Re: "Gender bias in Cyberspace"

[Romay Jean Sitze <rositze -at- NMSU -dot- EDU>]

On Wed, 15 Nov 1995, Colleen Dancer (02) 333-1862 wrote:

> Second my experience when conducting surveys, usability tests etc. is
> that learning style is not gender related - or at least not noticably.
> However it does seem to have a stronger correlation with age and
> education.  However that is no where near the total answer, just the best
> I have got. But there are always the exceptions :)

In a graduate seminar involving roughly 25 people, we recently used a
learning style instrument to determine the learning style makeup of the
class.  Interestingly enough, we were almost equally divided among the
major categories--and each group contained a similar proportion of males
and females, and younger/older students.

> Most of the childrens programs I wouldn't say were male oriented,
> particularly story books eg Grandma and me, teaching programs, magic
> school bus ...  Mind you I only have sisters and we had as much lego and
> meccano as dolls, so maybe we wouldn't notice :)

This is where age may play into the picture.  In the 40s and 50s, there
were definite stereotypes in the types of toys boys and girls were
encouraged to play with--and those who wanted to cross the boundaries
between the two were often actively discouraged.  For the last 20-30
years, this stereotyping has been falling apart, at least for girls, so
that today's young women feel much more free to explore new ideas and
fields previously considered to lie in the male province.  Thus few women
of my generation feel as comfortable exploring computer technologies as
our daughters do.

        RoMay Sitze,  rositze -at- nmsu -dot- edu