Thursday, January 22, 2009
Are Girls Getting More Tech Savvy?
A new report says that young women use more technology at home than their male counterparts.
By Brittany Sauser
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.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Comments
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!!
dmm
01/23/2009
Posts:192
"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)."
robtech
02/05/2009
Posts:2
"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)"
robtech
02/05/2009
Posts:2
Further, the idea that a family calls on dad to fix a problem is playing more into gender roles than speaking to technological know-how. If "dad"--the default fixer--wasn't home, then it falls to "mom." At least in part, what could be happening in the author's family is an ideological acceptance of purported gender roles in a family unit.
jennomiko
01/26/2009
Posts:1
This is profound. There are many physical and mental advantages and disadvantages due to the genetic data lost or gained by having a Y chromosome. Calico cats are overwhelmingly female. Stuttering, muscle mass, color perception, Aspergers and many other features are gender influenced. The data from cognitive testing shows that males are more represented on the extreme ends of the bell curve. Sometimes, gender differences are statistical; not prejudicial.
Maybe 'tech savvy' is influenced by chromosomes.
Phineas
01/28/2009
Posts:85