Publication

The challenge of increasing girls' interest in and skills with computers has serious social and economic consequences if left unaddressed.

The gender gap in computer interest and skills begins in the early grades (Becker and Sterling, 1987), persists in the home environment, and continues into adulthood (Giaquinta, Bauer & Levin, 1993), leaving girls with limited exposure to female role models with computer expertise.

Meanwhile, as technology becomes part of the fabric of our society, computer skills are a more significant factor in the economic deprivation or advancement of large segments of society. It is alarming to note that as recently as 1994, one study (Sakamoto, 1994) indicated that among fourth through sixth grade students considered "heavy users" of computers, the ratio of boys to girls is 4 to 1. Additionally, at the professional and training levels, computer science once attracted equitable numbers of men and women (Linn, 1985); however, recent studies indicate that computer competency is increasingly associated with male achievement, despite evidence that women's potential at least equals men's potential, and despite concurrent increases of females in the sciences (Kiesler, Sproull, & Eccles, 1985). The gender gap in technology has become so profound that it spans everything from the number of female computer science majors to differences in each gender's conceptualizations of their computer ability. Some argue that what was once a gender neutral field has been transformed into a patriarchal bureaucracy (Kiesler, Sproull, & Eccles,1985).