Closing the Gender Gap in Computing by Design
Chad Raphael, Communications Department
May 9, 2002 Project Outline
At a time when access to higher education, employment, and other life chances increasingly depends upon one's computer skills, research continues to reveal a gender gap in computing. Compared with boys, girls still report less experience with computers (Schumacher & Morahan-Martin, 2001), less confidence in their computing abilities (Young, 2000), and less interest in computers (American Association of University Women, 1999). These factors likely contribute to the dramatic and persistent gender imbalances in employment in technical fields, where women comprise an estimated 20 percent of the information technology work force, and continue to be underrepresented in systems analysis, software design, programming, and technological entrepreneurship (American Association of University Women, 2000). The present generation of college and graduate students shows little sign of changing this imbalance.
In 2000, UCLA's annual survey of first year college students nationwide found that 1.8 percent of women, compared to 9.3 percent of men, said they planned to pursue a career in computer programming, the biggest gender difference since the survey first posed the question in 1971 (Higher Education Research Institute, 2001). However, the gender gap is shifting in important ways that highlight males' and females' different uses of computers. Men and women entering college now report that they use computers frequently in almost equal numbers (Higher Education Research Institute, 2001) and women have gained parity with men in using the Internet, with teenagers accounting for the fastest growing segment of women users (Hamilton, 2000). Yet, in accordance with females' tendency to view the computer as a tool to accomplish tasks rather than an object of interest to be explored in its own right, females are more likely to use computer applications for word processing, graphic design and communication instead of tinkering, play, programming or systems design (American Association of University Women, 2000; Schofield, 1995).
The book that the CSTS grant will help support explores one means of closing the gender gap: designing content (such as games, educational software and web sites) aimed at increasing girls' understanding of the relevance of computers to many aspects of their lives, as well as their self-confidence and interest in using computers at an early age, especially as programmers and designers. Although many reasons have been offered for the gender gap, the lack of suitable content for girls is often cited as a major cause (American Association of University Women, 2000; Cottrell, 1992; Furger, 1998; Schofield, 1995). Early experiences with computers are likely to be important in shaping girls' orientation toward them and their willingness to explore the technology fully. Playing with computer, console and arcade games and educational software can provide an introduction to computer literacy, creating familiarity and building confidence in skills (Cassell & Jenkins, 1998). Games can develop children's cognitive abilities, including sustained attention and spatial orientation (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 1994). Boys enter school mo re familiar than girls with computers in large part because boys play computer games more (Kaiser Family Foundation, 1999). Despite the recent growth of games designed for girls, girls still buy only 12 percent of multimedia games (Gorriz & Medina, 2000). Most games fail to attract girls because they are designed primarily for the male market, employing combat and sports themes, often lacking female characters, or limiting females to the roles of passive victims to be rescued or huge-breasted vixens with guns (Gailey, 1993; Provenzo, 1991). Similarly, educational software often contains stereotyped gender roles (Birahimah, 1993; Hodes, 1996) and violence that has been shown to induce greater stress in girl users than boy users (Cooper, Hall, & Huff, 1990).
There are three goals of the book. First, it reviews and critiques current approaches to designing computer content for girls, including these approaches' assumptions about the gender gap itself and why it should be cause for concern. The book shows how economic rationales for closing the gap have dominated designers' and educators' thinking, in response to industry demands for a trained workforce as well as traditional liberal feminist concerns about gender equity in schooling and the workplace. This approach poses some danger of reducing the larger goal of technological fluency to narrow vocational training. By contrast, cultural arguments for equity have focused on increasing females' opportunities to use and adapt technology to explore their identities, create and communicate, and maintain relationships. Here, a debate has arisen among designers over whether to create content that attracts girls to computing by appealing to their traditional gender interests, nontraditional interests, or gender-neutral interests (Cassell & Jenkins, 1998). Drawing on an experimental study by the author and his colleagues, the book shows that the kind of exclusive thinking that has characterized this debate is unnecessary. A design approach that appeals both to girls' traditional and nontraditional interests can succeed at increasing their interest in computing, if designers focus on how computers work and how they are relevant to girls' lives more overtly than prior approaches typically do. Indeed, the book argues that if we want to introduce girls to what is compelling about working with computers, existing content design strategies reveal little that is compelling about how computers actually function. If we want girls to have equal opportunity to shape the hardware and software of the future, multimedia design needs to encourage girls more overtly to explore how they might design or adapt the technology and for what purposes.
To this end, the book's second goal is to develop an alternative rationale for closing the gender gap, civic equity, which stresses the need for women to be fully informed and enfranchised citizens of the information age. This approach suggests that girls and women need to know how technology works, as well as foster critical thinking with and about computers, to participate in democratic processes of designing and implementing computer architecture (software, hardware and systems) and relevant codes of law, policy and ethics. The book presents alternative indicators for measuring this gender gap (e.g., participation in corporate, academic and government decision- making about technology design and regulation). It also suggests design principles for content developers interested in helping to overcome it, including describing actual and imagined example games, educational media and web sites.
Finally, the book assesses current educational and recreational software and web sites targeted toward and most widely used by girls. It evaluates the extent to which the design strategies of software and sites for girls cultivate their economic, cultural and civic capacities with computers, giving a more comprehensive picture of the marketplace than is currently available. This project is relevant to CSTS's Family, Culture and Community focus area, primarily because it aims to shed new light on how designers can help reduce gender-based differences in access to and uses of computers, and how educators can better select and integrate software and web sites into their female students' learning. Secondarily, the project can illuminate facets of social capital: how greater familiarity with the workings of technology and appreciation of its relevance to all aspects of their lives could boost women's civic participation in technology policy and design.
Works Cited
American Association of University Women (1999). Gender gaps: Where schools still fail our children. Washington, DC: American Association of University Women Educational Foundation.
American Association of University Women (2000). Tech savvy: Educating girls in the new computer age. Washington, DC: American Association of University Women Educational Foundation. Birahimah, K. (1993). The non-neutrality of educational computer software. Computer Education, 20 (4), 283-290.
Cassell, J. & Jenkins, H. (1998). Chess for girls? Feminism and computer games. In J. Cassell & H. Jenkins (Eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and computer games (pp. 2-45). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Cooper, J., Hall, J., & Huff, C. (1990). Situational stress as a consequence of sex-stereotyped software. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, 419-429.
Cottrell, J. (1992, Mar.) I'm a stranger here myself: a consideration of women in computing. ACM conference proceedings on user services (pp. 71-76). Cleveland, OH: Association for Computing Machinery.
Kaiser Family Foundation (1999). Kids and media @ the new millennium: A comprehensive national analysis of children's media use. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation.
Furger, R. (1998). Does Jane compute? Preserving our daughters' place in the cyber revolution. New York: Warner Books.
Gailey, C. (1993). Mediated messages: Gender, class, and cosmos in home video games. Journal of Popular Culture, 27, 81-97.
Gorriz, C.M. & Medina, C. (2000). Engaging girls with computers through software games. Communications of the ACM, 43 (1), 42-49.
Hamilton, A. (2000, Aug. 21). Meet the New Surfer Girls. Time, 156 (8), 67.
Hodes, C. (1996). Gender Representations in Mathematics Software. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 24 (1), 64-73.
Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (2001). The American freshman: national norms for fall 2000. Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute.
Provenzo, E. (1991). Video kids: Making sense of Nintendo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schofield, J.W. (1995). Computers and Classroom Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schumacher, P. & Morahan-Martin, J. (2001). Gender, Internet and computer attitudes and experiences. Computers in Human Behavior, 17, 95-110.
Subrahmanyam, K. & Greenfield, P.M. (1994). Effects of video game practice on spatial skills in girls and boys. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 15, 13-32.
Young, B.J. (2000). Gender differences in student attitudes toward computers. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 33, 204-16.
