Educational
Technology Research & Development
Volume 39 Number 2 (1992)
"The
Technological Gender Gap: Evidence and Recommendations for Educators
and Computer-Based Instruction Designers"
by
Katherine Canada & Frank
Brusca
Abstract
The
term "technological gender gap" refers to the idea that males
and females have different technology-related attitudes, behaviors,
and skills. This article reviews the mounting evidence documenting
the existence of a gender gap, which, if ignored, could render
large numbers of female students unprepared to meet the technological
challenges of the future. Recommendations for ameliorating the
technological gender gap are presented for educators and computer-based
instruction (CBI) designers who are interested in providing equitable
educational opportunities for male and female students.
Equitable
distribution of resources is one of the most critical issues facing
the field of educational technology. Inequities tend to appear along
both socioeconomic and gender lines, with male students and students
from high socioeconomic status backgrounds well positioned to outpace
female students and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds
in terms of computer skills and knowledge (Lockard, Abrams, & Many,
1987). This article focuses on the gender-related inequities by
reviewing the mounting evidence documenting the existence of a technological
gender gap.
EVIDENCE OF A TECHNOLOGICAL GENDER GAP AMONG ELEMENTARY THROUGH
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Research concentrating on children's and adolescents' computer-related
attitudes has shown that they do not consider computers to be
equally the domain of boys and girls. For example, boys and girls
tend to rate computers as more masculine than feminine (e.g.,
Arenz & Miheon, 1990; Chen, 1985; Wilder, Mackie & Cooper, 1985),
with boys being more extreme than girls in their gender stereotyping
of computers (Arenz & Miheon, 1990; Wilder et al., 1985). Among
middle school and high school students, Arenz and Miheon (1990)
found that actual experience with computers interacted with gender
to influence students' attitudes toward the technology. Male students
who advanced beyond beginning level computer courses were most
likely to report perceptions of males' superior computer abilities.
In contrast, female students who advanced beyond beginning level
computer courses were the least likely to report that they perceived
gender differences in computer abilities. In other words, experience
with computers strengthened the males' beliefs in a technological
gender gap whereas it weakened females' perceptions of such a
gap.
At the high school level, Chen (1985) also found that experience
interacted with student gender to influence attitudes toward computers.
In comparison to the female students, the male students expressed
more interest in computers, more self-confidence in working with
computers, less anxiety about mastering computers, a stronger
belief that computer skills lead to respect from parents and peers,
and a stronger belief that women cannot be as skilled with computers
as men. However, when the male students' attitudes were compared
with the attitudes of female students who had at least one high
school course in computer programming, all but one of the attitude
differences disappeared.
Although they comprised only 10% of the female sample, the females
with computer programming experience expressed similar levels
of computer interest, self-confidence, and beliefs in gaining
respect from computer mastery as the males. However, unlike the
males, the computer literate females disagreed with the belief
that women cannot be as skilled with computers as men. These studies
demonstrate the benefits of computer experience for girls; however,
evidence from a variety of sources indicates that female students
are not getting as much computer experience as male students.
According to Chen (1985), the 1977 National Assessment of Educational
Progress found that the girls in the national sample of 13-17
year olds had less access to computers as well as lower levels
of computer skills than the bays. Transcript data from the National
Longitudinal Study of 1980-1982 (cited in Lockheed, 1985) showed
that males outnumbered females 3:2 in high school programming
courses.
Gender discrepancies in students' access to and experience with
computers appear as early as the elementary school years. Susan
Fleig, director of the computer center at an elementary school
in Washington, D.C., reported that when the facility first opened,
the only students who came to the center during non-class times
were boys (Kolata, 1984). Similarly, both Fetler (1985) and an
Educational Testing Service study (cited in Kolata, 1984) reported
that compared to girls, boys tend to spend more non-class time
using school computers. There is evidence that this gender difference
also extends to home computer use. Federal statistics (U.S. Bureau
of the Census, 1989, Table 231) for students in grades kindergarten
though 12 showed a higher percentage of boys than girls using
computers at home. There is convergence among several studies
that boys ate more likely than girls to report the presence of
a computer in their homes (e.g., Chen, 1985; Fetler, 1985; Wilder
et al., 1985). As Chen noted, it is impossible to determine from
survey data whether parents are favoring boys with computers or
whether boys are more persistent and successful than girls at
influencing parental purchases. However, regardless of the reason,
the fact that there is a difference in boys' and girls' access
to home computers provides another example of a technological
gender gap.
In addition to differing in the amount of time spent using computers,
male and female students tend to differ in the ways they use computers.
For example, Wilder et al. (1985) found that male students were
more likely to have had programming courses, whereas female students
were more likely to have had introductory or word processing courses.
What is more, among those males and females who had exposure to
more than one computer programming language, there was evidence
of gender tracking. Males' second computer language was more likely
to have been FORTRAN, which tends to be used in the sciences,
whereas females' second computer language was more likely to have
been Pascal, which tends to be used in business settings.
EVIDENCE OF A TECHNOLOGICAL GENDER GAP AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS
The patterns of gender-differentiated computer attitudes and behaviors
that have been identified among elementary, middle, and high school
students also have been found in research focusing on college
students. In their study of college students' initial encounters
with computers, Sproull, Kiesler, and Zubrow (1984) found that
the females were more likely than the males to report reactions
of dismay and alienation.
Studies of college students' computer-related attitudes and behaviors
(e.g., Arch & Cummins, 1989; Badagliacco, 1990; Wilder et al.,
1985) have shown that, compared to males, females tend to perceive
themselves as less equipped to deal with computers. However, a
recent survey of undergraduate students (Badagliacco, 1990) found
that when the variance associated with actual computer experience
was controlled, the gender gap in computer-related attitudes and
self-perceptions disappeared.
Although increasing female students' amount of computer time holds
promise for reducing the technological gender gap, Wilder et al.
(1985) speculated that the computer rooms and centers in co-educational
colleges tend to be used more frequently by male students than
by female students. The findings from the following study, conducted
by the first author of this article, suggest that observational
data would support their claim.
During the fall semester of 1989, a student research assistant
visited four different campus computer facilities once a week
for eight weeks at randomly selected times. On each visit she
recorded the location and gender of each person using the facility.
On two occasions, inter-rater reliability was checked. Due to
the lack of ambiguity in the information recorded, reliability
was 100%. Three of the computer facilities were customary, campus
computer rooms, housing from 11 to 16 computers and dot matrix
printers. Students tended to use these rooms mainly for word processing
and occasionally for working with spreadsheet or database software.
The fourth computer facility was the campus information technology
center, which housed high-speed computers, laser and color printers,
plotter, and desktop publishing software. In campus publications,
this center has been described as housing "state-of-the-art equipment."
Chi square analyses revealed that the number of males and females
using the three computer rooms was comparable to the proportion
of male and female students on campus. A different pattern emerged
with regard to the number of males and females using the information
technology center. Compared to their numbers on campus, a disproportionate
number of male students used the technology center (x2 (1)
= 6.62, p < .02).
It was encouraging to find gender equity in students' use of the
three campus computer rooms. However, given the history and demographics
of the college, it was discouraging to have found any evidence
of gender inequity or of stereotypic gender tracking with regard
to the use of computers (i.e., women using word processing software
and dot matrix printers and men using desktop publishing software
and laser printers). Formerly the college was exclusively a women's
institution. The data reported here were collected during the
Fall semester of the college's third year of transition to co-education,
when male students were only 17% of the entire student population.
Therefore, these findings demonstrate that the technological gender
gap can emerge even in a predominately female environment, and
they raise questions about the extent to which student gender
ratios influence the gap in males' and females' computer-related
attitudes and behaviors.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOP CLOSING THE TECHNOLOGICAL GENDER GAP
The technological gender gap is created and influenced by multiple
factors; therefore, single, simplistic remedies will be ineffective
in closing the gap. The following broad recommendations are not
presented as an exhaustive list. Rather, they are presented to
educators and CBI designers as catalysts for stimulating thought,
discussion, and, most importantly, action on the task of ameliorating
the current gap in males' and females' technological attitudes,
skills, and behaviors.
Those who consider the technological gender gap to be caused by
biological factors might argue that attempts to close the gap
are futile. That males and females differ biologically is indisputable;
whether or not such differences have any bearing on technological
attitudes, skills, and abilities is debatable. A brief review
of historical trends in the computing field, as well as data from
research demonstrating equally high achievement levels for males
and females in technological domains, provides strong-support
for the argument that the technological gender gap is not biologically
predetermined.
Initially, computer programming was viewed as a low-priority job
and consequently was assigned to women (Kraft, 1979). The Navy
assigned women to program ENIAC, which was the first operational
computer (Sanders, 1981), and in 1960, when there were only 2,000
computer operators, 65% of them were women (Dicesare, 1975). Thus,
women can be considered pioneers in the computer field. Dr. Grace
Hopper, for example, developed programs for the world's first
digital computer and created COBOL, the first compiler (Sanders,
1981).
Additional evidence that the technological gender gap is not inevitable
comes from the results of previously mentioned studies (e.g.,
Arenz & Miheon, 1990; Badagliacco, 1990; Chen, 1985; Wilder et
al., 1985) documenting the benefits of computer experience for
girls. All of these studies showed that the technological gender
gap narrowed when female students gained computer programming
skills. If the gap cannot be attributed solely to biological factors,
other factors that can potentially hinder females' participation
in and knowledge about computers must be identified. Many researchers
and theorists e.g., Badagliacco, 1990; Kiesler, Sproull, & Eccles,
1985; Lockheed, 1985; Sproull et al., 1984) have pointed to psychological,
social, and cultural influences on males' and females' computer-related
attitudes and behaviors. Evidence supporting these non-biological
contributors to the technological gender gap is reviewed below
in the context of providing recommendations to educators and CBI
designers who are interested in ameliorating the gap.
Recommendation: Adopt a proactive stance. To the extent that educator
ignore, deny, or view the technological gender gap as a natural
state of affairs, the gap will widen. The evidence documenting
the existence of the technological gender gap shows that, without
intervention, males and females demonstrate different computer-related
attitudes and behaviors. There is also evidence that when educators
assume a proactive stance toward ensuring gender-equitable computer
opportunities, the gap narrows. For example, although Fleig (Kolata,
1984) was initially distressed when boys dominated the computer
room in her elementary school, she took control over the situation
by designating special girls-only and "non-hacker" days in the
computer center. This scheduling provided more equitable distribution
of the computer resources among all of the students.
Similarly, Anderson, Klassen, Krohn, and Smith-Cunnien (cited
in Chen, 1985) attributed the lack of a gender gap in Minnesota
students' computer skills to the state's commitment to computer
literacy, which ensured all students equal computer access and
training. At the college level, Arch and Cummins (1989) found
that when students were introduced to computers through structured,
in-class lessons and assignments, gender differences in students'
computer-related attitudes and behaviors were attenuated. However,
when the computer introduction was unstructured and voluntary,
the familiar gender gap appeared.
Deborah Brecher (Call, 1987) has contributed to narrowing the
technological gender gap by founding the Women's Computer Literacy
Program. Brecher's program is based on theories (e.g., Belenky,
Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986; Gilligan, 1982) that men
and women learn in different ways. Brecher believes that traditional
methods of teaching about computers have hindered rather than
facilitated women's mastery of the technology. Her techniques
strive to match computer training to women's cognitive structures.
These examples stress the necessity for educators to be proactive,
to exert control over the allotment of computer resources, and
to create teaching strategies that will facilitate female students'
learning. Without such control and planning, females tend to lag
behind males in computing experience.
Recommendation: Structure the physical and social environments
of computer facilities to enhance female students' learning opportunities.
Commenting on the physical environment of computer rooms, one
of the subjects in Sproull et al.'s (1984) study of college students'
initial encounters with computers said:
I
feel like I'm in 1984, cells right next to each other. It's like
Russia.... The walls are all white. And all they have are computer
information on them... All you see are computer geeks and computers
and the Xerox machine and white on the walls. (p. 42)
This quote illustrates that beginning computer users notice the
physical and social setting in which they learn about computers.
The authors of the study conducted that beginning computer users
are influenced by the social order surrounding computing and by
the attitudes and behaviors of people who excel in the field.
To the extent that males and females interpret social dues differently,
and previous research indicates that they do (e.g., Hoffman, 1977),
they will have different interpretations of and reactions to computing
environments.
The physical structure of computing facilities, with their individual
and segregated cells, conforms more to the masculine separation
and individuation social style described by Gilligan (1982) than
to her description of the feminine social style, which is characterized
by personal connections and networks.
Strategies such as peer tutoring (Chen, 1985), team computer work,
and computer networking to connect people (Kiesler et al., 1985)
may reduce females' interpretation of computers as isolating,
nonsocial machines and may make the culture of computing more
compatible with feminine values and social styles.
Because males tend to dominate computer rooms and computer resources
(Canada & Pringle, 1989; Kolata, 1984), providing females-only
times in computer facilities and females-only computer classes
(Call, 1987) have been effective strategies for encouraging females'
computer learning and mastery. The call for single-sex learning
opportunities for women may be labeled by some as segregative
and thereby – based on the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling on racial
segregation – unequal. However, the reality is that, with regard
to computer- and technology-related learning opportunities, it
is mixed-sex settings that are frequently unequal for females.
Opportunities to use computers often require potential users to
compete with each other for computer time. Increasing numbers
of researchers (e.g., Arch & Cummins, 1989; Kiesler et al., 1985;
Swadener & Hannafin, 1987; Swadener & Jarrett, 1986) have argued
that when competition is the basis for opportunity, females frequently
opt not to participate. In other words, females tend to avoid
spending time on computers if they have to compete to obtain it.
Some evidence for the contention that females avoid competitive
situations comes from Kiesler et al.'s (1985) observational data
collected in gambling establishments in Reno, Nevada. Males dominated
the gaming tables, but there were equal numbers of males and females
playing the video versions of the games. This finding is interesting
because it contradicts research (e.g., Hanson, 1983) showing that
males prefer playing games on computers rather than with other
people, whereas the opposite tends to be true for females. It
also provides findings contrary to what one would hypothesize
on the basis of the technological gender gap.
One interpretation of the finding is that it is not necessarily
computers and technology per sé that females avoid, but rather
the competitive, male environment that surrounds the field. Corroboration
of this hypothesis about females' choices in such settings awaits
further research. In the interim, findings from research (e.g.,
Arch & Cummins, 1989; Swadener & Hannafin, 1987; Swadener & Jarrett,
1986) demonstrating the benefits for females of removing competition
as the basis for computer instruction and use should be incorporated
into educational and training endeavors.
In sum, educators should ensure that the physical and social structures
of computer learning environments enhance rather than impede females'
opportunities for computer learning. Attempts to create such environments
should be informed by research on females' social and cognitive
development as well as on computer training programs that have
proven successful for females.
Recommendation: Integrate computer work and programming skills
across the curriculum. Sheingold, Kane, and Endreweit (1983) reported
that many educational institutions acquire computer equipment
without an a priori plan for how it will be used in the curriculum.
As Hawkins (198S) explained, computers are most often integrated
into mathematics and science courses because of their salient
relationship to those areas. As a result of this pairing with
subjects that are stereotypically male (Fennema, 1984), computers
have, by association, been labeled masculine.
Computer technology, however, is not the domain of any one discipline
(Lockheed, 1985). Computers have applications for all fields of
study; therefore, the integration of computers into the curriculum
should reflect their broad range of potential applications for
every academic pursuit, regardless of the discipline's traditional
gender label.
The convergence of results documenting the benefits for females
of taking programming classes, coupled with the statistics showing
low enrollments of females in those classes, illustrates a situation
in which those who would benefit most from computer instruction
are not receiving it. Attempts to mainstream components of computer
programming into areas of the curriculum in which females are
highly enrolled should be made in conjunction with efforts to
entice female students to enroll in computer programming courses.
Whether or not these mainstreaming techniques will yield the same
ameliorating effect on the technological gender gap as programming
classes awaits empirical investigation. In the interim, such efforts
will advance efforts to demonstrate the value of computers in
all disciplines.
Recommendation: Eliminate sexist stereotyping and stereotypic
themes from computer software. Many researchers have noted the
sex stereotyping in the themes of computer software (e.g., Hess
& Miura, 1985; Kiesler et al., 1985; Kolata, 1984; Tittle, 1986).
The new genre of electronic games such as Nintendo, which is played
on a television monitor rather than a computer screen, continues
the emphasis on male-oriented themes. A clerk at a video rental
store in Baltimore, Maryland, reported to the second author of
this article' that the top three video game rentals for December
1989 were Megaman II (space and destruction theme), Tech-Mobile
(futuristic football), and Jordan vs. Bird (basketball). What
is more, the clerk was unable to recommend any games that would
be especially appealing for young girls.
When female characters do appear in the video games, they are
cast in secondary roles or are portrayed as helpless and in need
of rescue from the male heroes. For example, in Mario Brothers,
one of the cartridges that comes with The Nintendo Home Entertainment
System, the goal is for the main characters, Mario and Luigi,
to rescue the helpless princess. In the Mousecapades game,
Minnie Mouse literally follows Mickey around as he combats foes
and racks up points. In the course of the game, Minnie is kidnapped
by a giant crow and Mickey 's job is to rescue her.
So, the issue of gender stereotyping in current software and electronic
games is actually a two-tiered problem. The first level of barriers
to females' participation is that the topics are predominantly
male oriented and therefore may not be as enticing to potential
female users as they are to potential male users. For those females
who do cross that first barrier and play the games, there are
subtle messages about appropriate male and female behaviors. The
messages are that males are active, competent, and in control,
whereas females are passive, helpless, and in need of male assistance.
The same messages have been documented in children's books (e.g.,
Saario, Jacklin, & Tittle, 1973) and in children's television
shows (e.g., Sternglanz & Serbin, 1974).
Feminist writers (e.g., Sanford & Donovan, 1984) have argued that
such messages undermine females' sense of efficacy and self-esteem.
Custer's Revenge, in which the goal is to kill Indians
and rape squaws, is a particularly chilling example of sexist
computer software. As a joke, a male colleague introduced Mary
Rowe, special assistant to the President at MIT, to the program.
Rowe described hating seeing atrocities presented as a game and
speculated that women who were not tough-skinned could be devastated
by the experience (Kolata, 1984).
In his interview with John Seeley Brown, founder of the cognitive-science
research group at the Palo Alto Research Center, Goleman (1984)
provided an excellent example of the extent to which the world
of computer software, and now electronic games, is developed predominantly
by males for males. The research group's mandate has been to open
up new areas of man-machine communications. Brown elaborated on
this goal by describing the ultimate machine as one "...that acts
with the subtlety of a sensitive coach. It's like a good skiing
coach who watches you ski downhill, then makes one offhand remark
that changes our whole performance" (p. 24).
To illustrate how such a machine would operate, Brown described
a program developed to diagnose children's mathematics strengths
and weaknesses. After the diagnosis, the machine would break in
and remediate the child's skills. The program had a Wild West
theme and was entitled, How the West Was Won. The imagery
Brown referred to – athletics, the Wild West, competition – was
all stereotypically male.
Both Brawn and his colleague, Tom Moran, stressed the importance
of designing computer systems to watch the way humans think. Moran
explained that the creation of a well-designed system depended
on understanding the way people's minds build mental models of
the system. If the gender of the user and the possibility that
males and females build different mental models are ignored, there
is a very real possibility that the next generation of human-machine
communication systems will serve to widen rather than close the
technological gender gap.
There is information, although sparse, from research and from
educational programs that can provide clues for facilitating the
female-machine interface. While investigating the components of
computer-based instruction that are motivating for students, Malone
and Lepper (cited in Wilder et al., 1985) discovered that girls
liked music in the game, but disliked the imagery of arrows popping
balloons. Boys' preferences were just the opposite. Sheingold
et al. (1983) found that female students were particularly responsive
to computer software that allowed them to interact creatively
with the computer by making pictures and choosing colors. In their
attempts to incorporate computer technology into the middle school
curriculum, Spoehr, Nyce, and Vaeder 1990) discovered that coupling
a computer-based instruction program on American history with
a role-playing exercise was particularly effective for female
and minority students, who outscored white male students on subsequent
tests about the material.
These findings are too sketchy to provide clear directions or
increasing the appeal of computers and computer learning experiences
for females, but they do highlight the necessity for respecting
gender differences when designing computer-based instruction.
Designers of CBI can play a vital role in narrowing the technological
gender gap by increasing the appeal of entertainment software
and electronic games for females, incorporating information about
the female-machine interface into product design, and reducing
sexist stereotyping of characters.
CONCLUSION
This review documents that male and female students in elementary
school through college have different computer-related attitudes
and behaviors. The differences are such that female students are
at risk for missing out on the skills and knowledge that are prerequisites
for success in increasingly technological educational settings.
The etiology of this technological gender gap is multifaceted;
therefore, it cannot be remedied with a single, simple solution.
The recommendations presented here are not comprehensive, but
are suggestive of the types of actions educators and CBI designers
should take to begin narrowing the gap. Although not emphasized
strongly the recommendations, the implementation of intervention
strategies should be guided by the results from research on females'
cognitive, social, and psychological development. Where there
are gaps in the research – and there are many – attempts should
be made to combine ongoing research programs with flexible intervention
strategies that can be modified to incorporate the emerging findings.
The need to remedy gender inequities in computer education and
access is dire. Ignoring, denying, or failing to respond to the
technological gender gap is likely to render large numbers of
female students unprepared to meet the technological challenges
of the future.
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