Walls all around: barriers women professionals face in high-tech careers in Bangladesh

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-11-2017-0247
• Pages: 705-726
• Published date: 16 September 2019
• Date: 16 September 2019
• Author: Samina Saifuddin,Lorraine Dyke,Md Sajjad Hossain
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity, equality, inclusion

Walls all around: barriers women

professionals face in high-tech

careers in Bangladesh

Samina Saifuddin

Department of Business Administration, Morgan State University, Baltimore,

Maryland, USA

Lorraine Dyke

Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, and

Md Sajjad Hossain

Department of Business Administration, East West University,

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this pape r is to create a nuanced understa nding of the barriers women hig h-tech

professionals face i n Bangladesh. The main a im is to identify the ext ent to which these barr iers are

common across differen t contexts and to explo re the barriers that are u nique and situated in the lo cal

socio-cultural conte xt.

Design/methodology/approach –In-depth interviews with high-tech professionals were conducted to

identify and explore the barriers.

Findings –Although some of the barriers are common across different contexts, most of the barriers

women professionals face arise due to the interaction between situated socio-cultural practices and gender.

The dynamics of socio-cultural and patriarchal norms reinforce gender biases and gendered practices that

afford men with greater control over resources and systematically limit women’s access to opportunities.

Research limitations/implications –The study recruited 35 participants using snowball sampling.

From a methodological perspective, future research could benefit from recruiting a larger, more varied sample

using random sampling.

Practical implications –Women experience barriers due to both internal organizational features and

external contextual barriers. The findings suggest that some of these barriers can be removed through

governmental and organizational policies and through appropriate intervention strategies delivered in

partnership with governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Originality/value –The study makes a unique contribution by using a macro-social lens to analyze

the meso-organizational practices and micro-individual phenomena thereby providing a holistic view of the

barriers faced by women professionals in Bangladesh.

Keywords Bangladesh, Barriers, Stereotypes, Gender bias, Women professionals, High-tech

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Most of the researchon women’s underrepresentation intechnology careers highlights social

and structural barriers (Ahuja, 2002), such as a dominant male culture (Cockburn, 1983;

Hewlett et al., 2014; Pringle et al., 2000; Tapia, 2006; von Hellens et al., 2001; Wajcman, 2000),

occupational norms that disadvantage women (Hewlett et al., 2008), difficulties in b alancing

work and family responsibilities (Poster and Prasad, 2005), discriminatory organizational

practices (Cross and Linehan, 2006; Tai and Sims-Nova, 2005), a lack of role models

(Drury et al., 2011; Soe and Yakura, 2008) and a lack of mentoring and networking

opportunities (Cross and Linehan, 2006; Griffiths et al., 2007; Hewlett et al.,2014).These

barriers are typically discussed in the contextof western and northern countries, such as the

USA (Igbariaand Baroudi, 1995), Canada (Dyke et al., 2007), Australia (von Hell ens et al.,2001)

and the UK (Cross and Linehan, 2006). These studies make important contributions but may

not reflect the dynamicsof women’s underrepresentation in careers in South Asian countries

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 38 No. 7, 2019

pp. 705-726

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-11-2017-0247

Received 10 November 2017

Revised 22 May 2018

14 November 2018

Accepted 16 December 2018

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

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

705

High-tech

careers in

Bangladesh

like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan (Pio and Syed, 2013). The few studies investigating

gender dynamics and barriers which have been situated within the context of South Asian

socio-cultural norms (e.g. Genilo et al., 2013; Poster, 2013; Poster and Prasad, 2005; Upadhya

and Vasavi,2006) mainly examine the Indiancontext (with the exception of Geniloet al., 2013).

As there can be different dynamics at playfor women professionals across national contexts

(Klarsfeld, 2010; Poster, 2013), more studies are needed to understand South Asian contexts.

The differences in context raise some important questions:

RQ1. To what extent are the barriers women experience common across different contexts?

RQ2. What context-specific barriers do women in South Asian countries face due to

situated, socio-cultural practices?

RQ3. What implications do such barriers have on gender equality in high-tech occupations?

In order to addressthese research questions and account forimportant contextual differences,

this study examined the barriers women high-tech professionals face in Bangladesh.

The study uses the theoretical framework of social roletheory (Eagly et al., 2000) to examine

the intersectionbetween gender and socio-cultural norms and gain a better understanding of

gender dynamics in the high-tech sector. According to social role theory, the sexual division

of labor gives rise to gendered social roles. Gender roles simultaneously reinforce the sexual

division of labor as women and men are expected to work in gender-congruent roles.

Gender roles are both descriptive and prescriptive –they outline how women and men are,

and how they ought to behave. Women are expected to be nurturing, communal and

adhere to their roles in the household, while men are expected to be agentic and to assume

the role of breadwinner. These gendered roles are particularly salient in the Bangladeshi

context (Rao, 2012).

The findings from the present study indicate some similarities between the barriers faced

by Bangladeshi women professionals and the barriers identified by extant research

(e.g. dominant male culture, occupational norms that disadvantage women), but most

of the barriers facing Bangladeshi women are the product of socio-cultural practices

(e.g. patriarchal culture, conservative mindset and gendered norms) that affect

organizational practices (e.g. gendered practices and gendered structure) and individual

level phenomena (e.g. safety, mobility, image and preference). The study makes a unique

contribution –it uses a macro-social lens to analyze meso-organizational practices and

micro-individual phenomena thereby providing a holistic view of the barriers faced by

women professionals. Syed and Özbilgin (2009) argue that multilevel conceptualizations are

important to understanding perspectives on equality and diversity management framed

within specific contexts. Moreover, interviewing both women and men provided a more

nuanced understanding of the barriers women professionals face in Bangladesh.

The paper is structured as follow: first, it provides a contextual overview of women in

Bangladesh followed by the current state of research on Bangladeshi women professionals.

Next, the paper offers a review of existing barriers in the high-tech sector. Then, the paper

presents the qualitative study including method, findings –organized according to common

barriers across contexts and specific barriers faced by women professionals in Bangladesh.

And the last section presents discussion, implications and conclusion.

Women in Bangladesh

In the patriarchal society of Bangladesh, men dominate women through private and public

patriarchy (Chowdhury, 2009). Private patriarchy is maintained through family where a

woman is dependent on male members of her family. Before marriage, she is dependent on

her father or in the absence of a father, another male family member. After marriage, she is

dependent on her husband or in-laws. In the public arena, women are often viewed as sexual

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