Computer haves and have-nots are also divided to some degree across the genders. Women, for a variety of reasons, encounter more barriers than men in the pursuit of access to computers, their uses and benefits. Today these barriers are less insurmountable than they were a decade ago, when one author was inspired to write, "... computers may be threatening to undo most of the gains women have been able to achieve in recent decades in the United States" (Rogers 1986, 176). The Macmillan Publishing study shows that, by 1994, the gender gap had closed considerably. "Computer usage has a slight sexual bias toward males. But it's only slight; the difference is less than 10 percent overall, and in some categories, such as software purchases, the difference is only 1 percent" (Schwabach 1995, G1).
Though they are gaining more access to computers, women are less likely than men to use them. The 1989 census data showed that, where computers were available in homes, 65.2 percent of the males and 51.4 percent of the females used them (1991, 5). This actually reverses for the workplace, where 58.2 percent of the women and 49.4 percent of the men used a computer (1991, 6).
The on-line services report an even wider gender discrepancy. Several different sources put the number of female subscribers at 10 to 15 percent of the total (Gordon 1994, 6; Plotnikoff 1994, E1; Hale 1995a). A more recent report said that 92 percent of the users of CompuServe, the largest commercial on-line service at 2.4 million subscribers, were male and 65 to 75 percent of America Online's subscribers were male (Dougherty 1995, D8). The Mercury Center, an on-line version of California's San Jose Mercury News, states that its users "tend to be men in their thirties and forties, wealthy, often working in the computer industry" (Beckett 1994, 6).
Use of the Internet is no different. The World Wide Web survey found that more than 90 percent of Web users are male (Pitkow and Recker 1994). In Canada, Dawn Boucher, president of the Calgary Unix Users Group, estimated that less than 20 percent of Internet users were women (Dempster 1995, A4). She added that this was a considerable jump from only about five percent four or five years ago (Dempster 1995, A4). In Colorado, Internet Express, a Colorado Springs Internet provider, has an estimated 65 to 70 percent male subscribers and spokespersons at Colorado SuperNet and Rocky Mountain Internet estimated their male users at around 80 percent (Gottlieb 1995, B1).
Several reasons for the gender discrepancy have been suggested. "There are no simple explanations why women are under-represented in cyberspace. As commercial services edge closer to becoming a true mass-market phenomenon, there's a growing awareness that on-line culture is not an entirely new ballgame. Virtual communities mirror the real world, with many of the old assumptions and biases intact" (Plotnikoff 1994, E1).
Hoai-An Truong, a member of the San Francisco based Bay Area Women in Telecommunications (BAWiT), published a paper in 1993 citing barriers for women to the on-line world. The barriers include less disposable income, less representation in the technical and computer-related fields, and less free time due to the responsibilities of the home where women are still the primary caregivers (Gordon 1994, 6). On-line access providers have noticed the lack of women subscribers and agree with Truong's assessment. "There's no simple reason for the [Internet's] skewed demographics, providers say, but it probably has something to do with the cost of computers, the educational level of various demographic groups and society's long-standing tendency to push males toward things technical and keep women away" (Gottlieb 1995, B1).
Other research shows a difference between the ways men and women approach the on-line world. Women need to perceive a usefulness to justify getting involved in cyberspace (Gordon 1994, 6). Men tend to have more curiosity and use cyberspace to "surf" around just to see what's there. Women tend to go in to achieve or obtain something. They are much more goal-oriented (Gordon 1994, 6).
The on-line medium might seem perfect for equalizing the genders. After all, no one is seen and no one's voice is heard. Since women find that their gender is still an issue, it can affect their interactions in cyberspace. Many have taken to adopting names and identities that are gender-neutral (Gordon 1994, 6). Lately there have been a slew of reports in the media about women being sexually harassed, stalked and otherwise victimized on-line. "From Ann Landers to the Village Voice, the overwhelming message is that cyberspace is populated by cyber-stalkers, lying lotharios and perverts. The on-line world is presented as just another place where bad men victimize helpless women" (Plotnikoff 1994, E1).
In a new book, A Woman's Guide to On-line Services, due out in June of this year, Judith Broadhurst outlines four reasons why women avoid on-line services, including the fact that media coverage of cybersex and on-line stalking has scared many away (Dougherty 1995, D8). But, in her book, Broadhurst says these reports are unfounded and that most men in cyberspace are upper-middle class and "respectful of others" (Dougherty 1995, D8). Other reasons include the fact that, once again, women are still the primary care-givers and are too busy with home life during the evenings when on-line use is highest, they don't understand how easy it is to learn to use these services, and they tend to see computers as a "tool to get a job done," while men see them more as a toy (Dougherty 1995, D8).
Technophobia is a disease that tends to plague more women than men. In school and at home, women are raised to see computers and technology as the domain of males. A 1993 Dell Computer Corp. poll found that, out of 1,000 adults questioned, 55 percent of the women admitted discomfort with new technology compared to 45 percent of the men (Plotnikoff 1994, E1).
The maleness of the computer world is something that gets programmed into female minds beginning in childhood and reinforced well into adulthood. "From early childhood, when violent computer games designed for boys dominate the marketplace; to college, when women drop out of computer studies faster than any other field, the technology turnoff is epidemic -- and may be growing" (Hale 1995a). Not only are the games oriented to boys, but computers at home are more likely to be found in a boy's room and more likely to be used by boys and their fathers. Boys also sign up for computer camps three times as much as girls (Hale 1995a). Girls receive a strong message: computers are not for them.
Despite these signals, girls and boys perform equally in math, science and computer usage until about the fifth or sixth grade. Then, when they reach puberty, the boys' performance in these areas continues to rise while the girls' drops off (Rogers 1986, 176; Plotnikoff 1994, E1).
By the seventh grade, girls begin to avoid the subjects of science and math (Plotnikoff 1994, E1). "As they sort out what it means to be female, subtle signals -- from ads that show women at computers in clerical roles to seeing only their father use the home computer -- add up to the message that computing is a male thing" (Hale 1995a). There is some evidence that teachers reinforce computer phobia in girls by giving more time and energy to boys (Hale 1995a).
By graduation, the gender gap has been etched into the lives of high school students. Boys score an average of 59 points higher than girls on Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) in math (Rogers 1986, 176). Aggressiveness and competition, evident in the games played as children, now further separate the boys from the girls who are reluctant to compete for computer time, which may be in short supply (Rogers 1986, 176).
College is no different. "By the time many young women reach college, the alienation from tech has become a full-blown estrangement" (Plotnikoff 1994, E1). National Science Foundation statistics indicate that men receive 75 percent of all computer science degrees. Women receive between 13 and 15 percent of all doctoral degrees in computer science and less than 10 percent of doctoral degrees in engineering (Plotnikoff 1994, E1). "That, in turn, refuels the cycle for another generation of young women growing up without female mentors in teaching positions. (One recent study estimates that 92 percent of computer science and engineering faculty members are male)" (Plotnikoff 1994, E1).
As jobs in the computer field grow at a projected rate of five percent per year for the rest of the 1990s, women will make up two-thirds of total job seekers entering the work force, but many will be blocked from high-paying computer-related jobs (Hale 1995a).
Some efforts are being made to close the gender gap. The Brownies and Girl's Inc. have established computer literacy classes, and the Girl Scouts now have a "Computer Fun" badge. Women's groups, schools and the government are starting programs like after-school computer classes for girls (Hale 1995a).