Gender, Technology & Higher Education Nov 6 th, 2006.
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Transcript of Gender, Technology & Higher Education Nov 6 th, 2006.
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Gender, Technology & Higher Education
Nov 6th, 2006.
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What about technology?
• What do the social institutions teach men and women, boys and girls about technology?
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How is technology gendered?
• 1. Technology is gendered because key specialist actors —especially in the design of new technological artifacts and systems— Are predominantly men
• 2. There are strong gender divisions of labor around technology, based in part on an equation between masculinity and technical skill
• 3. Technological artifacts can be gendered, both materially and symbolically, although there often remains considerable interpretative flexibility in their use
• 4. Cultural images of technology are strongly associated with hegemonic masculinity, although there is a huge mismatch between image and practice.
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More…
• 5. The very detail of technical knowledge and practice is gendered, albeit in complex and contradictory ways
• 6. Styles of technical work may be gendered somewhat, although there are strong normative pressures to conform
• 7. Technology is an important element in the gender identities of men who work and play with technologies
(Faulkner 2001)
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Historical Roots
Rose, Sonya (1992) Limited Livelihoods. Berkeley: University of California Press
• men were considered as having an aptitude for technology and were hired based on these ‘natural masculine traits’.
• Women were defined by attributes that were ‘natural talents’ (such as sewing), and therefore not skilled (and thus could be paid less)
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Gender and the Internet
Jan 94
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Early Internet Days
• Oct 1998
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Implications?
Examples from early research:• Harassment• Stalking• Flaming
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Where are we now?
• Internet use for women and men are equal
According to Statistics Canada 2002:• Almost 50% of Canadian
households had at least one member who used the Internet regularly from home
• Almost 60% of all Canadian households had at least one member who used the Internet regularly, either from home, work, school, library or other locations
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Different Usage…
Women and men use the internet differently:• Usage Patterns• Men focus on transactions • Women focus on relationships • Internet Uses by Women• Communicating • Building relationships • Investigating new products • Women are often more task-oriented on the
Web than the typical male • Women are using the Web:
– As a time-saver to solve problems – To take control of their personal lives and
finances – To network with others
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Higher Ed
• Given that technology is often perceived as masculine, how might this influence its use in Higher Education?
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Higher Ed Implications
• Enrollment in programs– Lack of women in technology,
math and science programs
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Enrollment
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Degrees
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Why less women?
• Construction of the science, engineering, technology and maths curricula as abstract and disconnected from social and human concerns;
• Software being written by and for men that unwittingly assumes male lives to be the norm;
• Domination of computer training programs by boys, men and male values;
• Perception of computer professionals as nerds and antisocial 'computer heads';
• Sex stereotyping of toys and activities; • Sex-biased computer software and games;
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Why less women?
• Differential availability of female and male role models;
• Different learning experiences of girls and boys in the gendered classroom
• boys' greater access to school resources and teacher attention
• differences in self confidence, self esteem and risk taking behaviours
• different mathematics choices at school for girls and boys
• limiting of career options for girls by subject selection in secondary school.
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Gender Differences – why?
IT Skills and Level of Proficiency:• Gendered social contexts• Experience in the use of IT • Patterns of dominance and
collaboration • Socio-economic status of the
family and socialization
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The Role of New Technologies in Education
• Male and female students differ in their perception of, and emphasis on, the role of IT in education
• There gender differences in the benefits of IT use
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Gender Differences
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Gender Differences
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Gender Differences
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Other problems?
• "Focusing on the tool itself" is a male tendency
• "Focusing on the utility of the tool" is a female tendency.
• Although girls use new technologies as much as boys do, they are less interested in using the computer as a machine, and more interested in learning it as a tool of learning matters that interest them
• Women students seem to use technology in learning in a unique way, i.e., to build learning communities that allows them to eliminate barriers of isolation and competition in the learning process
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Group Work
• Make a group of 2-3 students• One person is the note-taker for the
group; list all your names at the top of page
• Make a list of the ways we can incorporate and utilize technology & ICTs into higher education – both in the classroom and institutionally
• Discuss some of the issues or problems that may surface when ICTs - especially in relation to Gender, Race/Ethnicity & Class