologies.Item Female CEO Appointment and Stock Outcomes in Tech: The Role of Crises and Board Composition(2025-01-07) Nair, Siddhi Ramanand; Zhang, JieInformation systems (IS) scholars have explored barriers and hardships women face in their careers in the information technology (IT) sector, yet understanding of female leadership is limited in this domain. Our study bridges this gap by examining the relation of female CEO appointments with forward-looking firm performance in the IT industry. We draw upon resource dependence and the glass cliff theory and identify two moderators: the firm’s financial crisis status and the presence of female board members to build our hypotheses. Further, we analyze how these factors affect the relationship between female CEO appointment and firm performance with a sample of publicly traded US IT firms from 2000 to 2019. Our findings indicate that female CEOs are positively associated with firm performance. However, the relation is dampened by a firm’s financial crisis status and the presence of female board members.Item Employees’ Justice Perceptions and Trust in AI Systems for Performance Evaluation: Uncovering the Role of Gender and Culture(2025-01-07) Nguyen, Tam; Connolly, ReginaOrganizational use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist with performance evaluation has increased in recent years. However, limited understanding exists about employees’ perceptions regarding AI usage for this purpose, and how it reshapes justice perceptions, trust, and commitment towards the organization. Moreover, little attention has been paid to whether gender and cultural differences exist in relation to this issue. This study explores the intersectionality of gender and culture on employees’ perceptions of AI adoption for performance evaluation, focusing on justice perceptions and trust in AI. Survey data collected from 291 participants across Eastern and Western countries was analyzed using partial least squares and multigroup analyses. The findings elucidate the relative impacts of distributive, procedural, and informational justice on trust in AI across cultures. Notably, gender differences in trust in AI formation pathways were observed in the Eastern sample, whereas no such distinction was found among Western participants.Item Envisioning a New Era of Inclusivity in the Digital Entrepreneurial Landscape through Digital Platforms(2025-01-07) Schmitt, FranziskaDespite the significant potential of digital entrepreneurship to promote gender equality, women remain underrepresented in this field. This study explores how digital platforms can enable and/or hinder women entrepreneurs. Drawing on post-structural feminist theory and the conceptual framework of external enablers, I examine the experiences of women digital entrepreneurs. Adopting a qualitative and grounded research design, I conduct interviews with participants engaged in Uplevyl, a women-centric digital platform offering leadership, community support, and AI tools. Based on the enabler framework I derive four enablers and three inhibitors in form of aggregate dimensions for women entrepreneurs’ participation in digital platforms. Uplevyl enables women through sharing knowledge, community, entrepreneurial identity, in an online environment perceived as safe and trustworthy. However, Uplevyl also inhibits women entrepreneurs in regard to work-life balance, gender equity, and new venture creation. The study underscores the importance of gender-sensitive approaches in digital entrepreneurship in research and practice.Item Introduction to the Minitrack on Gender and Technology(2025-01-07) Jafarijoo, Mina; Connolly, Regina; Mcparland, Cliona