Reversing the Gaze: Gendered Experiences of Migrants in the UK IT Sector

Abstract

This article reverses the gaze on research on highly skilled migrant (HSM) women by analysing how the patriarchy of the destination country impacts their experience within the workplace. Most literature focuses on how HSM women's experiences in the workplace and at home in the destination country are shaped by the patriarchy of sending countries. This article turns the gaze on the destination country's patriarchal relations by utilising the experiences of HSM women within the workplace to note the effects of patriarchy within the destination country on non-migrants and the effects this has on migrant women's workplace interactions. We examine the gendered everyday experiences of the workplace of HSM Indian women working in IT in the United Kingdom through the lens of absence and presence: the absence of encounters with non-migrant women workers in the United Kingdom and the presence of non-migrant men in the workplace. The first reveals the unimagined gendered geographies of the IT sector in the United Kingdom, whereas the second reveals how the masculinist work culture within the UK IT sector is experienced. Reversing the gaze by analysing the patriarchal relations within the destination country offers a novel analytical method that allows us to extend current discussions around gender, work and highly skilled migration.