Girl Power: Reconstructing the Gendered Space of IT

This chapter explores how women navigate and challenge gendered stereotypes defining IT as a masculine space. Most of the women had approached IT with limited insights. This made gender stereotypes, including a male-dominated storyline of gamers, geeks, and hackers, central to their early perceptions of the field. However, once they learnt more about IT, they started defining their own strengths and belonging in the field. The women’s experiences are analysed in light of Puwar’s metaphor of “space invaders”, highlighting how women appear as “bodies out of place” in a masculine space of IT. The space invader identity is also productive, and the women reconfigure the notion of IT as a wider and more open space where also women can be considered insiders.