Reflection: Gender Issues in an Information Society

February 9th Class


What I liked most:  I appreciated having this issue brought to my attention. I've never seriously reflected on how ICT's affect different genders or how gender issues are relevant to the development of new technologies.  Although I'm still reflecting on how gender issues should affect ICT's, I feel that it is important to recognize the instances that new ICT's can actually disadvantage women.  In general, I think that new technologies (particularly web technologies) are a great equalizer that benefits everyone.  However, I now see that when women are discouraged from or denied access, women can become disadvantaged -- to the detriment of society as a whole.

What I agree with:  I agree that biases of the old media often translate to new media.  If a society or culture doesn't value women as highly as men it is unreasonable to think that new technologies will erase those biases. However, I do think that ICT's play an integral role in the process of eliminating old biases, but this change will happen gradually.

I also agree that gender issues in the information society is a worthwhile issue to address. I don't think there will be a major paradigm shift towards ICT's from a gender perspective, but I do think that it is a topic that should be continuously monitored and addressed so that new technologies benefit all genders.

I agree that women should be encouraged to study STEM subjects.  Young women should be know that women are absolutely capable of pursuing any career they wish and that traditional gender roles and views should dictate women's field of study.  However, I don't think it should be viewed as a failure when a woman decided to study a non-STEM subject.

What I disagree with:  I don't agree with the assumption (in the readings and in class) that all technologies everywhere benefit men and not necessarily women.  Although the topic for the week was "gender issues" it was addressed solely as women's issues.  I'm not saying women's issues shouldn't be addressed, but I think in a discussion of gender issues it is falsely assumed that men's issues are always perfectly addressed and need not be discussed.

Despite the criticism this "traditional" view received in some of the reading I do think ICT's are (and should be) gender-neutral. When disparities based on gender arise due to ICT's (and I agree that it is almost always women who are disadvantaged), they should certainly be addressed.  However, I don't think always developing ICT's from a gender perspective is the best practice.  There are many groups and market segments that should be considered when developing new technologies and I think it would be short-sighted to focus on only one.

I'm still curious about:  I wonder how gender disparities in ICT's compare among different counties/societies.  We didn't get to see any hard data on the subject, but it's my guess that in the United States we have far fewer disparities that other countries with developing women's rights.  I don't want to say that the United States doesn't have any gender problems in ICT's, but I feel like whatever issues we have are not widespread nor indicative of our mostly equally empowering technologies.  One indicator is the amount of women who use ICT's.  In the case of social networks, women high higher rates of usage than men according to a Pew Internet study.