Isolated in A Technologically Connected World?: Changes in the Core Professional Ties of Female Researchers in Ghana, Kenya, and Kerala, India

Abstract

Using panel data gathered across two waves (2001 and 2005) from researchers in Ghana, Kenya, and Kerala, India, we examine three questions: (1) To what extent do gender differences exist in the core professional networks of scientists in low-income areas? (2) How do gender differences shift over time? (3) Does use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) mediate the relationship between gender and core network composition? Our results indicate that over a period marked by dramatic increases in access to and use of various ICTs, the composition and size of female researchers core professional ties have either not changed significantly or have changed in an unexpected direction. Indeed, the size of women's ties are retracting over time rather than expanding.

NOTES

Notes

¹ The first wave of the study was conducted across three time periods: 2000 (Kerala), 2001 (Kenya), and 2002 (Ghana). For presentation purposes, we refer to the first wave as 2001.

² Network structure impacts a variety of outcomes ranging from job searches (Granovetter 1973) to promotion and advancement (Leahey 2007) to wage inequalities (Smith 2000; Kim 2009). Although not examined in this article, the notion of resources is integral to understanding the importance of social ties (Lin 2001). Resources include formal information, expertise, professional advice, and material items as well as informal professional support and gossip circles.

³ Although we do not employ it in the current article, we would also include the “emotional energy” thesis of Collins (2004) that interactions create symbols and moral commitments that decline over time unless renewed. This accounts for the importance of meetings, conferences, and other face-to-face encounters in the development of science.

⁴ Five institutions in Kerala were selected for inclusion: Kerala Agricultural University at Vellayani, the University of Kerala at Karryavotam, the Center for Earth Science Studies, the Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, and the Regional Research Laboratory. Respondents from Ghana were selected from the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Coast, the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute, the Institute for Science and Technical Information, and a number of subsidiary organizations under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Four institutions in Kenya were selected for inclusion: Egerton University, the University of Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute.

⁵ The majority of the respondents were employed in fields related to agricultural, environmental, or natural resource management. A minority were employed in the social sciences.

⁶ The second wave of the study included new questions about the gender of our respondent's professional contacts.

⁷ The decision of whether to include X_t or X_t−1 is one of the more difficult decisions to make when using panel data. If the time between the waves of the survey is sufficient for the time 1 values of the independent variable to have an effect on the time 2 dependent variable than lagged X_t−1 variables are preferred (Finkel 1995).

⁸ We are unable to examine gender differences on this measure, because the gender of ties was not gathered in the first wave.

⁹ Data available upon request.