On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 8:20 AM, Marty Billingsley
<marty@ucls.uchicago.edu>wrote:
> There was a Newsweek article on this topic in the mid-90s that stuck in my
> mind, so I looked it up again. The first section is the standard research
> stuff about girls avoiding technology -- memorable to me mostly because it
> profiled research done by my grad school advisor. The second section, a
> personal essay, really hit home to me, a female software engineer. It's
> called "Men Want to Force Computers to Submit. Women Just Want Computers to
> Work"
>
> Here's an excerpt:
> "It was on e-mail, in fact, that I [the female author] described to Ralph
> [her techie neighbor] how boys in groups often struggle to get the upper
> hand whereas girls tend to maintain an appearance of cooperation. And he
> pointed out that this explained why boys are more likely to be captivated by
> computers than girls are. Boys are typically motivated by a social structure
> that says if you don't dominate you will be dominated. Computers, by their
> nature, balk: you type a perfectly appropriate command and it refuses to do
> what it should. Many boys and men are incited by this defiance: "I'm going
> to whip this into line and teach it who's boss! I'll get it to do what I
> say!" (and if they work hard enough, they always can). Girls and women are
> more likely-to respond, "This thing won't cooperate. Get it away from me!"
>
> "Although no one wants to think of herself as "typical"--how much nicer to
> be sui generis-my relationship to my computer is-gulp-fairly typical for a
> woman [she likes it for the communication possibilities it offers]. Most
> women (with plenty of exceptions) aren't excited by tinkering with the
> technology, grappling with the challenge of eliminating bugs or getting the
> biggest and best computer. These dynamics appeal to many men's interest in
> making sure they're on the top side of the inevitable who's-up-who's-down
> struggle that life is for them. E-mail appeals to my view of life as a
> contest for connections to others. When I see that I have 15 messages I feel
> loved."
>
> There are plenty of girls who do, indeed, break this stereotype, but as a
> sweeping generalization, the idea that girls don't like computers because
> they don't cooperate has helped me become a better teacher to those girls.
>
> Background article begins here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/133594
> Essay begins here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/133594/page/8
>
> - marty
>
> --
> Marty Billingsley
> Department of Computer Science
> The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools
>
>
> "Poole, Aeronia" <apoole@MADEIRA.org> writes:
>
>>
>> I didn't see Stephanie Oberle's email link, but I am curious to know
>> what the gender ratio is to student participants of TV production crews.
>> I recently attended a conference that had an 8th grade production crew.
>> Of what looked like about 10 students, 1 was female. A colleague
>> commented that girls just don't show interest in the techie stuff. Do
>> you all find that true?
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
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