Western Work Worlds and Altering Approaches to Marriage

Based on a qualitative empirical study of women call center employees in India, this chapter argues that approaches towards marriage are being altered due to the impact of Western work worlds. In-depth interviews were conducted with eighteen respondent located in Delhi, a metropolitan area, and Jaipur, a second tier city Though, in terms of size, culture, and outlook of people there are great differences between Delhi and Jaipur, the work culture introduced by the call centers is similar in both cities. Consequently, the findings reveal certain similar as well as certain different opinions in the approaches towards marriage at both the cities. Women are negotiating with these approaches to continue with either employment in call center or marriage, or both. By doing a comparative analysis between the respondents of two cities about the decision of marriage, the study provides a range of approaches adopted by the women employees of call centers, while balancing work and the decision of marriage. The chapter also highlights the varying forms of women agency being exercised while dealing with the issue of marriage along with the unprecedented work culture of call centers in India.

Indian Women Working in Call Centers

This chapter draws on recent (2005) interviews with 20 call center workers in the New Delhi metro area to analyze the impact of employment in international call centers for young middle-class Indian women. Providing a wide range of telephone and occasionally Internet services to customers in the US, UK, and Australia, call centers are a booming source of employment for young English-speaking Indians. Roughly half of the growing workforce is female, and the wages are high by Indian standards. Nevertheless, the need to work at night to service customers on other continents creates special hardships and complications, particularly for young women who traditionally would not be allowed to go out at night. While acknowledging the hardships and obstacles presented by the work, this chapter shows that that working in call centers changes the relationships between the young women workers and their parents. Specifically, it argues that young women working in call centers are implicitly rejecting traditional patterns of family control over daughters, and in doing so they are resisting subordination.

Challenges Faced by Women

Workplace stress and pressures confronted by an employee due to conflicting role demands and their desire to lead a fulfilling life have brought certain issues to the forefront. Retaining talent and making the workplace enjoyable have been the endeavors of behavioral scientists. BPO jobs demand specific behaviors from their employees, which might result in individual stress. In the context of skill shortages, work-family issues came to be viewed primarily as a recruitment and retention matter. The challenges faced by women while working in a BPO sector are varied, and organizations need to take several initiatives to handle the attrition levels.

Gender Gaps and Information and Communication Technology

The present chapter attempts to look at the digital divide and the constraints related to Information Technology, which women share by gender. Along with major subdivisions on region, ethnic group, class, and caste, a major digital divide based on gender is emerging in India. Poverty is the main constraint that many women face along with men, in addition to their lower status in Indian society. Women face challenges in pursuing education at all ages because of lack of time to attend school, familial and household duties, and socio-cultural norms that give a low priority to education. The gender gap, especially the gap between men and women and how they benefit from Information Technology, has widened, because women are less likely than men to receive technical education or be employed in technology intensive work. Globalization has further complicated this issue, leading to increasing feminization.

The Case of the U.S. Mother / Cyberspy / Undercover Iraqi Militant

While literature on women in technology and women in the military are well-developed, the field of cybersecurity has yet to be addressed within either of them. Therefore, this analysis charts a typology of work in global ICTs, an “information hierarchy,” and explores the presence and contributions of women at multiple levels. It identifies selected jobs for women in cybersecurity as illustrations of these dynamics. This starts with “networkers” at the top: the infoczars who lead the nation’s agencies for military and information security, and engineers who design the military technology systems. In the middle “networked” level, this includes cyber spies (posing from their homes as Al Qaeda militants on the internet) and customer service workers (enforcing US homeland security on the phone with the public). At the bottom, it includes “switched off” workers: flight attendants and transit screeners, who use security information embedded in computers for the surveillance of people’s bodies. This chapter takes focus on the middle level of the hierarchy in particular. The discussion considers the transformations women make in this field, as well as their political tradeoffs in supporting US political campaigns in the Global South.

Filipino Cyborg Sexualities, Chatroom Masculinities, Self-Ascribed Identities, Ephemeral Selves

This cyberethnographic study aims to describe the creation of male sexualities among self-ascribed Filipino men in online chatrooms, describe the virtual environments wherein cyber male sexualities are constructed, and discuss the extent to which virtual male sexualities reflect contemporary physical world male sexualities and implicate masculinities. Chatroom selves are self-ascribed and ephemeral selves that abound in an indulgent ambiance. Chatrooms sanction a whole range of behaviors that afford meaningfully lived freedom to persons. The author argues that under similar conditions, the practice of masculinities can become non-oppressive, egalitarian, and liberating for the self and for others.

Virtual Tourism as a New Form of Oppression against Women

This chapter draws upon parallel developments in tourism and new media studies basing on the emergence of virtual tourism. Virtual tourism, and by extension real tourism, is taken as a site for analysis where both these methods can be employed. This chapter looks at certain websites and sees how prostitution and other forms of work are subsumed under the garb of development, whereas they are in fact crimes against women.

Gender Symbolism and Technology Uptake

The need to promote adoption of technology in general and Information and Communication Technologies, computers, and the internet in specific terms has increasingly become of interest. Observation is that while some potential users take on the innovation with much ease, others remain less enthusiastic, and some do not uptake at all. In addition, there are differences noted between male and female users. The reasons influencing the differences are not yet well explained but could be as a result of gender symbolism. The objective of this chapter is to review literature on gender symbolism and cite explanations supporting the influence of GS on differences in uptake.

Gendering Professionalism in the Internationalization of Information Work

Professionalism as a particular form of organizing work has been challenged by internationalization dynamics, globalization, and the development of information and communication technologies. Mixed forms of organisational professionalism adopting managerialism principles with a global customer scope beyond national boundaries and combining different control sources of work and knowledge are being adopted by large enterprises to confront international organisational challenges. The structures and dynamics of internationally operating organizations must be adapted to the emerging transnational work requirements, and strictly locally situated institutions are compared with each other in international and transnational arenas. Moreover, due to the rapid internationalization and standardization of working processes that facilitate the transfer of tasks to lower-wage-countries,1 the definition of technical areas and tasks changes, and with it, their connotations of prestige and power. Thus, the development of mixed professionalism could be seen as a kind of institutional work and as a new form of organizing international work. It can also represent an opportunity for women to enter in emerging occupations and to establish in particular jurisdictional fields through the control of educational and training resources and the opportunity of configuring governance claims.

Gender, Culture, and ICT use

The advent of the new technology was originally seen as a positive development for women’s work. India is one of the largest providers of off- shored BPO activities such as Call Centres services and others which have become emerging workspaces. To a large extent, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) hold great promise in the drive for development and poverty reeducation in the global south under the globalization process. It has been dubbed “the great equalizer,” and the spread of IT – enabled services are beneficial for both men and women, those who have limited skills, or a lack of resources. In spite of gender discrimination and gender bias, employees of ICT companies are facing various challenges in their day to day life such as work family interface, health status, mobility in odd hours, and decision making levels. Especially Call Centre jobs have a direct impact on people’s health, interpersonal relationships, and stress on the work environment; they may suffer from loneliness, depression, and anxiety related problems. Therefore, urgent attention should be given towards the increased rate of mental disorders, suicides, and family distortions. Initiation of family counseling centres and other coping and intervention strategies should be implemented for the empowerment of women workers in ICTs.