Session 12Race, Gender & Technology 12

“To be conscious that you are ignorantis a great step to knowledge”

Benjamin Disraeli

Review of Learning

• Work of theorist Donna Haraway to explore how ICTs play into the racial and gender equation:

• Communication and information technologies indicate fundamental transformations in the structure of the world for us

• Technological determinism subverts myriad organic wholes

• The reconceptions of machine and organism Cyborg

• Understand the concept of the “Digital Divide”• Explore the relationship between technology and

race and culture

Session Focus• To examine Gender

differences and issues in relation to I.T.

• To examine the Digital Divide concept in the USA: issues and solutions

• To posit solutions to critical questions of culture, race and gender in relation to IT.

Gender Differences

The Digital Divide

Computer Couture

or

Digital Downgrading?

So…..

• Is this the first time that we use sex/fashion/status to sell information technology products??? Perhaps not. Just take a look at the advertisement of the 60’s and 70’s. Examine the way information technology used to be sold and offered in popular media.

Gender differences in computer-mediated

communication• Study by Susan Herring: University of Texas• Based on scholarly listserv• Key factor for non-contribution was “intimidation”• Men accepted intimidation as normal behavior in

listservs, women dismayed that human beings treat each other this way

• 68% messages posted by men had adversarial style: criticism, ridicule, promoting own importance

• Women’s postings: hedging, apologizing, asking questions rather than making assertions

Gender differences in computer-mediated

communication• Women displayed more personal orientation:

revealing thoughts and feelings; supporting others• Men do most of talking and attracting attention to

themselves; dominated discussions of even women-centered topics and lists

• Women trying to gain equal hearing on male dominated lists were ignored or trivialized

• Women engaged in little or no flaming

Conclusion: different communications ethics in

online environments• Male Online Style: characterized by adversariality:

put-downs, strong and contentious assertions, lengthy postings, frequent postings, self-promotion, sarcasm, authoritative stances, flaming (insults, inappropriate language, strong negative emotion)

• Female Online Style: characterized by supportiveness (expressions of appreciation, thanking, community building and acceptance: and attenuation (hedging, expressing doubt, apologizing, questioning)

Conclusion: different communications ethics in

online environmentsMen value:• Freedom from

censorship• Freedom from

external authority• Open expression• Agonistic debate as

means of advancing knowledge

Women value:• Politeness• Consideration• Taking responsibility for

own actions• Developing sensitivities

to others

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE WORKPLACE?

Online Shopping:Gender Differences

• Useful sources

• Saba, J. (2000). Gender Dap? MC Technology Marketing Intelligence. 20(8), 46-55.

• Stoughton, S., & Walker, L. (1999). Online, purses gain on wallet sites courting a holiday rush of female addresses. Washington Post. November 2, 1999.

R/T Shopping:Gender Differences

• Males• Shopping viewed as

tedium: “dashing in and ducking out under the excuse they have better things to do”

• Shopping is waste of time

• Prefer to meander aimlessly

• “Men hunt”

• Females• Shopping viewed as “a

social experience, savoring products and relishing art of browsing”

• Prefer to ask for directions

• Women gather

Online Shopping:Gender Differences in Reverse

• Males• 53%• Online for 3 years, make 7-8 purchases• “Men browse” – spend hours cruising

online stores, comparing prices, quality, gathering information

• “un-embarassing way to gather information about purchases”

• Don’t give up – tend to master a non-intuitive site even if it takes time

• More tolerant of poor navigation and service

• Tend to go for large online stores

• Females• 47%• Online for 3 years, made at least 7

purchases; buy more “if easy and fast”

• “women hunt” – mission to get in and out quickly – don’t get to touch, see, judge quality

• Give up if can’t find something quickly

• Higher expectations about promptness of delivery

• Critical of winding navigation, long download, poor service

• Not into “bigger is better”

The Digital Divide: An educational issue?

• Is the provision of IT inadvertently sexist?

• Compared to males, are females getting a raw deal when it comes to equal opportunities in IT?

Research into gender differences in Computing

and IT: schooling• Males more likely to familiarize themselves with IT• Males more likely to investigate way around new

software• Females prefer structured tasks and learn through

examples• Females are goal oriented in approach to learning

and achieve better results in IT fields• Due to differences in access to computers, male

students have more positive attitudes to schooling

Research into gender differences in Computing

and IT• At home, children’s computer perceived to belong

to the boy, who will allow his sister to use it only if he feels like it

• Males more confident about buying and using computers than females

• Women under-represented in high-level IT jobs: • % of female IT professionals France: 39% Singapore: 55% USA: 45% UK: 22%

Research into gender differences in Computing

and IT• Women grossly under-represented in university

computer science departments: 7.8% computer science and computer engineering faculties

• Misconception that women have had no role in the history of computing – see:

Women and computers

http://www.ualberta.ca/~nfriesen/582/intro.htm

Causal Factors

• Social conditioning and stereotyping– computing long regarded as “technical” subject, and it has traditionally been accepted that “technical” subjects are for “boys”

• Fewer role models in science and technology for women

• Computer magazines and games: focus on technical, reinforcing gender stereotyping

• Compter games: violence, danger, exercise of power, often by force

Causal Factors

• School Internet users: middle class young men• Most contributions made to newsgroups made

by men• Girls using Internet news groups likely to be

personally insulted for expressing views• High incidences of sexual harassment in

newsgroups, listservs and chat rooms• Films: portray men as technically competent• (Except movie: Single White Female)!!!

• http://www.ualberta.ca/~nfriesen/582/ctrbtns.htm

www.accenture.com

INFORMATIONTECHNOLOGY

ANDCULTURE

Technologically-driven American imperialism?

Lyric M. Hughes, CEO, China Online, United States

“the facts belie the assertion that the Internet represents the Americanization of the globe, while also leaving the poor behind in the technology race”

“The Internet is a cultural agnostic that can take place across cultures. Cultural specificity is allowed by the Internet“http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enWeb&xd=ideas\wef\asia_how.xml

Americanization of the world?

“The spread and use of the Internet is not determined by the United States and technology, it is really determined by public policy”"Ten years from now Asian cultures will flourish on the Internet, but the Net will become Asian-based, with the primary language in Asia on the Net being the Chinese language."

Digital Divide – US Is the Internet leaving behind the poor?

• http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/falling.html

• Major report: Falling through the Net II – New Data on the Digital Divide

NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION

USA Households with a Computer, Modem,

Telephone, and E-mail

Key Conclusion: Persisting "digital

divide”." Despite significant growth in computer ownership and usage overall, the growth has occurred to a greater extent within some income levels, demographic groups, and geographic areas, than in others.

The "digital divide" between certain groups of Americans has increased between 1994 and 1997 so that there is now an even greater disparity in penetration levels among some groups.

There is a widening gap, for example, between those at upper and lower income levels. Additionally, even though all racial groups now own more computers than they did in 1994, Blacks and Hispanics now lag even further behind Whites in their levels of PC-ownership and on-line access.

The Digital Divide: USA

• Nation-wide penetration rates -- 93.8% for telephones, 36.6% for personal computers (PCs); 26.3% for modems, and 18.6% for on-line access

• Households earning more than $75,000 in urban areas have the highest PC-ownership rates (76%) and on-line access rates (50.3%).

• White households are still more than twice as likely (40.8%) to own a computer than Black (19.3%) or Hispanic (19.4%)

• Black and Hispanic households are 2/5 as likely to have home Internet access as white households

• Those in urban areas more than twice as likely to have Internet access than those in rural areas

• Current SET workforce is 83% white and 78% male

U.S. Households with Computer: By Race/Origin: By U.S., Rural, Urban, and

Central City Areas

Profiles of USA "The Least Connected”

• Rural Poor• Rural and Central City Minorities • Young Households • Female-headed Households,compared to dual-

headed / male headed households

The digital Divide

• The same divergence found in society along cultural and racial lines is found online and offline

• Katz: Those on the wrong side of the divide are “poorer, less-educated, disproportionally African American, Hispanic and female”

Issues

• Lack of resources in poor communities• Resistance to the idea that technology is a quick fix• High tech education only available to selected elite• How will high technology provide running water and

electricity, sanitation and hygiene?• Risk of “dumping” equipment into poor areas• Knowledge, ways of communication and obtaining

that knowledge, and ideas, and much more

All is well in Silicon Valley?: A symbol

Palo Alto

Silicon Valley: Job Clusters

http://www.jointventure.org/resources/2000Index/trends.html

Silicon Valley: Average Wages

http://www.jointventure.org/resources/2000Index/trends.html

Case Study: Silicon Valley

• East Palo Alto, on the border of corporate HQs of billion $ companies such as Yahoo and Oracle, 17% of population live in poverty

• Economically marginalized community• 14% population have college degree• Less that 20% have computer in home• Low literacy and computing skills• Highest murder rate of any city in US• “Murder capital of the world”• Children “selling this and taking that”

Silicon Valley: Education Gap

• Fifty-seven percent of Hispanic students graduate high school, compared with 86% of white students and 97% of Asian students.

• On average, 29% of ninth- and tenth-grade students were enrolled in Intermediate Algebra in 1999, up from 26% in 1998. Only 19% of Hispanics were enrolled.

• On average, 47% of high-school students completed the course requirements for UC/CSU entrance in 1998. Only 23% of Hispanic students met this requirement.

• Hispanics earn only 6% of engineering degrees awarded by local universities.

• http://www.jointventure.org/resources/2000Index/svdd.html

Silicon Valley: Education Gap

http://www.jointventure.org/resources/2000Index/svdd.html

• Access to technology varies by race and income. • In the San Francisco Bay Area, 46% of people with

household incomes less than $40,000 access the Internet compared to 81% with household incomes more than $80,000 (Bay Area Council, 1999).

• 37% of Hispanics in the Bay Area use a computer on a frequent basis compared to 59% of non-Hispanic Whites(Public Policy Institute of California, 1999).

• http://www.jointventure.org/resources/2000Index/svdd.html

Silicon Valley: Technology Gap

How can we fast-forward to the future?

A Divided Future?

“A situation where large slabs of the community, already disadvantaged, will be further marginalized as society turns further towards a different way of conducting itself. There are going to be two totally different lifestyles – communities that are IT literate and have the skills to operate in a wired world, and

those that are not”

(Steve Horrocks, Consumer Telecommunications Network, Australia)

A Divided Future?

“That the digital divide is more dramatic than any other inequalities in health or income is depressing

because information and communication technologies have been hailed a one of the potential

solutions to these inequalities”

(Tesser Tan-Torres Edejer, Scientist, WHO)

Cultural Portals

• BET.com: web portal for Black Americans• aOnline: Asian-American community• Click2Asia.com: content, chat rooms and

message boards in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese

• QuePasa.com: Latino World Section for news and information from Carribean, Central America, Mexico and Latin America

Solutions

• Entrepreneurship skills• Work readiness skills• Skills for global market place• Development on shoestring budgets• People not viewed as recipients but as

participants• Information and technical literacies

Workplace Solutions?

Strategies for building an inclusive community?

Useful resources• Center for Women & Information Technology:

http://www.umbc.edu/cwit/

• Women's Studies/Women's Issues: http://research.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/links.html and also note this page: http://research.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/links_sci.html (one of the best collections of sites for women and technology)

• Gender, Science and Technology Gateway: http://gstgateway.wigsat.org/

Gender-Related Electronic Forums at: http://research.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/forums.html

Against the Odds: http://nrgen.com/against_the_odds/index.html

Barriers for Women in Computing at: http://www.ul.ie/~govsoc/barrierstw.html

Best Online Resources For Women and Minorities in Science and Technology:http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/womenminoritiestech.html

GirlGeeks: http://www.girlgeeks.com/

Women and computershttp://www.ualberta.ca/~nfriesen/582/intro.htm

• Spender, D. (1995). Nattering on the Net: Women, Power and Cyberspace. Melbourne: Spinfex Press.

• Turner, E. (1997). "What is our worth?" In: A.F. Grundy, et al (eds.), in Women Work and Computerization: Proceedings of the 6th International IFIP Conference, Bonn, Germany, May 24-27, 1997). Germany: Springer.

• Webster, J. (1996). Shaping Women’s Work: Gender, Employment and Information Technology. London: Longman.

• Women and Technology Workforce: http://www.jointventure.org/resources/2000Index/svdd.html

Then we read:

• Examine the following article (exam item): The Videogame Lightning Rod by Dimitri Williams in Information, Communication and Society (2003) 6 (4), p.523.

• If you are really interested in how marketing targets consumers of information technology, look at the following article: STRATEGIC USE OF BUNDLING FOR REDUCING CONSUMERS' PERCEIVED RISK ASSOCIATED WITH THE PURCHASE OF NEW HIGH-TECH PRODUCTS (2003) in Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice (11) 3, p.71.