gender and technology

The topic of last weeks lecture I found particularly interesting as I have often contemplated the gender dynamics towards technology but did not realize there had been academic writing done in this area. In a women’s studies paper I learnt that a research found that when class technology goes wrong for a male lecturer the students believe the technology was not working correctly, however when female lecturers have the same technological problems the students believe the (female) lecturer did not know how to use the technology correctly. These results reveal that the gender stereotyping of male competence with technology and female incompetence with technology extends beyond music equipment and in to day-to-day technology. I believe this gender stereotyping extends into film technology as well. The films I have worked on as an actress have all had heavily male dominated crews and the, now dated, terminology such as cameraman is most likely a result of this. As a student I was given the opportunity to work behind camera, something I was eager to do, but as I was the only female in the group it was presumed I would act while the boys had directorial control. This is what led me to choose to work solo on the following project; it was a way of insuring that I would get to experience working behind camera. But how is this gender stereotyping constructed? Perhaps it is the gender-coded interests we are infiltrated with as children. Boys are given toy cars, trucks, tools etc; all of these involve the construction and workings of man-made equipment and thus they are closely tied to technology. Are computers and stereos the grown up versions of transformers? After all technology does have a strong presence at exposes like ‘Big Boys Toys’. So perhaps men have a socially constructed cultural advantage; the cultural capital that comes from being raised a boy in modern society. What I have observed in women’s interaction with technology, myself included, is that is treated more as a means to an ends. So on my laptop I know how to write essays, use the Internet and email and play DVDs. That’s about it because that’s all I use it for. However when my boyfriend got his laptop he spent several days familiarizing himself with it and discovering virtually everything it was capable of. Whatever the cause men on the whole appear to have a genuine interest in technology, which I think that women, for whatever reason, just don’t have to the same extent. This of coarse is a hugely generalized statement, something difficult to avoid when discussing gender.