Volume 1
Issue 1
16 March 1998
Gender
Inequalities in Education
The
Gender Gap in the Computing Field
Whitmore
High School: A Case Study of Computer Usage
- Part One: The Bright, White Boys' Lunch Club
- Part Two: Girls and Computer Science
Computer
Projects for Mother and Daughter
Expanding
Your Horizons in Math and Science
Computers
and Technology: Differences In Gender
Gender
Bias In Educational Software
Educational
Software For Girls
- Purple Moon: Thanks but No Thanks for Rockett's New School
- Girl Tech - Not Girl Friendly Enough
- Her Interactive
- Broderbund - Classroom Software Done Right
Computers
In the Classroom: What is the Effect on the Gender
Gap?
Part One: The Bright, White Boys' Lunch Club
Janet Ward Schofield recounts her experiences observing Whitmore High School in her book, "Computers and Classroom Culture." She conducted a two year study on the impact of computers on the classroom. In Chapter 5, she recounts the details of the school's computer room which was open during lunch allowing the students to use the computers during their free time. She explains that in a short matter of time the room played host to "a bright, white boys lunch club." As one observer's field notes read: "Today, as is frequent, the second lunch period attendees are all white males." Schofield explains there were many aspects of the computer room that attracted boys and kept girls at a safe distance.
Schofield explains, "The computer room not only provided an environment that supported fantasy behavior reinforcing certain aspects of traditional masculinity for the students who attended; it also fostered competitive behaviors, another very obvious aspect of male social behavior at Whitmore." Many of the boys who took part in the computer room activities needed to have a place to reinforce their masculinity. Very few of the room's visitors played sports or expressed their masculinity in more traditional ways. The computer room allowed them to find and assert their own little niche.
But these same factors which attracted the boys are what kept the girls away. The competitive nature of the room created an intimidating atmosphere which only compounded the girls' fears in regard to the computers themselves. Many of the girls, unlike the boys, had little difficulty hanging out and talking with friends and had no need for the computer room. The boys, on the other hand, needed the computer room setting to facilitate interaction.
The students were very aware of the absence of girls. When asked about this, students were quick to respond:
Interviewer: It seems like most of the students in the [computer room] during lunch are boys. Why do you think that is?
Richard: They're more computer oriented, possibly. Most girls don't like computers.
Arlene: Well...the girls in my class...don't really like computers...Most girls don't. Its usually boys who are into it... My brother got me hooked on computers. At first I was the only girl in there [the computer room], but then Toni started coming up because she needed help from Ms. Prentiss and then she got her friend Margaret to come up too. At first the girls are really hesitant. They don't really want to come up.
Mr. East, one of the teachers who helped supervise the lunch room and also taught adult computer classes, said that typically in the Community College computer classes his students are fathers and sons. When asked if there were any girls who participated he said, "Well, there are one or two girls, but they're the powerful type." He explained this to mean, "Well, you know, boy-type girls." He likened computer hacking to a sport like hunting or fishing and that men and boys use it the same way. That is, it gives them something to discuss, something to compare their skills at.
Mr. East was not alone in his thinking. Many of the boys used the computers as a way to compete with each other. Much of the lunch room talk was centered around who had the highest score in which game. To most girls, this was not an appealing aspect of computers, putting more distance between them and the opportunities in the computer room. The girls thought of the computers in a much different light. They used them to complete specific tasks. They more were concerned with the computer's utility then with exploring or playing games.
Boys also recognized the benefits of computers as powerful tools, especially in terms of finding jobs and future careers. But most of their positive reaction came from the competition and challenges that the computer presented. Boys were content with exploring the machine. They enjoyed anything that could help them feel as if they had mastered something. The computer provided just that. The computer allowed boys to test themselves, both against the machine and against others.
This difference in attitude was not just present in the students. It carried over to the teachers as well.
Interviewer: Did you find it difficult at all to learn to use the Apple once it came [into your classroom]?
Mr. Powers: No, not too difficult, I caught on to mine pretty easy and it's sort of addictive, you know, once you get into it. It's a powerful machine."
But not a single female teacher interviewed reacted to computers in this way. Female teachers were more concerned with their application to their own classroom and many were surprised at their male counterparts fascination with the machines.
Ms Wright [speaking about why she had decided to use computers in her French class]: You could use it for a lot of things. You could use it for quizzing them [students]. The computer would keep score for you...But just to use the computer for the sake of using the computer is not my idea of fun.
In her conclusion at the end of this chapter, Schofield points out that she does not want to make either claim 1) that boys and girls are biologically different and thus have different opinions about computers and their usage and 2) that our society in one such that girls are raised in fear of computers and other technology. Instead, she claims something in the middle of these two extremes. She suggests that,
"social arrangements and educational practices that isolate girls who want to use computers, that emphasize the link in our society between computing and masculinity, and that do not effectively compensate for the likely initial disparity in prior experience between male and female students tend to reinforce preexisting differences in interest and expertise by discouraging many girls from seeking out opportunities to use computers."
Whitmore High School:
A Case Study of Computer Usage
Girls and Computer Science
In the same study, Schofield also studied the role girls played in computer science classes. She was interested in learning about the experience these girls had in classes where they were an obvious minority. Women were also a minority among the computer science staff. Five out of six of the full time teachers and all of the substitutes who taught computer science were men. The one female teacher only taught one course for half of one year. Throughout the two year study, men taught 12 1/2 of the 13 computer classes. Some women, who wanted nothing to do with computers, feared they would be asked to teach computers:
Ms. Baker: Everybody thinks because I'm a math teacher I'm supposed to be able to do it [to use computers]. It's not my field. I do not plan on ever teaching computers.... I don't care if it's the wave of the future. It's just not mentally in my ... I will try to learn how to use it in my classroom because that is what they [the students] will need. But, I would never volunteer to take 30 computer courses so I could teach it. That's just not in my nature. I just don't want to do it. ...I have computer anxiety."
Even Ms. Prentiss, who helped supervise the lunch time computer room, described significant differences in her computer capabilities and that of her male counterpart.
Ms. Prentiss: Mr. East...can answer the questions [having] to do with programming and hardware that the kids want [answered]. My thing is the word processing and a lot of interpersonal exchange with the kids, so I think we make a real good team.
The gender differences and stereotyping, however, were not limited to the makeup of the class or who was leading the class. Both were also prevalent in the textbooks used in the classroom and the related books in the school library.
To begin with, women were pictured in the text markedly less than men. In a field which is already dominated by men, and already many of its teaching styles are geared towards boys, the lack of female role models throughout a textbook could have severe effects on girls interested in computer science. When women were pictured, it was in ways that reinforced traditional stereotypes about male and female occupations and status relations. Men were more often depicted as professionals, scientists, technicians, and computer scientists than were women who were shown more often than men as secretaries, clerical workers, and data entry personnel. In addition men were much more likely than women to be pictured as supervisors rather than subordinates. The most common combination of supervisor and subordinate was a male supervisor and a female subordinate.
These gender stereotypes were quickly picked up upon in the classroom. It was not long before students started to incorporate them into their own life.
Carl and Linda, who are working together, have worked out a division of labor. Linda is typing in the information. Carl, her friend, who appears to be helping her write the program, is looking in a manual. After Linda makes a typing mistake, Carl tells her she's fired.
Many of these stereotypes are reinforced by the students previous computer knowledge. More than 75% of the boys in the introductory computer science class had reported using computers before high school, whereas only 20% of the female students reported similarly.
These stereotypes were also seen in the home. Parents were more likely to encourage their son's computer interest over their daughter's. Often the family computer is kept in the boy's room instead of in a common space or in the girl's room. Many girls reported that their brothers had computers at home but they rarely were allowed to use them. Girls mentioned more often in interviews that they wished they had a computer at home, whereas boys were more likely to report having a computer at home that they rarely used.
Since girls were neither encouraged by parents or teachers they often resorted to working on their own in computer science classes. Even in classes in which group work and interaction was the norm, the girls were very often isolated from the rest of the group. Studies have shown that isolated individuals tend to be evaluated more extremely than those in a large group of people. So not only were girls often discouraged from pursuing computer science, but they were often evaluated more critically.
One student, explained her experience in her computer science class, "At first when I saw my class I was not very happy. I had a feeling I wasn't going to have any friends or [that] I'd just be sitting alone, cowering in a corner." Eight months later, her experience at the beginning of the year was so memorable that she felt the need to elicit such a response.
She was not far from the truth, however, in her predictions of the class. Most of the girls in the advanced computer science classes were unhappy. They were picked on by the boys in the class, feared interacting with the other girls in the class and often did not understand many of the assignments that were so obviously geared towards the boys.
Denise...starts to work on her computer program which is similar to everyone else's since it deals with football [statistics]. Doug laughs at Denise's program because he notices that some of the ... teams...[she listed] were not football teams, but baseball teams like the Red Sox...He laughs because she does not know which of the teams are football teams and which are not.
Under these circumstances, it is no surprise that girls are often discouraged or scared away from computer science.
