Is the Gender Gap in Technology Self Imposed?
Defining technology and defining technology gap seem to be an ongoing struggle. By many accounts women are a growing percentage of college populations, but are they advancing technologically to make up any perceived 'gap' between men and/or the current technologically immersed generation? Is it possible that the technological gap is widened, perhaps inadvertently, by a woman's choice?
In the March 8, 2004 Business Section of the Naples Daily News, Theresa Stahl interviewed two executive women and asked for their reactions to an AAUW study indicating that women are still concentrated in traditional female-dominated professions and are not positioned well to move to higher paid IT positions.
From the article, Local Executives Discuss Women's Advancement in the Workplace, Stahl asks Adria Starkey, a gulf coast regional president of Wachovia Bank: "Is there a technology gap between males and females?
Answer: (The study says) that women are getting further and further behind in the technology industry. I disagree with some of that. I think that women make choices on what they love. Science and math are where girls drop out in middle school. I think the educational system is trying to address that issue. I haven't seen it. There are as many girls (as boys) on the math team. The number of women applying to engineering school is as many as guys. It's not gender (discrimination) as much as choice. Women have a tendency to be social, and technology isn't social. I'm not sure (fixing computers) would stimulate you. You don't want women to do things just to make the numbers move. You want women to do what they want to do. "
Although I am not comfortable with the generalizations that "technology isn't social" and "..not sure (fixing computers) would stimulate you"...I can certainly understand the perception that love affairs between women and technology aren't exactly making headlines.
Can we define the "technology gap" between men and women? Is it possible that closing the gap is not a priority of women?