fwd: CPSR Newsletter: Gender in the Internet Age
se...@quark.cpsr.org
http://www.cpsr.org/publications/newsletters/issues/2000/Winter2000/
Introduction: Gender in the Internet Age
by Ellen Spertus & Evelyn Pine
There is a widespread, but false, belief that time and technology
necessarily improve people's lives. CPSR members know that we
have to work to make sure that technological advances reflect
our values. Society does not improve automatically. The
situation for women in computing has both improved and
worsened many times in computing's short history. Less
quantifiable is the effect of computers on girls and women who
are not computer professionals. With the rise of the Internet, the
influence of computers has broadened. The purpose of this
newsletter is to explore how the Internet and other computing
advances subvert or reinforce gender roles. Will current trends in
computing lead to greater opportunities for both women and
men, or will it cement them in their current roles? Will women
be creators of software and virtual communities, or will they be
disempowered users? How will men's and women's interactions
online be different from their interactions in "real life"? What
changes will propagate from the online to the real world?
In this issue, linguist Susan Herring presents a survey of research
on gender in computer-mediated communication on mailing
lists and in discussion groups. Lisa King, the president of DC
Web Women, discusses gender in online communities, which she
distinguishes from public or semi-public discussion groups.
Virginia Eubanks, editor of the cyberfeminist 'zine Brillo, begins
with the claim that the Internet is "actively and aggressively
hostile to women" and discusses her successes challenging the
"paradigms that actively exclude white women and people of
color". Information scientist Elizabeth Buchanan examines the
representations of women in video games, finding that they are
"victims, vixens, or invisible".
The importance of women's being involved in the creation of
both technology and the rules governing technology is argued by
Alison Adam and Karen Coyle. Alison Adam, a computer
scientist and author, contends that "bringing feminist ethics to
bear on computer ethics offers a novel and fruitful alternative to
current directions in computer ethics." In the raciest piece in this
issue, librarian and author Karen Coyle discusses technology that
has been hidden because of its relation to female sexuality.
Two different perspectives on trends for women in technology
are presented, with computer scientists Vanessa Davies and
Tracy Camp providing the latest (bleak) statistics on women in
computer science in the United States, while author Dale
Spender provides a more optimistic view of Australian women
in information technology. The issue concludes with a
(deceptively?) light piece by computer scientist Ellen Spertus
on humorous ways that women can respond to prejudice.
More excellent writing on this topic exists than could fit in a
single issue. For a larger collection of such essays, we
recommend Wired Women: Gender and New Realities in
Cyberspace, edited by Lynn Cherny and Elizabeth Reba Weise.
If you like Dale Spender's and Alison Adam's essays, you may
want to read their books Nattering on the Net : Women,
Power and Cyberspace and Artificial Knowing : Gender and
the Thinking Machine, respectively. For more online reading
on this subject, see CPSR's page on Women and Computing [
http://www.cpsr.org/program/gender/ ] and The Ada Project [
http://tap.mills.edu ].
> --
Susan Evoy * Deputy Director
http://www.cpsr.org/
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
P.O. Box 717 * Palo Alto * CA * 94302
Phone: (650) 322-3778 *
Email: ev...@cpsr.org
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