gender issues in online communications.txt

黑客培训教程

 sure of this before saying or doing anything that would be considered
 inappropriate in real life. Such inappropriate behavior includes, but
 is not limited to, suggestive remarks; violation of the other
 person's space; forward, intimate or suggestive conduct."

"People on this system are of all ages and backgrounds... Most are not
 here specifically to form intimate relationships, and it is
 inappropriate to assume that someone is so interested unless you have
 received clear indications of it. If you are unsure whether your
 behavior is appropriate, STOP, and ASK. Many people are hesitant to
 say 'go away' in so many words because they do not wish to be rude.
 It is your responsibility to make sure they are saying 'yes' before
 pursuing a close personal relationship."

 Virtual or online harassment does not have a distinct legal
 definition.  Case law has not yet been established for many
 situations, but preexisting harassment and stalking laws may be used
 as guidelines.  MacWeek, an industry publication, suggests the
 following:

 "Companies should print guidelines prohibiting sexual harassment and
 distribute them to all employees. Those guidelines should be followed
 up with training."

 "The courts have held that sexually explicit posters hung on walls
 can create a hostile work environment. Similarly, pornographic
 computer programs or screen displays, particularly if visible to
 passers-by, could constitute sexual harassment." "Managers should
 treat any complaints of sexual harassment seriously. The company
 should have clearly enunciated policy of progressive discipline,
 ranging from warnings to terminations, depending on the severity of
 the offense."

 "After receiving complaints, managers and personnel departments
 immediately should seek to stop the harassment and educate the
 employees involved. A company is forbidden by law to retaliate
 against anyone making a sexual-harassment complaint."

 A company, including the network manager, may be held responsible if
 harassment occurs or continues to occur in the office. We would do
 well to find personal definitions in order to identify and address
 problems which arise. It is vital that company managers educate
 themselves and their employees, and have a anti-harassment policy
 that includes online harassment. Awareness of the issue is the best
 deterrent.

 Increasing Our Participation: Possible Approaches, Future Directions

 In the wake of the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings, companies and
 individuals are beginning to address women's issues in a variety of
 ways.  A Silicon Valley company recently arranged an all-day retreat
 offsite for its women employees to discuss gender issues faced by
 women in the computer industry and within the company. Issues
 discussed included glass ceilings, differences in pay, percentage of
 women working at the company, how to achieve success in technical
 fields, and dealing with career and home lives. The dialog continues.

 Across the bay, Berkeley Mac Women, a women's Macintosh users group,
 formed completely independently within weeks of the creation of
 BAWIT. At meetings, the all-women format has proven to be a more
 comfortable environment for women computer users to ask questions.

 Stacy Horn, who runs Echo BBS, wanted to ensure that the board be
 gender-balanced. Using affirmative action efforts such as telecom
 tutorials, outreach for women, and creating an environment that women
 would feel more comfortable in, she brought the number of women users
 up to about 50 percent. Seniornet, an online network of senior
 citizens has about a 50-50 ratio of women to men. Online services
 which stress community such as Seniornet, Echo and the WELL (the WELL
 has between 15-20% women users) attract higher numbers of women.

Women banded together to support one another on Santa Monica PEN, a
 city system. This account is from an article called "What's Really
 Happening in Santa Monica" in the December issue of IMPACT! from the
 Boston Computer Society Social Impact Group and Public Service
 Committee, by Pamela Varley:

 "PENners quickly discover[ed] that they must contend with people who
 feel entitled to hector mercilessly those with whom they
 disagree....When the system started up, women -- who were greatly
 outnumbered by men -- had problems with harassment....By the summer
 of 1989, the few women on line were fed up and ready to drop out."

 "In response to harassment,...the women on PEN banded together in
 July 1989 to form a support group called PEN Femmes. The group makes
 a point of welcoming women when they begin to participate in PEN
 conferences.  Harassment has subsided as more women have become
 active in conferences."

 System interfaces need to be evaluated in terms of user preferences.
 Since research indicates that women tend to learn and navigate
 somewhat differently than men, increased participation of women as
 software and system interface designers is an important goal.

Simpler interfaces are of benefit to all users, but especially to
 those without technical training. As the BMUG BBS switched to using a
 simpler electronic messaging system with a Mac-like interface,
 enthusiastic users genezFted four times the number of messages as on
 the old BBS. The familiarity of the new interface attracts women Mac
 users both with and without technical backgrounds who never or rarely
 used the old one.

 Rita Rouvalis, a BAWIT member, observes that "a list of Net
 Celebrities I saw recently included only *3* women -- none of them
 for technical merit.  Anita Borg, who runs the Systers [electronic
 mailing] list, was not included. When I was taking computer science
 courses in college, I knew that Niklaus Wirth wrote Pascal and
 Modula2 and 3, and that Kernigie and Richie developed C -- but I had
 no *idea* that Grace Hopper [inventor of COBOL] existed until her
 death." Remembering women pioneers is one way to transform the
 stereotypes of computer innovators.

 Managers of communications networks and BBSs have many strategies to
 try in making women welcome. Employing women as technical support
 staff, or in other informed customer service roles, and encouraging
 women to volunteer information to one another can help to take some
 of the challenge out of learning a new set of skills. Special
 approaches such as women-only tutorials, information campaigns and
 rate subsidies are tools which may help systems approach a gender
 balance.

 Conclusion

 How we address the issue of barriers to wider participation of women
 has long-ranging impact on other issues such as racial harassment
 versus inclusion, and the participation of gays, and the disabled.
 Much is made of the tremendous potential electronic mail and
 conferencing have to revitalize participatory democracy, but
 intelligent, motivated affirmative action will be needed if racial
 and gender barriers are to come tumbling down. Affirmative action can
 be done on the institutional level, and it can also be done on a
 grassroots level, by friends.


 Suggested Readings

 First of all, read and communicate with women online.

 There is as yet little published about women and telecommunications.
 Meanwhile, the general experience of women in computing is a backdrop
 worth exploring. BAWIT has made a commitment to continue assembling a
 bibliographic collection online.

 Samplings from Available Research

 Benston, Margaret Lowe. "Feminism and System Design: Questions of
 Control." The Effects of Feminist Approaches on Research
 Methodologies.  Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1989,
 pp. 205-223.

 Brusca, F. and Canada, K. "The Technological Gender Gap: Evidence and
 Recommendations for Educators and Computer-Based Instruction
 Designers." Educational Technology Research and Development, 1991,
 39, no. 2:43-51.

 Carmichael, Joan. "In a Different Format: Connecting Women,
 Computers, and Education Using Gilligan's Framework." Masters thesis.
 Concordia University, Canada, 1991.

 Durndell, A. "Why Do Female Students Tend to Avoid Computer Studies?"
 Glasgow College, Scotland: Research in Science & Technological
 Education, 1990 Vol. 8 (2) p. 163-170.

 Erlich, Reese. "Sexual Harassment an issue on the high-tech
 frontier." MacWeek, December 14, 1992, p. 20-21.

Edwards. Paul. "The Army and the Microworld: Computers and the
 Politics of Gender Identity." Signs v.16, n.1 (1990):102-127.

 Edwards, Paul. "Gender and the Cultural Construction of Computing,"
 adapted from "From 'Impact' to Social Process: Case Studies of
 Computers in Politics, Society, and Culture, Chapter IV-A," Handbook
 of Science and Technology Studies (Beverly Hills: Sage Press,
 forthcoming).

 Fish, Marian C.; Gross, Alan L.; Sanders, Jo S. "The Effect of Equity
 Strategies on Girls' Computer Usage in School." Computers in Human
 Behavior. CUNY, Queens College, 1986 Vol. 2(2) 127-134.

 Frissen, Valerie. "Trapped in Electronic Cages?: Gender and New
 Information Technologies in the Public and Private Domain: an
 Overview of Research." Media, Culture and Society v. 14 (1992):31-49.

 Greenbaum, Joan. "The Head and the Heart: using Gender Analysis to
 Study the Social Construction of Computer Systems." Computers &
 Society v.20, n.2 (June 1990):9-17.

 Halberstam, Judith. "Automating Gender: Postmodern Feminism in the
 Age of the Intelligent Machine." Feminist Studies v.17, n.3 (Fall
 1991):439-459.

 Harrington, Susan Marie. "Barriers to Women in Undergraduate Computer
 Science: the Effects of the Computer Environment on the Success and
 Continuance of Female Students." Dissertation. Oregon: University of
 Oregon, 1990.

 Kirk, D. "Gender Issues in Information Technology as Found in
 Schools:  Authentic/Synthetic/Fantastic?" Educational Technology, Apr
 1992, 32;$28-31.

 Kirkup, Gill. "The Social Construction of Computers: Hammers or
 Harpsichords?" Inventing Women: Science, Technology, and Gender. Ed.
 Kirkup; Keller. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992, p. 267-281.

 Kramarae, Cheris; Jeanie Taylor. "Electronic Networks: Safe For
 Women?" The Electronic Salon: Feminism Meets Infotech: in connection
 with the 11th Annual Gender Studies Symposium. Speech Communication,
 and Sociology, March 1992. [This is a draft of a paper prepared for
 the Gender, Technology and Ethics conference to be held in Lulea,
 Sweden, June 1-2, 1992].

 Kramer, Pamela E.; Sheila Lehman. "Mismeasuring Women: a Critique of
Research on Computer Ability and Avoidance." Sign3hv.16, n.1
(1990):158-
 172.

 Laurel, Brenda. Computers as Theatre. Addison-Wesley, 1991.

 Lawton, George. "The Network is the Medium." MacWeek, December 14,
 1992, p. 20.

 MIT Computer Science Female Graduate Students and Research Staff.
 "Barriers to Equality in Academia: Women in Computer Science at MIT."
 MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and the Artificial Intelligence
 Laboratory, February 1983.

 Nelson, C. S. and Watson, J. A. "The Computer Gender Gap: Children's
 Attitudes, Performance, and Socialization." Journal of Education
 Technology, 4:345-3, 1990-91.

 Ong, Aihwa. "Disassembling Gender in the Electronics Age." Feminist
 Studies 13 (Fall 1987):609-626.

 Pearl, A.; Pollack, M. E.; Riskin, E.; Thomas, B.; Wolf, E.; Wu, A.
 "Becoming a Computer Scientist: A Report by the ACM Committee on the
 Status of Women in Computing Science." Communications of the ACM, Nov
 1990, v33 n11 p47(11).

 Perry, Ruth; Lisa Greber. "Women and Computers: An Introduction."
 Signs v. 16, n.1 (1990): 74-101.

 Rakow, Lana. Impact of New Technologies on Women as Producers &
 Consumers of Communication in the U.S. and Canada. Paris: Unesco,
 1991.

 Spertus, Ellen. "Why are There so Few Female Computer Scientists?"
 Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, 1991.

 Tannen, Deborah. You Just Don't Understand, New York: Ballantine
 Books, 1990.

 Turkle, Sherry; Seymour Papert. "Epistemological Pluralism: Style and
 Voices Within the Computer Culture." Signs v. 16, n.1 (1990):128-157.

 van Zoonen, Liesbet. "Feminist Theory and Information Technology."
 Media, Culture and Society v. 14 (1992):9-29.

 Varley, Pamela. "What's Really Happening in Santa Monica." IMPACT!,