Digital Divide and Gendering in Technology - Essay Example

Digital Divide and Gendering In Technology Name: Instructor’s name Institution Subject Date: 31st May 2011 Table of Contents Introduction 3 Executive Summary 3 Statement of purpose………………………………………………………………………………3 Significance………………………………………………………………………………………..4 Overall Findings 5 Women and the Internet……………………………………...……………………………………5 Doing Technology- Doing Gender…..……………………………………………………………6 Rooting the Cause of Digital divide..……………………………………………………………..7 General reluctance of computer use by girls………………………………………………………7 Solution to digital divide and gendering 9 Conclusion...…..…………………………………………………………………...…………....11 Bibliography……….……………………………………………………………………………12 Introduction The research was inspired by a quote I landed on the internet, “Access to media, digital technology and the opportunity in chances to construct societies to share interests and experiences in a global basis, women have had little or none of it”. This article outlines a number of issues that are gender based in terms of their development and the subject of technology captured my attention (Shrum, 2008). It is of importance to note that information and communication technologies are made up of complex and heterogeneous set of products, services, and applications e such as that are used to produce process as well as transform information. These include the outputs of industries that are diverse, as television and radio broadcasting, telecommunications, computer software and hardware, electronic media which include things such as the internet, computer games, electronic commerce, and electronic mail. With the capacity that ICT has to being able to access, transfer and being able to apply knowledge and also information to most human aspects, it is being recognized for its potential to carry the global based economic knowledge. It is believed that ICT will reshape, re-organize as well as restructure working methods (Huyer & Sikoska, 2003). Executive Summary The aim, significance and the purpose of the research was to give an insight of technology and the size of users in terms of gender to challenge the divide. It is clear that there is a major problem or a significant element of ignorance when it comes to technology use and the type of usage (Lynette & Kvasny, 2008). Besides digital divide there are other factors that seemed to be related to the digital divide, though indirectly, like parenting, social class, childhood, family backgrounds and state of technology of the society at hand contributed to the imbalance (Tracy & Kennedy, 2003). To curb the problem we identified a proposal of interest to the communities to deal with the divide and/or technological behavior, it was labeled “seize the mess adopt the case”. This was to target the positive and the negative implications of the digital world and preparing the genders in dealing with the common and the uncommon accelerators of the digital divide. Statement of purpose Basis of the research was to identify the margin of digital divide and the effects it has on the development of the general populace at ground level and at the top of the development chain. The study was aimed at providing answers to the following questions “Does digital divide exist?”, “How does the imbalance in technology use affect the rate of development of a person and the community at large?”, and how we could solve the problem of digital divide? Significance Significance of this research was to get the data, analyze it, figure out the elements that caused the digital divide, formulate a process of avoiding the factors and repairing the damage it has caused to the immediate local community and the international community. It would be aimed and bringing awareness to both the youth and the aged in terms of development because the development of any nation as of now, depends hugely on the state of technology of that state and how much the diasporas are prepared in terms of technological sensitivity. This would be aimed at developing a uniform working ground and opportunities to the women and men of the society not having technology as a factor to go by in sideling a certain gender in adopting some kinds of jobs available in the community (Cooper, 2003). The factors dragging the economy of a state is only the imbalance of the sexes, which today as basis of her research of African culture proves a point of spreading to the minds of everyone in the society (Lynette & Kvasny, 2008). The significance of this research is to develop a community policy of self recognition of the genders were the understanding of development is a personal responsibility to push, equip and develop digital sensitive communities. Leaning on some factors of ignorance, the research took keen interest in identifying what the ignorance was about and educate the diaspora on how much they cost the development of the nation by going forward with their ignorance, how to rectify the issue and what key concerns they should familiarize themselves with beforehand (Shrum, 2008). Overall Findings Within a wide range of activities, ladies in general complain that the origin of anxiety is the computer and that the general terms by men that computers are fun and a source of happiness is wrong. Computers caused an adverse form of anxiety developed from computer phobia (Noeleen & Heyzer, 2003) this cannot be relied on since this was alleged almost 20 years ago, the numbers may have gone down or gone up. The fear of computers has had its fair share of the deal in disproportioning the woman population in recent and far past, and the hope of things changing is still minimal as the crossing to 21st century is concerned. In early and mid 1980s Dembrot and a number of colleagues observed that computers had a major impact when it came to anxiety in ladies, this was way higher than in men (Lynette & Kvasny 2008). Studies carried out in the years of 1990 through 1997 showed considerable disparities in both the ladies and the gentlemen, with remarkable anxiety witnessed in ladies than in men (Shrum, 2008). Women and the Internet Of late research has shown that a considerable small improvement was in progress in terms of linking the gender gap. Interest in computer applications by girls has gone up but still remains behind compared to the male population, within or outside of their learning institutions (Cooper 2003). A study at Princeton University by Cooper and Weaver in 2003 was conducted involving the number of college freshmen that were conversant with computer application and basics, a majority number of females did not have a clue what exactly was required of them to say besides the actual knowledge of the computer itself, the men mostly claimed to have had computer lessons from their high school education and others having had computer aided lessons, this was a clear cut evidence that computer prowess and familiarity was lagging behind in the girl child as compared to the male (Cooper 2003). Doing Technology- Doing Gender A study that was set to establish the boundaries of comfort-ability between gender was undertaken, it involved a question where the participants were asked whether they would be comfortable completing a psychological statistics assignment using the computer, the drift of opinion was still remarkable with ladies evidently expressing they would be enormously disoriented, the men on the other hand claimed to be comfortable with that if it was to happen (Cooper & Weaver, 2003). Discomfort by ladies with technology as they enter institutions of higher learning continues to be a significant variable they consider when choosing courses, this has resulted that most of engineering courses are left to men because the ladies have a general discomfort-ability with computers, the reason is because most engineering courses require computer use at meddle level or at the higher end (Cooper, 2003). In this study correspondents were dispatched to a variety of colleges and learning institutions, the aim was to inquire from the administrations the number of ladies who were enrolled to computer classes, engineering classes and all the courses that required computer knowledge and the use of it. The results showed that some of the courses in some colleges where dominated by the male with aces where some classes had no women at all, some of these courses included computer engineering, programming classes, networking and computer science. The administrations admitted low turn up of female students in the registration of such courses. Since time immemorial findings on this subject have accumulated this issue across the globe, cases of this were evident from Romania, Egypt and Italy from a research done in the year 2002. Though some studies have shown zero results in cases of digital divide like in the case of Norway, we continue to see the effects spreading and the results of all the findings continue to show the sovereignty of the digital divide Rooting the Cause of Digital divide During the childhood periods of life to both girls and boys, the factor of social activities starts to launch in, this is taught to the young by the parents and the immediate society, when technology concerned, computers are mostly associated with men and the exposure to them is singled out on the male child (Lynette & Kvasny 2008), as these young people grow they adopt the stereotype way of thinking that computer are for men and not for ladies. With this kind of societal teachings and expectations the digital divide takes its course and the communities live to embrace the consequences of the factors they submitted or were submitted to by others. General reluctance of computer use by girls Computers are the general equipments for all means of digital technology (Tracy & Kennedy, 2003), as a way of growth of children, most are found to be playing video games on computers. When this young generation is growing up, they do not usually start with the computer applications that are advanced for their age, most of them would play against their elders, see and watch others play. Within this range of areas as to how one develops the liking for computers lies the persons, boys at young age like hanging out with fellow boys, girls do the same thing. Mostly where boys are there are a number of bigger or grown up boys, this tends to influence the activities that they do, so if a big brother of one was playing computer games, they would definitely watch, at times they will go to the extended of sneaking behind the backs of those who own the computers to try playing the games. In the other hand, the girls and their big sisters would do similar things that are connected to what girls do (Shrum, 2008). Computer game manufacturers make millions of games in a day or within a number of days, there are also offers online on games that can be played for a fee to compete against others and in some instances, these players are awarded for winning or for participating. Before this comes to practice, a number of the promotions and offers require subscription and so on. One notable observation showed that most of the subscribers were men, this was easy to note in that, subscription forms require names and age, others require card numbers and these cards often have their registration arrays that show they were registered to a man or a woman. Most of these subscriptions have proved that the digital divide is way too large especially going by the findings on games subscription. This then translates that the girl child has reluctance in the liking of computers. The trend goes on and on, if a young girl is working along her bigger sister who happens to be doing stuff not related to computers, the young one will assume that computers are not necessary. In other cases when the computers are available at the reach of the girl child, ignorance to learn by assuming computers were complex leads to the factor of expanding the margin of digital divide. Seeking understand what the young majority liked about computers, boys suggested game like forms of activity while girls went for color and stuff that them some knowledge. To the working class majority in the society, this research showed that most of the working people were divided into categories and their job descriptions showed their ability with technology, the likes of customer care centers and IT firms showed that most of the ladies working in those firms were involved in technological-light-weight jobs that required basic like picking and answering calls, forwarding them to the designated persons and paperwork. For the males in these firms, they were involved with jobs that were heavy-weight in nature in terms of technology was concerned, these included, networking, engineering and system configuration type of work. We established that the digital divide was a problem that affected almost all disciplines and the hugely dividing the gender. Solution to digital divide and gendering When trying to encounter this problem, we need to know how the digital divide starts, so the only way to put the problem to a rest is by determining the cause of the factors that contribute to the divide. In this we identified the cause of the digital divide starts right at the young age, this is despite all other reasons that may be found out by other researchers is the main starting point of the issue (Tracy & Kennedy, 2003). Gender stereotype in the cause of the problem, this is at the basic roots of child care and upbringing, the factor that is addressed by this is the parenting methodology, the pressure from queers, the general society and the immediate friends of both the girl and the boy children. The computer as understood by many it is the duty of the man to operate and be much conversant with, this is the stereotype understanding that is sown and grows in the minds of the children as they grow, if this understanding was to be changed by designing a way to address issues without the consideration of gender, the boys and girls of today would be almost be at the same level when technology is concerned. The implication of the gender stereotype can be broken down to stereotype threat and attribution pattern, when dealing or coming across computers form the first time in life, the case of girls coming with the stereotype theories would be threatened and that the cause of many girls and women opting out of computer related courses making professional choices. The attribution patterns would be a cause leading to the decisions made by individual girl children. Looking back at what has been done by the girls concerning technology, one would find it irrelevant to take computer related course. Hence, if we rectified the stereotype nature on gender, we would be arresting the problems associated by related forms such as the stereotype threats and the attribution patterns (Noeleen & Heyzer, 2003). Computer anxiety is the product of stereotype threat and attribution patterns, it results to the setting of the base cause of digital divide, this is where most of those who tried feel insecure or lost and in other terms extremely uncomfortable. To beat the anxiety that come later in life when one is exposed to computer at not so young age, it should be noted that the reach to computers is open and available to the girl child. Contrary to this computer attitudes will be developed and mostly the negative one will be plentiful, performance on compute is will be affected. The bottom line of curbing and preventing this the digital from lasting forever or reappearing after some efforts have been put in place, will all depend on how we take the subject and how we address people on this issue for the remote and those who cannot access computers we will not go there for both genders will be affected. Campaigns to encourage women to take technical courses should be the responsibility of everyone. As of now we can’t wait for the birth of another generation to start applying the above methods, so in efforts to rescue the situation, it will be important to do so. Employers can contribute to this by advertising jobs specifically for women that are technological centered. This will drive the ladies to acquire skills in order to get these jobs. There could be a constant computer literacy requirement attached to all sorts of jobs, thus penalizing a few on lack of that will drive the majority to acquiring courage and facing technology at the base level of computing (Sikoska, 2003). Conclusion Digital divide exists and some cases are serious especially those that deal with development of a community. Gendering in technology can be fought by elimination of the gender stereotypical belief that technology is basically for the men. By developing a society where every job requires knowledge on operation of computers was identified as method to push the issue to its extinction. On the other Hand, digital divide may continue to exists despite the actions being taken but to eliminate it requires the consideration of both systematic and structural factors (Tracy & Kennedy, 2003). Bibliography Kimberlee D. Weaver Joel Cooper 2003, "Gender and computers: understanding the digital divide." 168. London: Lawrence ERLBUAM Associates, (accessed May 31, 2011) http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SBLpfoM-6NsC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Digital+Divide+and+Gendering+In+Technology&ots=jh6xRpSF2z&sig=NFumHJR53UFvTYNRlmRNVF36oQ0#v=onepage&q&f=false Lynette Kvasny, Fay Cobb Payton, Victor Mbarika, and Atieno Amadi 2008, Gendered Perspectives on the Digital Divide, IT Education and Workforce. (accessed May 31, 2011) http://ist.psu.edu/faculty_pages/lkvasny/IEEE-GenderedPerspectives-FINAL.pdf Noeleen Heyzer 2003, Gender Caucus High Level Panel Towards an Action Plan for an Equitable Information Society. December (accessed May 31, 2011) http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/wsis/documents/NoeleenStatementWSISGender.pdf Shrum, B. Paige Miller & Wesley 2008, The Gender Digital Divide in the Research Sectors of Ghana, Kenya, and Kerala. (accessed May 31, 2011) http://worldsci.net/gender_digital_divide.pdf TRACY KENNEDY, BARRY WELLMAN, KRISTINE KLEMENT 2003, "GENDERING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE." IT&SOCIETY VOLUME 1,, no. 5 p72-96. (accessed May 31, 2011) http://labweb.education.wisc.edu/steinkuehler/elpa940/readings/Kennedy.pdf Sophia Huyer and Tatjana Sikoska 2003, Technology, Digital Divide and Gendering In. Digital Divide and Gendering In Technology:Digital Divide and Gendering In Technology Digital Divide and Gendering In Technology. (accessed May 31, 2011) http://www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org/beijing12/2003_gender_ict.pdf Read More