[EAS]Women in Computing

pjk pjk at design.eng.yale.edu
Tue Jan 29 22:32:21 EST 2002


Subject:   Women in Computing

(from NewsScan Daily, 29 January 2002)

Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher, coauthors of the new book "Unlocking
the  Clubhouse: Women in Computing," say that the gender gap in
computer use  comes about because girls, unlike boys, don't feel a
"magnetic attraction" to technology: "We found that men and women
tended to come at computing  with different orientations and different
goals. The men were motivated  primarily by their interest in and
enjoyment of technology; the women  tended to be motivated by what it
was good for, how it could be used to  help people.'' (San Jose
Mercury News 29 Jan 2002)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/women012902.htm

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This difference in attitude has been commented on before, but it is
easy to forget in the male-dominant computer and engineering
environment.
Subtler and also easily forgotten is the implication that the
standards of personal competitiveness by which junior faculty are
valued come more easily to those driven by interest in technology
itself, than to those motivated by the implications of technology,
whether women or adjuncts. 
It is always easier to be single-minded about causes than effects. 
--PJK





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