An Educator's Guide to Gender Bias Issues

 

By Pat Reed, Vice Principal/Curriculum, St. John Fisher School

 

An Educator's Guide to Gender Bias Issues

 

Addendum by Kona Taylor, Doctoral Student, Department of

Curriculum & Instruction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 

Weiser (2000) found “surveys conducted by Internet research organizations (e.g., CyberAtlas, e-land, NetSmart America, Nua Internet Surveys, etc.) repeatedly have characterized the typical Internet user as overwhelmingly white, male, and well-educated, with a higher than average income” (p. 168).  This is troubling because “groups that have lower usage rates risk being excluded from job and educational opportunities as well as losing political influence as the Internet becomes increasingly important to how people live and work” (Ono & Zavodny, 2003, p. 112).  Thus, it becomes important to review current research on the topic of gender and technology. 

 

Is there a Gender Gap in Accessibility?

One leading Internet monitor tracked Internet activity in December 2000 and December 2001 and found women outnumbered men online both years (50.4 million females vs. 48.2 million males & 55.0 million females vs. 49.8 million males).” (Shaw & Gant, 2002, p. 518).

 

These results are quite similar to those found in 2003 by Ono and Zavodny, who also found that while women were much less likely to be on the Internet in the 1990’s, the gap closed by 2000.

 

The reported closing of the gap was further supported by Cohen (2005), who reported that 65% of women and 67% of men have access to the Internet, and it is also predicted that these numbers will jump to 73% and 74% respectively by 2008. 

 

Yet, Joiner, Gavin, Duffield, Brosnan, Crook, Durndell, Maras, Miller, Scott, and Lovatt (2005) reported slightly different results,

  • In the United States, 73.1% of males reported using the Internet compared to 69% of females. 
  • In the United Kingdom, 63.9% of males reported using the Internet compared to 55% of females.
  • In Italy, 42% of males reported using the Internet compared to 22% of females. (371)

These results illustrate how the digital divide between women and men is greatly effected by location (i.e., country). Yet, they also show only a 4.1% difference between US men and women in their Internet access, which is only slightly different from previous reports. 

 

Gender Differences in Internet Usage

Computer usage consists of the frequency, duration, and content viewed while on the Internet. While most of the current research indicates either a nonexistent or small gap in the digital divide between access to computers and the Internet for men and women, they also generally agree that there are significant differences in the type of usage.  In its most basic form, Internet usage differs between women and men in terms of frequency and duration.  Grant and Shaw (2002) discussed that “males do frequent the Internet more, averaging 21 log-on's in one month compared to 17 for the average female user. Male users spent an average of 11 hours online during that period and visited 801 web pages, whereas female users only spent 9 hours online, visiting only 573 web pages on average” (p.518).  Additionally, “A more consistent pattern that has emerged in Internet research shows that males and females use the Internet for different purposes: (1) communication, (2) information gathering, & (3) entertainment” (p. 525).

 

In regards to what women were doing on the Internet, “women were less likely than men to chat on the web, but were slightly more likely to use email, and overall they utilized different sites than men” (Wasserman & Richmond-Abbot, 2005, p. 260).  Furthermore, Weiser (2000) found that “males use the Internet primarily for purposes related to entertainment and leisure, whereas women use it primarily for interpersonal communication and educational assistance.” (p. 167).  Joiner et al (2005) found, “men used the Internet more than females; in particular, they were more likely to use game websites, to use other specialist websites, and to download material from the Internet.  Furthermore, Joiner et al. notes that “males (9%) were proportionally more likely to have their own web page than were females (3%).  Yet, no differences were found for owning a computer or having a personal e-mail address (non-university)” (p. 371).

 

Additionally, while “previous studies have concluded not only that males and females differ in their computer cognitions and attitudes, but also that they differ in types of applications they pursue online, no gender differences were found” (p. 517) in the Shaw and Grant (2002) study.  Joiner et al. (2005) found that “there was no gender difference in terms of Internet usage for communication, nor were there any differences in terms of Internet anxiety or Internet identification” (p. 371). Furthermore, results from Ono and Zavodny (2003) indicate there continues to be a gender gap in frequency and intensity of use, although this gap appears to have diminished over time.  Yet, why is this possible digital divide important?

 

The previously discussed research has highlighted the current findings on gender and the digital divide.  There were many different explanations for why the digital divide exists between men and women, yet the truth may lie somewhere in the middle with a little bit of all of them having truth for the whole picture.  One way of conceptualizing this could be the model suggested by Cooper and Weaver (2003), which indicates that in order to increase women's usage of the Internet it is important to take into consideration the four factors, including identification, anxiety, performance attributions, and expectations. 

 

Conclusion

Thus, the consensus appears to be that there is little to no gender gap in terms of actual access. On the other hand, there does seem to be some consensus regarding the fact that men and women are different in terms of their frequency, duration, and content when accessing the Internet.  These issues are important to consider because as Goss and Gupta (2003) found, there is an economic payoff for women who know how to use computers and the Internet, and this payoff includes higher wages that are more comparable to men's. 

 

References:

Cohen, D. (2005).  Internet penetration: critical mass, then what? Retrieved Dec. 07,

2005, from ClickZ Network Solutions for Marketers, Advice & Opinois Web Site: http://www.clickz.com/experts/crm/actionable_analysis/article.php3517561.

Cooper, J., & Weaver, K. D. (2003) Gender and computers: Understanding the digital

divide.  Mahwah, NJ; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Goss, E., & Gupta, U. (2003) Women and the internet: Is there an economic payoff?

Communications of the ACM, 46, 160-166.

Joiner, R., Gavin, J., Duffield, J., Brosnan, M., Crook, C., Durndell, A., Maras, P., Miller,

J., Scott, A. J., & Lovatt, P. (2005). Gender, Internet identification, and Internet anxiety: Correlates of Internet use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 8, 371-378.

Ono, H., & Zavodny, M. (2003). Gender and the Internet. Social Science Quarterly, 84,

111-121.

Shaw, L. H., & Gant, L. M. (2002). Users divided? Exploring the gender gap in Internet

use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 5, 517-527.

Wasserman, I. R., & Richmond-Abbott, M. (2005). Gender and the Internet: Causes of

variation in access, level, and scope of use. Social Science Quarterly, 86, 252-

270.

Weiser, E. B. (2000).  Gender differences in Internet use patterns and Internet application

Preferences: A two-sample comparison.  CyberPsychology & Behavior, 3, 167-178.