Are Girls Getting More Tech Savvy?
A new report says that young women use more technology at home than their male counterparts.
Brittany Sauser 01/22/2009
- 5 Comments
A new report
says that girls now use more technology at the home than boys do. Coauthors
Karen Pine, a professor at the University of Hertfordshire, in the U.K., and Robert Hart, of U.K.-based educational consultants Intuitive Media, also claim that mothers
are more likely to lend a helping hand than fathers when these technologies fail.
Uh ... really? I find this pretty surprising. The number of electronic gadgets and gizmos piled up in my brothers' room always far outweighed the number in mine. Besides the Sega Game Gear that I wore thin playing Sonic, most of the new technologies in our household belonged to them. I could kick some serious butt at Mario Cart, but only on my brother's Nintendo 64. And when the electronics malfunctioned, it was Dad, not Mom, we called upon.
In this press release, Pine says that "overall, mothers are more likely to engage with their children using new technologies, especially when it comes to formal learning or research. The mothers were also the most experienced and capable computer and Internet users." This may be true for some households, but it definitely wasn't in mine.
Given that technology fields like engineering and IT are dominated by males, not females, it would seem natural that this starts at home--contrary to the study results. Then again, over the past few years, there has been a "call to action" to increase the number of women in IT, especially given the news that the number is actually decreasing.
Tellingly, the report, called "Learning in the Family," only takes into account PCs and laptops--not gaming systems and other gadgets. The percentages also seem quite close: 94 percent of girls compared with 88 percent of boys said that they used a computer or laptop at home.
The report was launched today by Intuitive Media Research Services, which commissioned the report. It was funded by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta).
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the state of women in technology, and whether you think the trend will be an increase or a decrease in women in the field.
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dmm
270 Comments
Single mothers?
What population group did the researchers study? Perhaps their group had a lot of broken homes in which the children were being raised solely (or primarily) by the mother. This would certainly explain their findings.
Also, how do they define "fixing the problem"? The dads in the study group might have diagnosed the PC's problem and fixed it themselves. The moms might have just taken the PC in for repair (probably by men). If that is what happened, then both the moms and dads "fixed the problem" but obviously the dads were more tech-savvy.
Also, once technology gets into a home and gets user-friendly, women tend to use it quite a bit. Of men or women, who (stereotypically) uses the following home technology items more: telephone, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, hair dryer, ironing board, home email, stove/oven, microwave, DVD player? I realize that many of these items are not high-tech, but they once were, and that is my point.
Lastly: They excluded game machines??? Talk about rigging the experiment to get the results you want!!
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robtech
2 Comments
Re: Single mothers?
The full report did cover games consoles and other devices. Here's an extract of some the results:
"92% of children said they used a computer or laptop at home. (Exactly the same level as reported in Becta’s Harnessing Technology Review 2008). 65% used a handheld device such as a Sony Playstation Portable (PSP), Apple iPod or Nintendo DS and the same number used a games console such as the Sony Playstation 2 or 3, the Nintendo Wii or the XBox. Overall 58% used mobile phones.
It is interesting to note the age at which children secure access to the technology. (See below). More children of all ages said they used a computer or laptop than used a television. A large majority of the youngest children (86%) had access to a computer. Around half of the youngest children (49%) had use of games consoles and hand held devices, rising to just under three quarters (74%) by the time they reached year 7. Three in ten (31%) of the year 3 children had a mobile phone, rising to over seven in ten by year 7. In Year 7 over 70% of children have use of a handheld device, a games console and a computer.
When we compare use of technology by gender, we find that almost all girls (94%) said they used a computer or laptop compared with only (88%) of the boys.
Girls are also more likely to watch TV (76% girls; 68% boys) have mobile phones (64% girls; 50% boys) and hand held devices (68% girls; 61% boys). Boys on the other hand are a little more likely to have games consoles (69% boys; 62% girls)."
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robtech
2 Comments
Re: Single mothers?
As for single mums... read this quote ...
"The results show that overall mothers are more involved in children’s learning activities with new technologies than fathers. It is worth considering whether this has anything to do with fathers being absent from the home.
According to the Office of National Statistics, 76% of UK children live in a two-parent and 23% in a one-parent household (21% with mother, 2% with father). See page 19 of the report: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_social/Social_Trends38/Social_Trends_38.pdf
If we assume that the sample of over 7000 children from SuperClubsPLUS and GoldStarCafe is largely representative of the UK child population (a survey by Ipsos Mori showed that the total SuperClubsPLUS and GoldStarCafe population was broadly representative) then the balance of 2-parent and single parent families should be similar to the UK norm.
In many cases in our data, the differences in the number of fathers and mothers getting involved with children’s learning are larger than could be explained by children living with their mothers only. Also, if children live with their mothers, that doesn't mean that the father doesn't have any involvement, they could use the internet together when the child stays with the father.
However, differences in fathers and mothers helping in two-parent families could be due to mothers not working or working part-time and fathers working longer hours and therefore spending less time with their children. Even in families where both parents work full-time the mother may still take on the traditional role of the main carer and therefore help the children more when they use the internet. (According to the National Office for Statistics 71% of women whose youngest child is between 5-10 years old are in employment, see:
www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1655)"
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