Laura Welter
Turnitin.com
IT 365
Gender bias is prevalent in most areas of our world today. When referring to
computers, gender bias means that one sex is viewed as higher when it comes to
computer use. Random studies show that men are generally more interested that
technology than women are. Research also shows that women avoid careers in
technology as much as they can. This proves to be a problem for many companies that
revolve their main work around technology because it makes it extremely difficult to fill
positions if only men are interested in doing the work. However, other studies show
that many more women use the Internet for every day activities like paying bills or
doing research on vacations or looking for directions than men. Without a doubt there
is a gender gap between men and women when it comes to technology.
Some evidence does show that there is a gender gap as well as a gender bias in
the world of technology. For example, most computer games, video games, and games
that deal with technology are aimed to please the male population. Also, computer
science courses and courses similar are made up of a very high percentage of males.
However, it is shown that males and females use technology and view it in very
different ways. Males use it mainly for recreational purposes like checking sports
statistics and weather where women mainly use it for personal reasons such as social
websites and for communication purposes like e-mail. Also, men are proven to be the
first to try out new advances in technologies over women. Although men and women
use technology for different reasons, the both use technology like the internet for online
shopping at a pretty equal rate.
Parents, educators, and manufacturers play a huge role in shaping the use of
technology in females. Children are usually shaped by their parents and have similar
tendencies to them. Therefore, if for many many years women have not been very
active in technology or had an extremely positive outlook on it, these ideas are passed
onto their children. However, educators can play a role in encouraging females to use
technology. It is proven that people learn better and form an interest in something if it
is relevant to them or their lives. If educators could find some sort of technology that
could grasp females attention, interest would spark at a higher rate. Manufacturers, as I
have mentioned before, play a very large role in the discouraging of technology use
among females. Such a large portion of technology based games using the Xbox and
things like that are geared toward the female race and that subconsciously pushes
females away since most do not feel a connection to the game or see relevance in it. If
technology companies would put some effort in to involve the female race in technology
games and software, females would become more interested. In recent years,
however, the development of things like the Wii with games such as Just Dance, or
Glee, Michael Jackson the experience, technology has the potential to gain the attention
and interest of more females.