Age, Gender, and Work: Small Information Technology Firms in the New Economy

Perhaps the most conspicuous emblem of the new knowledge-based economy, information technology (IT) has become a major field of employment over the last two decades, supplying jobs to hundreds of thousands. The IT field, however, has become increasingly unstable, as jobs move overseas, stock markets crash, and cutting-edge technologies become rapidly outdated. Much has been made of how these risks have affected large IT firms, such as Microsoft and IBM, but little attention has been paid to its impact on smaller companies or to which employees bear the brunt of the industry's much-touted unpredictability.

Age, Gender, and Work: Small Information Technology Firms in the New Economy fills this gap by examining how women and older workers in small IT companies are vulnerable to economic uncertainty within this industry. Drawing on original survey and interview data from Canada, the United States, Australia, and England, the authors ask how gender and age affect work and workplace culture in a field dominated by young male employees.

An in-depth look at how issues such as pay, job stability, and working hours intersect with age and gender, this volume brings a unique empirical and theoretical perspective to the literature on inequality.