Gender and Computers : Understanding the Digital Divide

by Cooper, Joel; Weaver, Kimberlee D.

• ISBN13: 9780805844269
• ISBN10: 0805844260
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-07-01
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

Gender and Computerspresents evidence that shows that girls and young women are being left behind on the road to information technology. This book not only documents the digital divide but also provides guideposts to overcoming it. Social psychological theories and data are brought to bear on understanding the societal and environmental roots of the divide. Remedies ranging from family dynamics to teacher-student interactions to the controversial question of the gender organization of schools and school systems are proposed. Gender and Computers: Understanding the Digital Divide: *considers the authors' original research as well as recently published work by other leading scholars; *documents that girls are at a marked disadvantage in their ability to learn about and profit from information technology in our educational system; *sets the problem of computer anxiety in a rich context of social psychological theories, including stereotype threat, self-fulfilling prophecy, social comparison and attribution theory; and *offers suggestions that parents, teachers, and school systems can implement to overcome the digital divide. The book is intended to appeal to students and researchers in the social and behavioral sciences, education, human factors, and computer science interested in gender differences in general, and in human-computer interaction, in particular. The authors' goal is to stimulate social scientists and educators to further research this topic to generate solutions to the problem.

Author Biography

Joel Cooper currently serves as Professor of Psychology at Princeton University.

Table of Contents

PREFACE	ix
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING THE PROBLEM	1	(10)
The Digital Divide: Unequal Access and Unequal Effects	3	(8)
Race, Wealth, and the Digital Divide	3	(8)
CHAPTER 2: COMPUTER ANXIETY: A MATTER OF GENDER	11	(29)
Computer Anxiety: A Matter Of Gender	13	(2)
Why Are There Gender Differences in Computer Anxiety?	15	(3)
They Talk to You, Not to Me	15	(1)
What Boys Like; What Girls Like	16	(1)
Features of IT Programs	17	(1)
Computer Anxiety and its Relation to the Features of IT Software	18	(7)
Gender Inequity in the Older Grades	25	(2)
The Children Grow Up: On to University	27	(4)
Changing Times	28	(3)
Learning Styles, Programming Styles, and Communication	31	(2)
Biological Sex and Psychological Gender: "Getting With the Program" For Your Gender	33	(3)
Consequences of Computer Anxiety: Computer Avoidance and Disidentification	36	(1)
Into Adult Life: Computers in the Workplace	37	(1)
A Concluding Comment	38	(2)
CHAPTER 3: THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF COMPUTING	40	(27)
The Social Context of Computing	42	(7)
Who Is Negatively Impacted by the Social Context?	43	(1)
Bucking the Trend: Gender and Social Groups	44	(1)
Computing With a Classmate: Shedding Light on the Theory	44	(3)
Computing in Public and Private: Re-Examining Demolition Division	47	(2)
What Is Stressful About Other People?	49	(3)
The Problem of Competition	49	(2)
Beyond Competition: Other Effects of the Social Context	51	(1)
Men and Women Play "Zork": A Closer Look at What Constitutes Public	52	(10)
Beyond Stress: Social Context Affects Social Cognition	60	(2)
Sex Composition of Computer Classes	62	(3)
Interactions Between Boys and Girls in Unequal Classrooms	64	(1)
Conclusion: The Social Context Matters	65	(2)
CHAPTER 4: EXPECTANCIES AND THE COMPUTER	67	(26)
Sources of Expectancies: True and Not So True	68	(1)
The Self Fulfilling Prophecy in the Classroom: From Expectancy to Behavior	69	(5)
Two Students Tell Their Stories	70	(1)
Physical Beauty as an Expectancy	71	(1)
Expectancies in Black and White: Using Stereotypes to Form Expectancies	72	(1)
Does Differential Behavior Lead to a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?	73	(1)
Self Fulfilling Prophecies, Girls, and Computing	74	(7)
Expectations and Attributions for Success and Failure	75	(6)
Performance Attributions and Information Technology	81	(2)
Attributions for Success and Failure	82	(1)
Consequences of the Attributions: The "So What?" Question	83	(2)
Educational Computer Software: Boy-Talk Produced By Gender Expectations	85	(8)
Testing the Expectancy-Communication Link	87	(6)
CHAPTER 5: A THREAT IN THE AIR	93	(16)
Stereotype Threat: The Digital Divide and the Stereotype	94	(8)
Race and Stereotype Threat	96	(1)
Stereotype Threat and Gender	96	(2)
Identification With the Domain: How Much Do I Care?	98	(2)
Identification With My Group: How Much Do I Care?	100	(2)
What Causes the Damage?	102	(1)
The Case of Multiple Identities	102	(6)
Making Identities Salient: The Double-Edged Sword of Tokenism	105	(3)
Further Consequences of Stereotype Threat: Disidentification	108	(1)
CHAPTER 6: WORKING TOWARD SOLUTIONS	109	(20)
A Model For Understanding the Digital Divide	110	(19)
Parents	113	(4)
The Classroom Teacher	117	(7)
Teacher Training	124	(5)
CHAPTER 7: SOLUTIONS: SINGLE-SEX SCHOOLS AND CLASSROOMS?	129	(24)
The Single-Sex/Co-Education Debate	133	(4)
Why Might Single-Sex Schools Be Superior?	133	(3)
Co-education Proponents	136	(1)
Research On Single-Sex Schools Versus Mixed-Sex Schools	137	(7)
Attitudes, Academic Self-Esteem, Academic Confidence	138	(3)
Single-Sex Schools and Computers	141	(1)
Academic Performance: Research Supporting the Benefits of Same-Sex Education	142	(1)
Academic Performance: The Nonsignificant Findings	143	(1)
Gender-Stereotyped Conceptions of Mathematics and Science	144	(1)
Future Choices: College Major, Future Profession	145	(2)
An Alternative Approach: The Single-Sex Classroom	147	(3)
Single-Sex Classrooms: Research	148	(2)
Coming to Resolution	150	(3)
REFERENCES	153	(10)
AUTHOR INDEX	163	(4)
SUBJECT INDEX	167