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Response to a Posting - Re: Computers and Women
Posted:
Sep 2, 1998 3:41 PM
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[Sent with permission of Prof. Leone Burton (from the UK).]
Jerry: The colleague, Cynthia (Lanius), who wrote:
> So are computers going to be the newest impediment to women's equity in > science and mathematics?
might like to have a little anecdote from across the Pond. In English universities, students groups studying computing/computer science, etc. 15-20 years ago were almost 50% female. As a result of this (in part?), when I did an audit of females teaching maths., stats., and computer science in UK universities in 1989, there were women in post teaching computer science (not highly placed but they existed) but they all were complaining of the fact that their classes were becoming more and more male. One, for example, told me that the ratio had gone from almost equal numbers to almost completely male classes over the period which she had been teaching.
My conjecture is that when a discipline is new and untried (not yet clearly socially defined), women applicants feel more comfortable and are more acceptable. Once a discipline has achieved definition as a male culture, both of these conditions change. But I believe that in maths classrooms there are other factors in play such as transmissive pedagogy, the dependency culture and the competition thus generated. In other words, a masculine culture of learning, together with a masculinist societal definition of the discipline is pretty devastating for those who don't identify themselves or are not so identified by the powerful group. In particular, with respect to computers, they achieve scarce resource status in most of our classrooms. So power and competition in their use go hand in hand.
All the best, leone
Leone Burton Professor of Education (Mathematics and Science) The University of Birmingham Birmingham B15 2TT tel: (44) 121 414 4812 fax: (44) 121 414 7845 e-mail: l.burton@bham.ac.uk ****************************************************** Jerry P. Becker Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL 62901-4610 USA Fax: (618)453-4244 Phone: (618)453-4241 (office) E-mail: JBECKER@SIU.EDU
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