susan@varian.UUCP (10/11/83)
This article appeared in "Science News", 17 September 1983 Computing Sex Differences If information is power and computers guarantee access to information, then today's schoolgirls are already on their way to future powerlessness, according to California researchers. Stanford University psychologists Irene Miura and Robert D. Hess conducted three studies of computer use among school children, and found that girls begin falling behind at a very early age. A survey of 87 children (boys and girls from five to eight years old) showed that the owners of home computers were all boys; although this situation changed somewhat as the children moved into junior high school, boys still outnumbered girls by two-to-one. In addition, Miura and Hess found sex differences in the amount of time spent using home computers: in a typical family with a computer, boys spent two to three hours per day programming and playing games, the father used the computer routinely for business, and the mother didn't use it at all. Miura and Hess also surveyed 23 computer camp directors, gathering information on over 5000 campers. They found that girls made up 27 percent of enrollment in beginning and intermediate classes, a proportion that dropped to 14 percent in the more advanced classes and to 5 percent in the most advanced classes. Interestingly, the researchers note, female enrollment decreased as the cost of the camps increased - an indication that parents are more aggressive in encouraging their sons to master computing. But parents alone are not to blame. In their third study, Miura and Hess had children and adults rate 75 software titles according to whether they were of greater interest to boys or girls. Children and adults agreed that over one third of the titles were of greater interest to boys, while only 5 percent were perceived as interesting to girls.