GENDER AND THE
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Women in ICT Education &
Industry in Australia

ABSTRACT
This presentation will explore one aspect of the Digital
Divide, discussed in recent literature with regards to gender
differences in how information and communication
technologies are utilised and accessed by both sexes. It has
been found that women are underrepresented in information
and communication technology (ICT) higher education
courses as well as the Information Technology (IT) industry
in Australia. This has the resultant effect of creating a skills
shortage and gender inequality in an ever expanding
knowledge & computer based society. Policies regarding the
Australian economy are shifting their focus to creating green
ICT related jobs which will require more technical computer
skills. Therefore it is imperative that the IT sector considers
leveraging all kinds of diversity, especially gender diversity,
to not only increase their productivity but to facilitate
innovation of ICT‟s and market them to an equally diverse
society. To exclude women whether intentionally or other
from this important industry is to the detriment of not only
that industry but all of society.

INTRODUCTION
The ICT service industry is one of the fastest growing industries in
Australia with an annual growth rate of 12% yet only 16% of women
account for ICT roles and represent only 1% of the total female
employed population”. It is only logical to contend that diverse range
of people should contribute meaningfully to this industry to help shape
& influence applications of IT in business, health & education. However
the underrepresentation of women in Higher Education courses
involving ICT is a serious issue and presents as a digital divide (DD) at
a number of levels. Kelly (2008) suggests the DD exists at three levels.
Firstly we will explore any differences in access & uses of internet &
computers between males & females in Australia. Secondly we will
discover how females & males are educated in computers throughout
school & higher education. Thirdly we understand the ways that socio-
cultural influences shape both sexes but morseo females in regards to
ICT career choices. ITCRA statistics show that 52% of IT professionals
in Australia have an ICT related degree, 13% have Industry/Vendor
certificate, 13% have TAFE qualification & 9% have no ICT qualification.
Yet women tend not to be holding those degrees & work in lower paid,
lower level ICT jobs. If women are not actively encouraged & supported
to enter these ICT degrees it is possible that the ICT industry or even
the Australian workforce - with its focus on economic development
through green ICT jobs -will become so male dominated as to create a
majorly imbalanced & diminutive workforce.

WHAT DIGITAL DIVIDE ?
 Early definitions referred to GAP that existed
between the “haves & “have nots” who did/didn’t have
ACCESS to Computers and Internet.
 This ACCESS divide was actively addressed through
national interventions and funding grants but then a
secondary divide began to appear along social
stratification lines such as class, race, gender,
education level, household income.
Now also refers to a GAP in intensity and nature of IT
use OR “inequalities in the degree to which it is used,
knowledge of how to extract/evaluate information &
the variety of uses to which it is put”. It is this GAP
that has been especially significant for WOMEN.

GENDER DIGITAL DIVIDE – MALES VS FEMALES
They behave & perform differently causing a GAP in
relation to:
a) Confidence & computer self-efficacy – females
lower levels
b) Computer & Programming experience – males
higher levels
c) Selecting Computer subjects as a major in High
School & University – males choose this more
d) Levels of Computer anxiety – females higher
e) Preferences in how they use the Computer &
Internet - somewhat differently

INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM OF
INDIVIDUALISTIC WESTERN NATIONS

THREE LEVELS OF DIGITAL DIVIDE –
FRAMEWORK FOR THIS DISCUSSION
1. Level 1 Digital Divide - Physical access to
computational resources and internet
2. Level 2 Digital Divide - Effect of instruction on
students use of computers
3. Level 3 Digital Divide - Influence of Socio-cultural
background in shaping behaviour & perspectives
toward computer use

VISUALISING THE DIVIDE
FEMALE COMMENCING STUDENTS AS A % OF TOTAL
COMMENCING STUDENTS (WITHIN IT STREAMS) AUSTRALIA
35
30
25 Info Syst
IT not else
20 Inf tech
Comp sci
15
10
2001 2002 2003 2004
FIG 1.

VISUALISING THE DIVIDE
EMPLOYED PERSONS, ICT OCCUPATIONS 1999 –
2006 AUSTRALIA
350.000
300.000
250.000
200.000
150.000
Males
100.000
Females
50.000
0.000

“BROGRAMMERS” CODE: GENDER GAP A CHILDHOOD ISSUE
SILICON Valley companies portray themselves as inventors of the
future, but they're afflicted by a longstanding problem.
From board rooms to "brogrammers," men still dominate many corners
of the tech industry, where the pantheon of famous founders - from
Hewlett and Packard to Jobs to Zuckerberg - is still a boys' bastion.
The gender-imbalance issue came to the forefront again recently when
a partner at the country's most prominent venture capital firm filed a
sexual harassment lawsuit alleging a former colleague retaliated
against her for years after she cut off a brief relationship with him.
The firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has denied the
allegations.
Whatever the merits of the claim, the suit again has put a spotlight on
the tech industry's gender gap.
Jocelyn Goldfein, a director of engineering at Facebook, the math is
stark.
Less than 20 percent of the bachelor's degrees in computer science go
to women, according to US statistics. By comparison, nearly 60
percent of all bachelor's degrees are awarded to graduating females.

“BROGRAMMERS” CODE: GENDER GAP A CHILDHOOD ISSUE
The company wants to hire top engineers, but the talent pool in the US is
growing thin, she said. Ms Goldfein said she doesn't look to hire female
engineers specifically, just the best people. But she said she'd have a lot
more to choose from if women entered computer science at a rate
anywhere near the average for all fields.
She blames the lack of role models both in popular culture and in day-to-
day life as a key reason for the disparity.
"The reason there aren't more women computer scientists is because there
aren't more women computer scientists," she said.
Women in other professions such as medicine and law have become
fixtures on television and in movies in recent decades, while portrayals of
programmers still tend to follow the hacker stereotype of the lone guy
sitting in his basement, she said.
Unless their parents are engineers, girls also aren't likely to encounter
coders in their own lives the same way they would, for example, a doctor
or a teacher.
"We don't really have that same kind of interaction with software engineers
as we go about our daily lives," Ms Goldfein said.
"Sometimes it can be hard," said Serena Yeung, 23, a recent Stanford
graduate who worked as a software engineer at a Silicon Valley start-up
before returning for graduate school. Just walking into the classroom is
one of the biggest hurdles for women thinking of entering the field, she
said. "You go in and you're the only girl in it."

“BROGRAMMERS” CODE: GENDER GAP A CHILDHOOD ISSUE
For Ms Yeung, having parents who were both engineers spared her the sense
that computers weren't for girls.
She got her first job as a programmer at Mountain View-based Rockmelt, which
makes a web browser with built-in social media features. She started working
there even before she graduated with her degree in electrical
engineering, another coding-intensive field where men heavily outnumber
women.
Rockmelt CEO Eric Vishria says the competition to hire qualified women
software engineers has heated up as companies see that they need diverse
perspectives to build products that attract the widest audience. He said
startups that don't hire women early in their existence risk creating a male-
dominated culture that will put off potential female hires.
"It becomes a death spiral, it becomes self-fulfilling," Ms Vishria said. "You have
15 guys in a room, that's your company, and it becomes harder and harder to
hire your first woman."
Ms Yeung said a recent experience at a Stanford Society of Women Engineers
event for elementary school students showed her that intervention needs to
come early to steer girls toward tech. She said girls who had just come from a
computer science workshop complained they didn't like it because the boys
asked all the questions.
Steeped in video game culture and barraged by positive male tech industry role
models, boys tend to dominate conversations around computing early
on, leaving girls feeling shut out, said Ms Yeung.

ECHOES FROM THE COMPUTERHe‟s always
CLASSROOM
looking over my
Women aren‟t
shoulder &
adept at
criticising my
working hard When things go
work (b)
& find wrong with the
Computer computers too Computer I feel
science is challenging ii) anxious (a)
Computers
drier & more are a man‟s
thinking (i) Women world & toys
don‟t for boys (c)
have
good
logic (iii) ICT is full of
geeks & nerds
& antisocial
males (d)

LEVEL 1 DIGITAL DIVIDE – L1DD – AUSTRALIA
ACCESS TO INTERNET BY GENDER (2006)
70 Males Nil Net
Males BB
60
Males Dialup
50 Females Nil Net
Females BB
40 Females Dialup
30
20
10
0
15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 54-64

L1DD: GENDER RELATED USES OF INTERNET
AUSTRALIA - ABS – 2010-2011
Activities performed on home Internet by gender
100
90
80
70
Percentage (%)
60
50
40 Males
Females
30
20
10
0
Buying/selling Creating online Listening/ Educational Emailing Paying bills Social
content watching purposes networking/
multimedia gaming
Activities performed

L1DD – ACCESS & USE - RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
AGE, GENDER & OPPORTUNITY TAKING - UK
8
7
6 Male
Female
5
4
9-11yrs 12-15yrs 16-17yrs 18-19yrs

L2DD – COMPUTER INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOL :
A CONSTELLATION OF FACTORS
Under-
resourcing of
low SES
schools IT
Students equip
avoid ICT Unsound
subjects School
due to Careers
grades Advice
COMPUTER
INSTRUCTION
Tutorial
Software Underqualified
geared for ICT teachers
males
Unstimul-
ating
Coursework

LEVEL 2 DIGITAL DIVIDE
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ENROLMENTS TO
COMPLETIONS BY GENDER. AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES
350
300
250
200 Males Enrol
Females Enrol
150 Males Compl
Females Compl
100
50
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

L2DD - REASONS WOMEN DON‟T ENTER ICT HIGHER
EDUCATION OR LEAVE BEFORE COMPLETION
o Negative Computer class experiences – when females
are paired with males – males take over
o Lack of Role models to encourage them into the field
– High school & University
o Inadequate institutional support
o Lack of peer-support groups
o Lack of gender-neutral but stimulating projects in
course

L3DD – SOCIO-CULTURAL INFLUENCES
THEORIES OF GENDER DIGITAL DIVIDE
 Essentialism – suggest females are biologically not
suited to technical work.
 Social Construction – suggests females have been
nurtured to believe they aren‟t suited to technical
work. Influenced by Gender Stereotypes.
 Theory of Individual Differences (Trauth 2002)
IT capability & interest spans the gender continuum
& individual differences are a product of gender &
socialisation within & between cultures

L3DD-A MODEL OF GENDER-BASED DIGITAL DIVIDE
Stereotype Computer
Threat attitudes
Gender Computer
Stereotype Anxiety
Attribution
patterns Computer
performance

L3DD - MODEL OF GENDER-BASED DIGITAL DIVIDE
WHATS HAPPENING FOR THE FEMALES
 Socio-cultural Gender Stereotypes appear at young age
promoting what suits boys vs girls
 Leading to a level of Computer Anxiety for girls
 Computer software is more appealing to males so girls
tend to dislike certain software
 Social Context - Mixed gender computer classes where
males dominate leading to increased anxiety for girls
 Parents & teachers make attributions re students
success/failure with computers = Attribution Patterns
 Girls develop more negative attributions as well as
negative Computer Attitudes & this increases their
anxiety
 A negative Stereotype Threat leads to poorer Computer
Performance for females

INTER-RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FACTORS INFLUENCING
GIRLS CAREER CHOICES – LEVEL 1,2,3

WOMEN IN ICT : A POSITIVE CASE STUDY

THE NEGATIVES - REASONS WOMEN DON‟T ENTER
OR LEAVE ICT INDUSTRY
 Connection versus Competition - Competitive culture –
Many women Connections over Competition
 Lack of social support – fewer females to talk to or look
up to
 Male dominated industry & culture – higher probability
to experience male domination or sexual harassment.
 Long working hours where overtime is the norm
 Carer versus Career - Lack of flexibility to balance family
& work commitments
 ICT may be a solitary & isolating career.
 Lower pay rates for women & lack of advancing career
opportunities
 Difficulties returning to industry after short career breaks
due to rapid rate of change in industry

WHAT IS BEING DONE TO ADDRESS
GENDER DIGITAL DIVIDE IN AUSTRALIA
 Must be addressed at all levels of education given
that socio-cultural & stereotyping influences begin
from young age.
 Imperative for educators at all levels to negotiate
innovation & interventions.
 Research & Innovation – at all levels where
problem of Gender Imbalance exists
 Conferences & Organisations – AWISE.
 Support & Leadership – Mentoring programs in high
school, higher education and ICT workplaces.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
 Griffith University Queensland
 WinIT Project
 Mentoring programs in High Schools
 Action Research projects – to reflect & act on
qualitative/descriptive/interpretive evidence in each
unique contextual ICT domain.
 Gender & Information Technology Encyclopaedia
 Trauth (2006) Comprehensively explores the intensive
research conducted & issues related to Women & IT
from varied perspectives & different countries.

CONFERENCES & ORGANISATIONS
o Women in ICT summit held Sept 2005 in Australia –
organised by Federal Minister for Communications, IT, and Arts –
Helen Coonan
o Women in ICT Advisory Group also launched
o Summit addressed 4 main topics
 How ICT professions should be represented
 How to make ICT workplace attractive for women
 How to ensure curriculum design & career advice address ICT
needs in Australia
 Coordinate a national approach to enhancing women‟s
participation in ICT

CONFERENCES & ORGANISATIONS
 AWISE (Australian Women in IT & Science Entity)
offers:
 A Collaborative voice connecting existing ICT networks
of women working on the problem of women‟s under-
representation in ICT studies & work
 Entity has 5 Goals
 A National single point of contact
 Encourage more females into ICT
 Share information & initiatives
 A centralised national body to influence Govt & Media
 Obtain National funding to support agreed upon initiatives

WHAT IS BEING DONE ? NOT BEING DONE ?
 Efforts to increase number of women into ICT
Higher Education have not been successful on the
whole
 Efforts to encourage women to participate in the
ICT industry have been more focussed but as yet
no clear outcomes or improvements have been
realised.
 Efforts to adjust the way that Computer-based
Instruction is conducted in Primary & High Schools
is lagging.

REFERENCES
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