Gender and Computers: Two Surveys of Computer-Related Attitudes
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| Audience/Grade: | 9 - High School Senior |
| Discipline(s): |
Computer Science Computing Diversity Engineering Diversity |
| Special Topic(s): |
Women and Information Technology |
| Learning Resource Type: |
Reference - General |
| Media Type: |
Unknown |
| Author(s): |
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| Publisher(s): |
c |
| Description: | 1) An entire school district in New Jersey, K-12, was surveyed. Children start school with a very slight tendency to see the computer as more masculine than feminine. The tendency shifts slightly from grade to grade, but it is more pronounced in elementary than high school. Both boys and girls report sharply declined liking after 6th grade. Differences are statistically significant but small. 2) All freshmen at a highly selective university were surveyed. There was no difference with previous experience, with the same exposure to computers in high school; both males and females had taken an average of one course. Males were somewhat more likely to have taken programming, though, while females were more likely to have taken a general introductory course. "Experienced females actually reported themselves to be less comfortable and no more skilled than unexperienced [sic] males." (p. 225), except if the females' experience had been in programming, in which case they rated themselves as more skilled than unexperienced males. So any previous experience with the computer increased comfort somewhat for both sexes, but only programming did so substantially for women. |
| Rating: | No Rating |
| Related Resources | |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: |
Gender Equity A reader for plate tectonics; could be used as partial lesson plan. |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | January 1985 |
| Platform/Format: |
WWW |
| Cost: |
Not free |
| Download URL: | http://www.springerlink.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&id=doi:10.1 |
| Copyright and Use Restrictions: |
Copyright 1997-2001, Extreme Science. All Rights Reserved. Extreme Science is a Registered
Trademark. |
| Metadata: |
IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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