TC 375: Gender Digital Divide

I think that the "gender digital divide" must be looked at in several ways in order to be understood properly. First, on the side of access opportunities, we have seen in the readings that various communities and groups around the world have limited, slow, or no internet access. These groups are most commonly correlated with economically poor groups and states. In some of these societies, the subordination of women is great, and this inequality extends to access to technologies such as the internet. Secondly, we must look at how women are actually using the internet. Just as Nakamura pointed out in the discussion of ethnic minorities and the internet, we must look not only at just "haves" and "have-nots," but also at how these individuals, when able to access the internet, actually use it. As noted in the textbook, various groups of women and ethnic minorities use the internet in markedly different ways than the average white male internet user. As such, when thinking about a "gender digital divide" we must look not only at access, but what is offered to (and by) the female audience that participates in online activities.

I think that the readings from October 13 raise some very valid concerns about the current state of women and the internet. The author addresses some very recognizable statistics such as the minority status of women in computing clubs and organizations, a fact which is easily seen by walking into any class in the Telecommunications, Information Studies, and Media department at Michigan State University. However, to limit this only to the area of the internet seems rather pointless, as a very similar situation of gender under-representation can be seen in the field of Engineering. Much as Engineering clubs and organizations dedicated to helping women in the field and enhancing the image of the field as a viable area for women to excel emerged as a response to this gender inbalance, organizations cited in the text have formed to do much the same for women and the internet. The prescriptive recommendations that follow the descriptive analysis in the AAUW report reflect such efforts.

The report's recommendations include full integration of computing into educational curriculum, a redefinition of computer literacy, a respect for multiple points of entry into computing, changes in the public face of computing, instruction for educators, the beginning of a discussion on equity for educational stakeholders, educating students about the importance of computers in their future work, a rethinking of educational software and computer games, and other support efforts for women in computing (such as the organizations mentioned in the text and school-based organizations). These recommendations cover a full spectrum of areas to wage this fight and reflect a variety of ways to improve the situation for women in computing. While they are very broad and vague, the proper implementation of some of the core programs (such as computers being integrated into academic curriculum) could have very noticable effects and contribute to a greater overall shift in the climate of computing for women.

The greatest recommendation I can make is to echo an idea mentioned in several of the writings, being that the best way to engage women (or any group) in computing, and specifically the internet, is to look at what sort of communication activities they most enjoy, and to tailor services and content to these communication styles. Evidence of the success of such tactics can already be seen in the number of women using weblogs.