Will social media help bring more women to tech?
The Canadian Press issued a story last week about women in technology, asking if the dramatic difference between the amount of online content produced by young women vs. young men will have significant impact on the numbers of women choosing a career in tech in the future,
We would love to hear what you think - could this be a tipping point? Are blogs and social networking sites "gateway technologies"?
While teens as a whole rule the blogosphere - 28 per cent of Internet-using teenagers blog compared with only eight per cent of adults - girls of all ages dominate, according to a recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.Jenny Bullough and I were both quoted for the piece, you can read the whole story here.
The survey suggests about 35 per cent of online teen girls blog, while only 20 per cent of online boys do it. "Virtually all of the growth in teen blogging between 2004 and 2006 is due to the increased activity of girls," the survey reported.
We would love to hear what you think - could this be a tipping point? Are blogs and social networking sites "gateway technologies"?
posted by maggiefox @ 7:15 PM
2 Comments:
At March 23, 2008 10:14 AM ,
Sandy Kemsley said...
Since girls tend to develop writing skills earlier than boys (in general), it's not at all surprising that they're the ones writing blogs. However, creating online content is not the same as choosing a career in technology, it's more likely to be aligned with a career involving writing or graphic arts, since that's the skills that these girls seem to be exercising when creating online content. The technical skills required to create and maintain a blog these days are pretty minimal -- I have several friends who have no technical background whatsoever but manage to blog quite successfully -- and I don't see a clear-cut path from there to a technology degree and/or career.
At March 24, 2008 8:57 AM ,
maggiefox said...
Good point, Sandy, but stories like Ashley Qualls (the young woman who has become a successful entrepreneur by first using Myspace, then teaching herself HTML to customize pages, then making a business out of selling custom skins, profiled last year in Fast Company) I think are a pretty good example of how social media (if you're really into engaging in online communities) can create opportunities to see the benefits of learning more about technology and making it a possible career option.
Will all girls on MySpace teach themselves to code? Not likely, but the fact that they're in that environment dramatically increases the possibility that some could.
I know there's no quick fix for anything, but I am hopeful that web 2.0 could actually function as a "gateway technology", encouraging more girls to choose a career in tech.
(FYI - the article also misquoted me - I said that 10% of the TOP jobs in IT are held by women, not 10% of all IT jobs)
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