“Stop talking about gender:” Toward positive diversity and inclusion experience of female IT professionals in Poland

• Date: 13 April 2023
• Pages: 1021-1037
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-12-2021-0327
• Published date: 13 April 2023
• Author: Monika Sońta

“Stop talking about gender:”

Toward positive diversity

and inclusion experience of female

IT professionals in Poland

Monika So

nta

Management in Networked and Digital Societies (MINDS) Department,

Kozminski University, Warsaw, Poland

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences regarding diversity and inclusion in the

professional context. The stories of female IT professionals included the discussion around enablers and

blockers of career and development in IT and talking about worst and best daily experiences at the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach –This is a qualitative study that presents the findings from four focus

groups with 50 participants –selectedfemale IT professionals working in Poland. The IT professionals were

taking partin the Women in Tech Summitin Warsaw in 2019. LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY®projective technique

has been applied during the group interviews to help the participants express their experiences in a creative way.

Findings –The findings include conceptualization of the three main sources of inequalities: (1) Imbalance in

rewardsand recognition and performance visibility (2) Inability to build wider women-oriented strategic alliances and

meaningful relationships around D&I and (3) Willingness but no practical mechanisms to contribute to the business

value and being a part of meaningful activities and two concepts of how to improve employee experiences, namely:

business strategizing based on daily meaningful experience and mentoring others and impacting business reality

through creating professional alliances that matter and are recognized as business value generators as the key

directions.

Research limitations/implications –The research was conducted before the pandemic.

Practical implications –The research creates a practical conversational framework for managers giving

directions on how to talk about diversity and inclusion in the workplace using a perspective of “daily

interactions”and “everyday employee experiences”.

Social implications –The emerged concepts help to direct the corporate discussions around Social

Development Goal No. 5 –Gender Equality in a practical business dimension.

Originality/value –The originality is brought by (1) LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY®–the method of creative

exploration used during the focused groups (2) social significance of gender equality in the technological roles

and industries, especially in the context of reskilling approaches (3) Centraland Eastern European perspective

of the research.

Keywords Diversity and inclusion, LEGO SERIOUS PLAY, Employee experience, Innovating through

diversity

Paper type Research paper

Being in tech now is quite rewarding. Women who are there are profiting from an ‘umbrella of

diversity and inclusion.’Of course, it is hard, complicated, often uncomfortable and demanding.

(One of the participants of focus group No. 3).

Introduction: Gendered organizations in Central and Eastern Europe

According to Joan Acker’s gendered organization (1990) theory, inequalities in workplaces

are a universal and transcultural phenomenon as the logic of patriarchy is embedded in the

organizational patterns to such an extent that they can overwrite social facts and trends in

workplaces. The consequence of such a frame is the rationalization and legitimization of

Positive

diversity and

inclusion

experience

1021

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 28 December 2021

Revised 24 June 2022

3 September 2022

25 February 2023

Accepted 10 March 2023

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 42 No. 8, 2023

pp. 1021-1037

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-12-2021-0327

inequalities between male and female professions with cultural artifacts such as the pay gap

or the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles (Hideg and Shen, 2019).

The critique of Acker’s work relates to the masculine-dominated industries such as oil and

gas, information technologies and other groups of highly skilled tech workers in the new

economy (Williams et al., 2012). This article will interpret Acker’s concept in the new economy

when the talent gap encourages employers to reach for new talent pools, in this case: women

IT professionals. After all, Acker’s concept has become the foundation for picturesque

metaphors such as “rattling the cage”in the context of leading a social change (Plante and

Maurer, 2010).

Furthermore, this article’s approach refers to Acker’s reproduction of patriarchal relations

in the organizational environment (2006), especially when we discuss the emergence of a new

social class driven by technological (ICT) competencies, which changes the perception of

“breadwinning”as the payment gap in IT industry is significantly lower or even does not

exist. This situation introduces “a discourse of mutual prosperity through individualized

competitiveness”(Brock et al., 2019, p. 188).

In Poland, the most common narrative links to the post-Soviet mentality (UNIFEM, 2006)

when –in line with the communist ideology –women should also contribute to productivity

with their professional activities. This approach equals accepting the “double shift”as a

leading narrative: the “first shift”happens at work and “the second shift”is an unpaid job at

home. Due to this communist legacy (Ga

˛ciarz, 2011), women are expected to stay

professionally active as they are expected to contribute to the generation of wealth with

the simultaneous expectation to prioritize family and household responsibilities (see Plate 1).

The result of the lingering communist legacy is an agreement to jobs with lower social

status and pay to jobs done by men, as women’s work is de facto their second responsibility.

According to the Polish government’s website, the gender pay gap in Poland varies from 7%

Plate 1.

“Women on tractors!”

poster: Illustration of

the communist slogan

to encourage the idea of

men’s and women’s

equal contribution to

the generation of

national wealth

EDI

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