Introduction

The various themes explored in the previous chapter which were pitted against the official ideology of the unit were broadly organised around two central motifs. First, an alternative understanding of the relative position of men and women in the software environment. Second, an alternative reading of, and reaction to, the overall re-orientation of the environment that the professionalisation process was introducing. This chapter will seek to show that these two strands were inextricably bound up with each other and with the struggle to maintain computing as male in the face of a perceived impending feminisation of the area.

The data collected in the R&D unit suggests that whilst the official discourse of meritocracy was overarching and provided a framework within which all assessments of skill took place, this was not a sufficient condition to guarantee the equal recognition of female skills. The process of describing, producing, recognising, assessing and rewarding technical personnel in this context threw into sharp relief a pattern of conceptual links made between gender and skill that formed part of the commonsense universe of those who worked there. The evidence collected ultimately reveals that despite Softech's deep-seated commitment to meeting the needs of all of its technical employees, and despite the pressing requirement for the most highly qualified workers with a hybrid skills profile who could meet the challenges of the changing software environment, the necessary levels of both technical and social skills were more likely to be perceived to exist in male developers.