Investigating Socio-Cultural Inhibitors to Equity Enhancing Practices Among System and Network Operators

System administration, following the definition of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is the task executed by “individuals responsible for the installation and maintenance of an information system, providing effective information system utilization, adequate security parameters, and sound implementation of established Information Assurance policy and procedures” . As such, system operators form an integral part of providing the infrastructure upon which our society ultimately relies. It even more so means that diversity and equity in these spaces is instrumental, as designing and operating the infrastructure provides a position of power, shaping how this infrastructure is shaped and which values are encoded in it . Despite originally being a non-cis-male  coded work environment, system administration—during the past few decades—became a classically cis-men dominated STEM field . As such, system administration, as a field, suffers from the common discriminatory actions seen across STEM .

In this research project, we empirically investigate operators’ stance towards common mechanics to improve the equity and diversity of a space, especially given the traditionally poor gender diversity in system and network engineering. We conjecture that an interplay of cultural factors observed in previous work leads to resistance to initiatives like the introduction of a Code-of-Conduct, despite operators mostly agreeing with the underlying values of such approaches. At the same time, said resistance is read as toxic refusal by people working towards a more equitable system and network engineering community, especially given the track-record of microaggressions and gender stereotyped exclusion and harassment in system operations. Ultimately, this leads to unnecessary conflict and slowed adoption of best practices, even though the underlying perspectives are actually aligned among community members. As such, our research may contribute significant societal benefit by helping to resolve communication challenges and directing efforts to align more quickly towards adopting best practices for improving equity and diversity.