The place of women on the websites of IT companies

Details

Supervisors

De Cock, Sylvie

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en communication multilingue

Abstract

As the IT industry is traditionally male-dominated and the needs for a diverse workforce increase, gender issues remain an important concern for IT companies. Website has become one of the major communication channels for companies, on which gender diversity is increasingly discussed. Few studies have been set out to examine the status of women on the websites of IT companies. The aim of this study is to provide an insight into how IT companies enhance gender parity on their corporate websites. A content analysis approach is used to investigate the textual and visual elements on websites, in order to understand the rationales and practices for the enhancement of gender equality, as well as the effectiveness of the use of communicative tools. Our findings indicate that IT companies include women and use communicative tools to show their commitment to gender inclusion on their websites. This contributes not only to the competitive advantage of the organization, but also to its corporate social responsibility. We suggest that serious consideration should be taken to avoid gender stereotypes and invisible discrimination against women. This dissertation extends our knowledge of the website communication of IT companies in terms of gender diversity and provides inspirations to improve the communication processes.