Joca/essay-t2
Outline
Essay outline
Information Science: Not Just for Boys Anymore, by Jennifer Gilley
Ferreira, M.M., 2012. O profissional da informação no mundo do trabalho e as relações de gênero. Transinformação 15.
- Abstract (to-do for after lunch)
Can we use the image around female work and librarianship to improve the image of the profession?
In this article Jennifer Gilley compares the male/female ratio in the student bodies of different information science courses in the United States. Although this discipline traditionally has a higher percentage of male students, some courses have 50/50 split.
The differences in student population are however significant when comparing Master's that are accredited by the American Librarian Association (ALA) with non-ALA-accredited programmes. The ALA designated programmes have a higher than average percentage of female students, while the opposite is true for information science courses that have no affiliation with any library science course.
Using the feminized image of librarianship to draw female students into male-dominated (more neutral choice of words here?) disciplines?
How librarianship got connected to certain values (offering service)
Dewey -> first library school. Framing it as women's job. Followed in other parts of the world. e.g. Brazil
The author cites Castro (1997) to show that this development started in the 1920's, as the 'institutionalization of the profession coincides with the feminization of it.' Education in Library Science was based on courses in the United States and France.In these courses the profession was shaped into the form of the 'women's job'. The courses focused on education librarians to offer service to people for example. This made the public image of Library Science similar to Pedagogy.
Get part out of text highlighting values of offering service
Like a marjority of women, librarians were part of the process of domestification. Where women got a different type of education and based their career choices on a hierarchical relation between men and women. Girls were stimulated to look for jobs that focus on giving care, and not focus on the use of reason (Belotti, 1987)
In these courses the profession was shaped into the form of the 'women's job'. The courses focused on education librarians to offer service to people for example. This made the public image of Library Science similar to Pedagogy.
How librarianship got divided in skilled and clerical work
Gilley: The author than makes an historical analogy, referring to the Williamson Report. This research from 1923 had the aim to create standards in library education. The outcomes were a division between skilled work and clerical work, and a recommendation to professionalize the discipline by obligatory higher education and a bigger influx of men.
-> information science as one of the outcomes of that divide.
Strategies to create a new image of librarianship
The formerly negative image of the "feminine" profession can be transformed if
both sexes cooperate in recognizing problems and offering creative solutions ...
librarianship may yet receive a positive public image and deserve to consider
itself a vital profession which can attract highly competent men and women.
(Freedman, 1970, 1711).
- Ferreira: deconstruct the profession, take away the aspects that are related to 'making it domestic'
- Gilley: Use this prejudice in a positive way. Make Information Science more librarianlike and more women will enter the courses
Gilley dives further into this phenomenon and finds out that this is a side effect of the growing convergence of library science and information science. Schools are merging both disciplines to adapt to this development.
The result is that the label of librarian influences the image that people have of a specific information science master's. A course inside a librarian school, with an ALA accreditation, emphasizes how information technology can help people. By focusing on the service ethic, it appeals to aspects which are important to women when choosing a field for their career.
To illustrate this redefinition of library science and information science,, Gilley refers to the Kellogg-ALISE Information Professions and Education Renewal Project (KALIPER). This project enabled four library schools to create courses that include an education information science, starting in 1994-1996. In 1998 all curricula of schools in this discipline were analyzed, to examine the state of library science education at that moment.
Feminist librarians like Suzanne Hildenbrand and Sarah Pritchard warn that KALIPER could have the same result, because of its focus on technology which could create male-dominated hierarchies. Gilley argues however that the current number of female students in information science programmes proofs the opposite. She thinks that differences between librarians and information scientists in terms of gender division, public image and salary, will disappear in the future.
Own opinion: Promising strategy, which can have result in the short future. The debate that Ferreira mentions is still relevant, because there is the risk that mistakes from the past are repeated. If we don't recognize work by women as having the same value as that of men, the entrance of women in a discipline leads to a stigmatized view of the work.
Version 1
Using the stereotype
Could mechanisms that excluded women from information science, empower them now?
Totally different worlds; This is what you encounter when comparing the student body of a course in library science with a programme focused on information science. Although both disciplines are closely related, librarians are framed to be mostly female, while information science is the domain of men. This gender divide is changing however.
In Information Science: Not Just for Boys Anymore Jennifer Gilley (2006) compares the male/female ratio of different information science courses in the United States. Although this discipline traditionally has a higher percentage of male students, some courses have 50/50 split. The differences in student population are however significant when comparing Masters that are accredited by the American Librarian Association (ALA) with non-ALA-accredited programmes. The ALA designated programmes have a higher than average percentage of female students, while the opposite is true for information science courses that have no affiliation with any library science course.
Gilley dives further into this phenomenon and finds out that this is a side effect of the growing convergence of library science and information science. Library schools are merging both disciplines to adapt to this development. The label of librarian influences the image that prospective students have of a specific information science master's. A course inside a librarian school, with an ALA accreditation, emphasizes the values traditionally connected to librarianship: The commitment to help people, though now in a more technology-oriented context. According to Gilley, the focus on this service ethic makes the field of information science more appealing to women. Studies show that the ability to help people, is one of the main characteristics women look for when choosing a career.
This is quite a paradoxical situation. To empower women to enter a male-dominated discipline, one of the mechanism that degrade work typically done by women is used: domestication of the profession, and the push of women to offer service and take care of people. It certainly has a positive result for the number of women in information science education, but to what extent can we use this strategy to improve the image of the librarian?
Service as the essence
Librarianship started to be positioned as a female profession by the end of the 19th century. Charles Dewey, the founder of the first library school and the decimal classification system used in many libraries today, believed that it was the perfect career for women who graduated from college; they had the right combination of intellectual capacity and social skills to provide service for users of the library.
Dewey laid the foundations of modern librarianship and his principles were followed in other countries as well, for example in Brazil. Maria Mary Ferreira goes deepter into this context in O profissional da informação no mundo do trabalho e as relações de gênero (2012). She cites Castro (1997) to show that the development of female librarians started in Brazil from the 1920's, as the 'institutionalization of the profession coincides with the feminization of it.'
Although the societal position of women improved at the time, the choice of careers for women was limited. The ones left, like librarianship, were part of the process of domestication of women. The hierarchical relation between dominant men and serving women was part of the education, and steered the possible career choices. Girls were stimulated to look for jobs that focus on giving care, and 'not focus on the use of reason.' (Belotti, 1987) This made the public image of Library Science similar to a discipline like Pedagogy.
Dividing the profession
Before the 'feminization' of Library Science, the field was the territory of male intellectuals, who were often at the same time writers and early information scientists. In contrast to modern librarianship, these people had not the aim to primarily help library users. Their focus was on the organization of the library, the categorization of the information and development of a complete collection.
Librarianship had an image of skilled work at the time, but this changed when the concept of the modern librarian was developed. One of the examplary cases of that according to Jennifer Gilley is the Williamson Report. This research from 1923 had the aim to create standards in library education. The outcomes were a division between skilled work and clerical work, and a recommendation to professionalize the discipline by obligatory higher education and a bigger influx of men.
After this report, librarianship got seperated into two disciplines. The librarian would do the clerical work, and help the users in the library itself. This work was mostly done by women, who got a short education to train them for the technical skills required for the profession. The skilled work went to a field that developed into information science. This field attracts more men, focuses on organizing information on a more abstract level and has a higher status then library sciences.
In the 90's an effort to counter this development started. To illustrate this redefinition of library science and information science, Gilley refers to KALIPER: the Kellogg-ALISE Information Professions and Education Renewal Project. It enabled four library schools to create courses that include an education information science, starting in 1994-1996. In 1998 all curricula of schools in this discipline were analyzed, to examine the state of library science education at that moment. KALIPER does not analyze the gender issues in the field. Feminist librarians like Suzanne Hildenbrand and Sarah Pritchard warn however that the increasing role of technology in librarianship could have the same result as the Williamson Report: the enforcement of male-dominated hierarchies that result in a difference in status and salary.
Gilley argues however that the current number of female students in information science programmes proofs the opposite. She thinks that differences between librarians and information scientists in terms of gender division, public image and salary, will disappear in the future, because library science and information science merge into one discipline in which both men and women are equally represented.
Creative solutions
It seems that it is effective to disguise information science as a field that appeals to the traditional female image, especially when the outcome is a better image of the librarian and the information scientist in the end. Isn't it that 'the formerly negative image of the "feminine" profession can be transformed if both sexes cooperate in recognizing problems and offering creative solutions'? (Freedman, 1970)
But is this really going to happen? Ferreira draws a number of conclusions from her research on the Brazilian librarian from the perspective of gender. She believes that discussing the gender issues, means to revaluate the work of the female librarian. To improve the image of the librarian, the profession and the society needs to change its position towards the value of women's work. In that respect, even the female preference for careers in care and service is not set in stone. As Ferreira states in her article, girls were educated to have this preference.
Taking these considerations into account, it is counter productive to attract more women to information science highlighting the ability to help people using the discipline. At least as long as the social and service aspects of a profession are seen as female and inferior. When all these factors don't change the result will be that people start to devaluate the now 'feminized' work of the information scientist. A scenario that looks uncanningly similar to what happened to library science in the past.
Version 2
Using the stereotype
Could mechanisms that excluded women from information science, empower them now?
Totally different worlds; This is what you encounter when comparing the student body of a course in library science with a programme focused on information science. Although both disciplines are closely related, librarians are framed to be mostly female, while information science is the domain of men. This gender divide is changing however.
In Information Science: Not Just for Boys Anymore Jennifer Gilley (2006) compares the male/female ratio of different information science courses in the United States. Although this discipline traditionally has a higher percentage of male students, some schools have a 50/50 split. There are however significant differences in student population when comparing master's that are accredited by the American Librarian Association (ALA) with non-ALA-accredited programmes. The ALA designated programmes have a higher than average percentage of female students, while the opposite is true for information science courses that have no affiliation with any library science programme.
Gilley dives further into this phenomenon and finds out that this is a side effect of the growing convergence of library science and information science. Library schools are merging both disciplines to adapt to this development. The label of librarian influences the image that prospective students have of a specific information science master's degree. A course inside a librarian school, with an ALA accreditation, emphasizes the values traditionally connected to librarianship: The commitment to help people, though now in a more technology-oriented context. According to Gilley, the focus on this service ethic makes the field of information science more appealing to women. She mentions that studies show that the ability to help people is one of the main characteristics women look for when choosing a career.
This is quite a paradoxical situation. To empower women to enter a male-dominated discipline, one of the mechanisms that degrade work typically done by women is used: Putting an emphasis on the caring aspect of the job, and the notion that the work is not done for status, but out of a 'vocation to serve'. It certainly has a positive result for the number of women in information science education, but to what extent can we use this strategy to improve the image of the librarian?
Service as the essence
Maria Mary Ferreira describes some of the stereotyping mechanisms that influence the public image of female-dominated jobs in O profissional da informação no mundo do trabalho e as relações de gênero (2012). Traditionally a lot of the work done by women is not considered to be an economic activity. Examples of that were household activities and agricultural work. When women were allowed to enter the professional workforce, the social constructs around domestic work were transferred to professions done by women: a non competitive culture and a lower social and economic status.
Librarianship started to be positioned as a female profession by the end of the 19th century. Charles Dewey, the founder of the first library school and the decimal classification system used in many libraries today, believed that it was the perfect career for women who graduated from college; they had the right combination of intellectual capacity and social skills to provide service for users of the library.
Dewey laid the foundations of modern librarianship and his principles were followed in other countries. Ferreira goes deepter into the situation in Brazil. She cites Castro (1997) to show that the development of female librarians started in Brazil from the 1920's, as the 'institutionalization of the profession coincides with the feminization of it.'
Although the societal position of women improved at the time, the choice of careers for women was limited. The options left, like librarianship, were part of the process of modelling female professions after domestic work done traditionally by women. The hierarchical relation between dominant men and serving women was part of the education, and steered the possible career choices. Girls were stimulated to look for jobs that focus on giving care, and 'not focus on the use of reason.' (Belotti, 1987) This made the public image of Library Science similar to a discipline like Pedagogy.
Dividing the profession
Before the 'feminization' of Library Science, the field was the territory of male intellectuals, who were often at the same time writers and early information scientists. In contrast to modern librarianship, these people had not the aim to primarily help library users. Their focus was on the organization of the library, the categorization of information and the development of a complete collection.
Librarianship had an image of skilled work at the time, but this changed when the concept of the modern librarian was developed. One of the examplary cases of that according to Jennifer Gilley is the Williamson Report. This research from 1923 had the aim to create standards in library education. The outcomes were a division between skilled work and clerical work, and a recommendation to professionalize the discipline by obligatory higher education and a bigger influx of men.
After this report, librarianship got seperated into two disciplines. The librarian would do the clerical work, and help the users in the library itself. This work was mostly done by women, who got a short education to train them for the technical skills required for the profession. The skilled work went to a field that evolved into information science. This field attracts more men, focuses on organizing information on a more abstract level and has a higher status then library sciences.
In the 90's an effort to counter this development started. To illustrate this redefinition of library science and information science, Gilley refers to KALIPER: the Kellogg-ALISE Information Professions and Education Renewal Project. It enabled four library schools to create courses that include an education information science, starting in 1994-1996. In 1998 all curricula of schools in this discipline were analyzed, to examine the state of library science education. KALIPER did not contain an analysis of the gender issues in the field. Feminist librarians like Suzanne Hildenbrand and Sarah Pritchard warn that the increasing role of technology in librarianship could have the same result as the Williamson Report: the enforcement of male-dominated hierarchies that result in a difference in status and salary.
Gilley argues however that the current number of female students in information science programmes is a proof of the opposite. She thinks that differences between librarians and information scientists in terms of gender division, public image and salary, will disappear in the future, because library science and information science merge into one discipline in which both men and women are equally represented.
Creative solutions
It seems that it is effective to disguise information science as a field that appeals to the traditional female image, especially when the outcome is a better image of the librarian and the information scientist in the end. Isn't it that 'the formerly negative image of the "feminine" profession can be transformed if both sexes cooperate in recognizing problems and offering creative solutions'? (Freedman, 1970)
But is this really going to happen? Ferreira draws a number of conclusions from her research on the Brazilian librarian from the perspective of gender. She believes that discussing the gender issues, means to reevaluate the work of the female librarian. To improve the image of the librarian, the profession and the society needs to change its position towards the value of women's work. In that respect, even the female preference for careers in care and service is not set in stone. As Ferreira states in her article, girls were educated to have this preference.
Taking these considerations into account, it is counter productive to attract more women to information science highlighting the ability to help people using the discipline. At least as long as the social and service aspects of a profession are seen as typically female and inferior. When these factors don't change, the result will be that people start to undervalue the now 'feminized' work of the information scientist. A scenario that looks uncanningly similar to what happened to library science in the past.