Women, Mathematics, and Computing

In 1963, Betty Friedan wrote these gloomy words: The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. ... Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night – she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question—“Is this all?” The passage, of course, is from the The Feminine Mystique (Friedan, 1983, p. 15). Though it took another decade for the discontent that Friedan described to solidify into a political movement, even in 1963 women were doing more than making peanut butter sandwiches. They also earned 41% of bachelor’s degrees. By 1995, the number of degrees conferred had nearly tripled. The fraction going to women more than kept pace, at almost 55%. Put another way, women’s share of bachelor’s degrees increased by 25% since Betty Friedan first noticed the isolation of housewives. Consider two more sets of numbers: In 1965, 478 women graduated from medical school. These 478 women accounted for only 6.5% of the new physicians. Law was even less hospitable. Only 404 women, or just 3% of the total, received law degrees in 1965. By 1996, however, almost 39% of medical degrees and 43% of law degrees were going to women (Anderson, 1997). If so many women are studying medicine and law, why are so few studying computer science? That’s a good question, and one that has been getting a lot of attention. A search of an important index of computing literature, the ACM Digital Portal (ACM, 2005a), using the key words “women” and “computer,” produced 2,223 hits. Of the first 200, most are about the underrepresentation of women in information technology. Judging by the volume of research, what we can do to increase the numbers of women studying computer science remains an open question. While most investigators fall on one side or the other of the essentialist/social constructivist divide (Trauth, Quesenberry & Morgan, 2005), this article sidesteps the issue altogether in favor of offering a testable hypothesis: Girls and young women would be drawn to degree programs in computer science in greater numbers if the field were structured with the precision of mathematics. How we arrived at this hypothesis requires a look at the number of women earning degrees in computer science historically and in relation to other apparently similar fields.

Women and ICTs in the Arab World

The digital divide manifests itself on the one hand in the lag in Arab world nations vis-à-vis other more developed countries and on the other hand in the existing inequalities between men and women. Although the United Nations and the World Bank publish a variety of reports on the differences between developed and developing nations, very little data is available to fully grasp the meaning of the gap between genders. In terms of information and communication technologies (ICTs), there are two distinct gaps that need to be recognized: the gap between Arab men and Arab women and the gap between Arab women and women from other nations around the world (Figure 1). Much differs in the lives of men and women. For decades, researchers have published comparative reports, attempting to explain what distinguishes men and women in socio-professional environments. According to Meyers-Levy (1989) men tend to be more comfortable with ICTs and partake more often in gaming and programming. When they use computers, women are more inclined to use them as communication tools. Given women’s presumed lack of experience with technology, their upbringing which is different from men’s, and that the studies they most often pursue are not technology-oriented, it is not surprising that women are generally less inclined to adopt new technologies. Those who nonetheless have tried their hand at browsing the Web were either witness to or victims of offensive language used during interactive discussion sessions; in some cases, they were harassed via e-mail. In order to avoid this unpleasantness, some women assumed male aliases (Herring, 2003). However, since 2000, when men and women reached parity in Web use (Rickert & Sacharow, 2000), it would appear that using the Internet is presently no more intimidating for females than for males. An abundance of other differences between men and women exist. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) acknowledged that there does not exist a society in which women benefit from the same opportunities as men. Everywhere in the world, women are poorer, less educated, and less valued than men. These and other inequalities reduce women’s ability to take advantage of the potential benefits of ICTs and to consequently contribute to their nation’s economic and social development which is in fact facilitated by these same technologies.

Web-Based Learning and Its Impacts on Junior Science Classes

The past decade has seen significant improvements in the design and development of information and communication technologies (ICT). The Internet, for instance, has become more efficient, more affordable and more accessible. While the availability of these technologies in classrooms has created new opportunities, it has at the same time presented new challenges for teachers. Teachers have to find innovative methods of implementing these technologies in lessons that are not only effective and efficient but also fair to both sexes.

Vulnerability to Internet Crime and Gender Issues

A tremendous growth in the use of the Internet has been observed in the past two decades. More than 75% of Americans participate in online activities (University of Southern California Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, 2004) such as e-mail, Web browsing, working from home, accessing news stories, seeking information, instant messaging, using the Internet in lieu of the library for school work, playing games, and managing personal finance. For professionals, the Internet is an important medium for networking and building social capital. However, along with all positive impacts, there are also negative outcomes. One such negative outcome includes Internet crimes. Dowland, Furnell, Illingworth, and Reynolds (1999) state that “with society’s widespread use of and, in some cases, reliance upon technology, significant opportunities now exist for both mischievous and malicious abuse via IT systems” (p. 715). Internet crimes (cyber crimes) consist of specific crimes dealing with computers and networks (such as hacking, spreading of viruses, and worms) and the facilitation of traditional crime through the use of computers on the Internet (such as child pornography, hate crimes, telemarketing/Internet fraud). This article focuses on Internet crimes, especially those affecting individual users, and offers a discussion of issues regarding Internet crimes and gender.

Virtual Learning and Teaching Environments

Without a well-thought-out didactic concept, the best surface design isn’t of any help. This article contains results from an empirical study I conducted independently. It was developed in the context of the umbrella project “gender and information technologies” in the context of the Vifu (virtual international women university), a project financed by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and carried out at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Women at the University of Kiel. This empirical study provides insight into the field of “virtual learning and teaching”. It is based on an expert survey and reflects the specific experience instructors had with virtual seminars. The study focuses on the following question: What convergences and divergences can be identified in experts’ specific experience with forms of virtual teaching? I proceeded from the assumption that intercultural and gender factors affect the design, structure, and implementation of virtual learning and teaching environments. This assumption shaped the study. Experts were generally defined as all persons who have practical experience in virtual teaching, especially in the research fields of gender and computer sciences. Since virtual learning and teaching environments is a new, experimental field, none of the interviewed experts had more than two to three years of teaching experience in this area. Some of them have programmed and developed the online module themselves. Most of the fourteen interviews were conducted face-to-face, three of the interview partners were sent a questionnaire by e-mail. With them I conducted “semi-standardized interviews” (Mayring, 1996) and all were evaluated with the core sentence method. Core sentences are “natural generalizations” used by the interview partners themselves (Leithäuser & Volmerg, 1988; Volmerg, Senghaas-Knobloch, & Leithäuser, 1986). These are statements that make a point succinctly, reducing entire paragraphs to a single statement. In contrast to the deductive method, the inductive method I used has the advantage that the meaning of the “spoken word” is not lost. It is particularly useful in the development of hypotheses.

Understanding the Mommy Tracks in the IT Workforce

Despite the recent growth in the number of women in the American labor force, women are under represented in the IT workforce. Key among the factors that account for this under representation is balancing work-family issues. Some researchers have speculated that IT work is not an ideal fit for working mothers because of long work hours, increased conflicts with family responsibilities, and the difficulty of returning after maternity leave to an industry with ever evolving technologies (Kuosa, 2000; Webster, 1996). This article reports on an empirical study that explored the influence of work-family balance on American women’s participation in the IT workforce by using the Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT (Trauth, 2002; Trauth, Quesenberry, & Morgan, 2004; Trauth, Huang, Morgan, Quesenberry, & Yeo, 2006). In doing so, we summarize a work-family balance study presented in greater detail in Quesenberry, Morgan, and Trauth (2004) and Quesenberry, Trauth, and Morgan (2006) that articulates the ways in which individual and environmental factors influence female responses to issues of work-family balance.

Strategies of ICT Use for Women's Economic Empowerment

Information and communication technologies (ICT) provide a great development opportunity by contributing to information dissemination, providing an array of communication capabilities, and increasing access to technology and knowledge, among others. Access to and the cost of ICT continue to be a major development obstacle, particularly in the developing world. Despite the growth in mobile telephony, peri-urban2 and rural areas—home to a great majority of women and poor populations—continue to lack infrastructure and ICT services in general. For ICT to become meaningful development tools, ICT policy and programs must address the needs of women and the poor in general. This article discusses the main challenges and obstacles faced by women, suggests practical strategies to address those challenges and provides recommendations on how to proceed to improve the conditions leading to women’s economic empowerment.

Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality in Online HIV/AIDS Information

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) represent a growing and significant health threat to women worldwide. According to the United Nations (UNAIDS/WHO, 2004), women now make up nearly half of all people living with HIV worldwide. In the United States, although males still accounted for 73% of all AIDS cases diagnosed in 2003, there is a marked increase in HIV and AIDS diagnoses among females. The estimated number of AIDS cases increased 15% among females and 1% among males from 1999 through 2003 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). Looking closer at HIV and AIDS infections among women in the United States, Anderson and Smith (2004) report that HIV infection was the leading cause of death in 2001 for African-American women aged 25 to 34 years, and was among the four leading causes of death for African-American women aged 20 to 24 and 35 to 44 years, as well as Hispanic women aged 35 to 44 years. The rate of AIDS diagnoses for African-American women (50.2 out of 100,000 women) was approximately 25 times the rate for white women (2 out of 100,000) and 4 times the rate for Hispanic women (12.4 out of 100,000; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). African-American and Hispanic women together represented about 25% of all U.S. women (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000), yet they account for 83% of AIDS diagnoses reported in 2003 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Women’s vulnerability to HIV and AIDS may be attributed to gender inequalities in socioeconomic status, stereotypes of AIDS as a gay-male disease, and cultural ideology around sexual practices such as abstinence, monogamy, and condom use. Because of cultural mores and socioeconomic disadvantages, women may consequently have less access to prevention and care resources. Information is perhaps the most important HIV and AIDS resource for women, and the Internet provides a useful platform for disseminating information to a large cross-section of women. With the flourishing use of e-health resources and the growing number of public-access Internet sites, more and more people are using the Internet to obtain health-care information. Over two thirds of Americans (67%) are now online (Internet World Statistics, 2005). On a typical day, about 6 million Americans go online for medical advice. This exceeds the number of Americans who actually visit health professionals (Fox & Rainie, 2002). Studies also show that women are more likely to seek health information online than are men (Fox & Fallows, 2003; Fox & Rainie, 2000; Hern, Weitkamp, Hillard, Trigg, & Guard, 1998). HIV and AIDS patients are among the health-care consumers with chronic medical conditions who increasingly take the Internet as a major source of information (Kalichman, Weinhardt, Benotsch, & Cherry, 2002). As more Americans go online for health information, the actual efficacy of the information consumption becomes salient. Recent digital divide studies call for shifting from demographic statistics around technological access to socially informed research on effective use of technology (Gurstein, 2003; Hacker & Mason, 2003; Kvasny & Truex, 2001; Payton, 2003; Warschauer, 2002). Although the Internet provides a health information dissemination platform that is continuous, free, and largely anonymous, we should not assume that broader access and use will be translated into positive benefits. We must begin to critically examine the extent to which e-health content meets the needs of an increasingly diverse population of Internet users. To combat the AIDS pandemic, it is necessary to deliver information that is timely, credible, and multisectoral. It has to reach not just clinicians and scientists, but also behavioral specialists, policy makers, donors, activists, and industry leaders. It must also be accessible to affected individuals and communities (Garbus, Peiperl, & Chatani, 2002). Accessibility for affected individuals and communities would necessitate targeted, culturally salient, and unbiased information. This is a huge challenge. For instance, health providers’ insensitivity and biases toward women have been documented in the critical investigation of TV programs (Myrick, 1999; Raheim, 1996) and printed materials (Charlesworth, 2003). There is a lack of empirical evidence to demonstrate the extent to which and the conditions by which these biases are reproduced on the Internet. In what follows, we provide a conceptual framework for uncovering implicit gender biases in HIV and AIDS information. This framework is informed by the role of power in shaping the social construction of gender and sexuality. We conclude by describing how the framework can be applied in the analysis of online HIV and AIDS information resources.

Skills of Women Technologists

Women technologists practice careers in various fields of information technology. They traditionally are educated and trained to acquire primarily technical skills. However, in response to organizational change and industry shifts, today’s women technologists are acquiring a multitude of diverse skill sets—on top of their conventional technical skills—to excel and succeed in the workplace. This article delves into various skill sets in today’s IT workplace and how women technologists have adopted and updated their skill sets to redefine their role to align with today’s industries.

Reasons for Women to Leave the IT Workforce

Turnover has been a major issue among information technology (IT) personnel since the very early days of computing as well as nowadays (Moore, 2000; Niederman & Summer, 2003). IT personnel have a strong tendency to frequently switch employers. Annual turnover in the information systems (IS) field ranged between 15% and 20% during the 1960s and the early 1970s. In the late 1970s, the turnover was as high as 28% annually and around 20% in the early 1980s. By the 1990s, the turnover rate reached 25 to 33% annually (Jiang & Klein, 2002). Many large American companies had a 25 to 33% turnover rate among their IS personnel in the late 1990s (Hayes, 1998). Although women represent an increasingly important segment of the labor force, their turnover rate can exceed 2½ times the turnover rate of men (Chusmir, 1982; Cotton & Tuttle, 1986; Davis & Kuhn, 2003; Giacobbe Miller & Wheeler, 1992; Schwarz, 1989). A meta-analysis by Cotton & Tuttle (1986) of 120 datasets showed strong evidence for gender differences in turnover: women are more likely to leave their job than men. Gender differences in turnover are less consistent among nonmanagerial and nonprofessional employees, and are stronger among professional (Cotton & Tuttle, 1986). However, recent evidence suggests that educated women start resembling men with regard to turnover rate and pattern (Griffeth, Hom, & Gaertner, 2000; Royalty, 1998). Educated women are more likely to leave to take on another job, while less educated women are more likely to abandon the labor force (Royalty, 1998). Furthermore, part of the higher turnover rates for women can be explained by individual variables that turnover studies conducted by economists and focused on industry do not consider, such as age, tenure, marital status, occupation and salary (Giacobbe Miller & Wheeler, 1992). In this chapter, we look at gender differences in reasons why IT personnel want to leave their job, and in their intentions once they have left their job.