Gender & Computing

Even though I’ve been doing research on gender / gender identity for nearly two decades, the task of understanding and defining gender seems to be never ending. What is gender? What makes us gender? And why/if are we more gender than other things? I really appreaciated a comment from an NPC in Dragon Age, saying:
“I suppose you are mage first, and elf or human second…”

One of the trends in the historical material I’ve been working with for the past years is that men are not “gendered” the same way as women are. Men are simply computer users or experts, while women are “female” users or experts.
Is it possible to be computer engineer first and woman second?

This was the initial question of the initiative New Image for Computing when it started in 2007. It is described as a “multi-phase project that aims to improve the image of computer science among high school students (with a special focus on gender and ethnic disparities) and encourage greater participation in computer science at the post secondary level.”

Background for the project is that the interest in computer science is decreasing in the US,and the project aims to “improve the image of computer science among high school students (with a special focus on gender and ethnic disparities) and encourage greater participation in computer science at the postsecondary level.”

The report (PDF) from New Image for Computing presents the first stage of the project. It was found that “College-bound females, regardless of race and ethnicity, are significantly less interested than boys are in computing. More girls tend to associate computing with “typing,” “math,” and “boredom,” while boys are more likely to associate computing with “video games,” “design,” “electronics,” “solving problems,” and “interesting.”” (From a nationwide online survey of 1,406 college-bound teens in 2008.)

The report also describes the aims of the project, and one of them is to “create a set of market-tested messages that resonate with young people, accurately and positively represent the field, and reshape the way computer science is portrayed to and perceived by young people”

Among tested messages, these three tested best:

* Computing empowers you to do good (rated highest with girls and Hispanics)

* Computing puts you in the driver’s seat (African American and Hispanic boys)

* Computing opens doors (boys and those already interested in computing careers)

NIC originally focused on African American males and Hispanic girls, but the research has shown little racial/ethnic differentiation, and the project is therefore shifting focus to concentrate on girls as a special target audience.

(See also CampusTechnology)

Posters to recruit women into technical occupations from WomenTech.

I like their poster for Computer engineers because it includes not only things that women are expected to be interested in (people) or good at (communication) like some of the earlier campaigns we have seen in Norway, but also includes the pleasure of working with technology.

PS.no, online store primarily for computer equipment, but also for less technical stuff, has a special Ladies Corner. The main page of Ladies Corner only offers small gadgets like a fancy memory stick, earphones, mobile phone, and cosmetics, but the real Ladies Corner is apparently the Pink Section!

The Pink Section offers pink laptops, pink ipods, pink cameras and other pink gadgets. And not surprisingly, a series of non-technical things: a pink body warmer, a fluffy pink body warmer, pink feet warmers, fluffy pink feet warmers, pink neck warmers etc… You get the picture.

It is probably a good idea to address women, in particular when the front page is rather boring, only showing printers today. But, addressing women also defines them as a group of potential customers.

So, how does PS.no define Ladies? Pink laptops, ipods and other small gadgets, but mostly, pink things to keep you warm.  Don’t you wish there were more to it?

This case (which I found through Dagbladet.no) is of course not unique, but adds to a long list of similar ways of targeting a female group of customers.

5th European Symposium on Gender & ICT
“Digital Cultures: Participation - Empowerment - Diversity”

 In Bremen March 5-7, 2009.

CFP: deadline extended until 15th of September. 

From TimesOnline:
A recent study by the Pew Internet Project in America on teens in social media found that blogging growth among teenagers is almost entirely fuelled by girls, whom it describe as a new breed of “super-communicators”. Some 35% of girls, compared with 20% of boys, have blogs; 32% of girls have their own websites, against 22% of boys.

Girls have embraced social networking sites on a massive scale, with 70% of American girls aged 15-17 having built and regularly worked on a profile page on websites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, as opposed to 57% of boys of the same age.

Other studies have also documented that the digital gender gap has diminished, or disappeared, in certain fields. Interesting about this article - as with a number of other reports about the disappearing gender gap - is the comments. Like Erik from Chicago:
“I must disagree with your notion that women are becoming the new population on the internet. I do not think I am qualified as any sort of expert but I spend my fair share of excessive amounts of time on the internet.”

I have commented on similar incidents before, where research documenting girls and women’s increased involvement and participation in former male-dominated fields are met with disbelief, alternative explanations, or as in this case, by reducing the status or meaning of girls and women’s activities into ‘insignificant’ compared to the ‘real thing’, again with Erik: “To say that girls are getting Myspaces and facebooks and other social networking accounts really does not say much. Internet culture at large has really discredited Myspace …”

Boing Boing: BBC report on UK gamers from 6-65

From the report:

Contrary to popular belief, the gender split between gamers is fairly even across all age groups. Although female gamers never overtake their male counterpart, the figures are particularly even in the youngest and oldest gaming groups. Between the ages of 16-35 the ratio of males to females is slightly higher, but the stereotype of a large gender gap in gamers - in any age group - is untrue.

Report PDF

Encyclopedia of Gender and Information Technology will be published in April 2006.
You can get the details and order it already. It will be a huge reference work on gender and ICT, with 213 entries and articles in two volumes.

The drawback is that the price is as big as the work…

I will of course have to recommend the work even though I haven’t seen the product yet, since I have two articles in there… so go and order it now, and you’ll have a pre-pub-discount.

‘Fabulous feminine’. That’s the title of an article in PC World about a photo printer. So, let’s find out what’s so feminine about it.

In my poor translation:
“We would rather not be sexual discriminating, but women have a tendency to want photos to put into the photo album, while men let them stay in plastic bags, or […] inside the computer. And although “The Man” often is the consultant for buying the camera, it is in reality women who use it. You don’t have to be a representative from Norsk Gallup [opinion polls] to find out that it is mostly women who gather around the photo boxes or in the photo shops, waiting for paper prints of their digital image files. The scenario is often a result of poor computer knowledge, or the lack of photo printers in the home.”

Whether it’s right or not is not as interesting as the way it illustrates how we ‘know‘ things about men, women and technology with such certainty that we don’t even need to do research to find out more about it…

However, is it ‘fabulous feminine’ because it will be used by women? Or because it is ‘decorative and practical on the kitchen bench‘? A point nicely illustrated with a photo in the article and a suggestion to chose a printer with exterior that suits your kitchen style… I’m still not sure what makes the printers feminine, but I do know that there’s no room for things that can’t be eaten or used for preparing food on my kitchen bench…

HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux
“This HOWTO will try to explain which behaviors drive women away from Linux and which behaviors encourage them.”
(Via Gizmodo)