"Mom, what's the capital of Albania?," yells Sinead Breen (11), sitting in front of the family's new PC in Letterkenny. No longer addicted to TV, Sinead spends hours playing Carmen Sandiego (a CD-ROM geography/detective game), emailing new Internet-pals and surfing the Web. But she is unusual - she learnt to read by using a computer at her kindergarten in California, and truly is a cyber-kid.
Sinead is also unusual because she enjoys computers and does not see information and communications technology (ICT) as a "boy thing". In the 1980's it seemed as though the technology gender gap was closing as increasing numbers of women began to study computing at third-level and go on to work in the ICT industry.
Now, however, the tide is turning and many girls are no longer interested in technology. "This is a subject of enormous concern," says director of the Centre for Teaching Computing at Dublin City University, Micheal O hEigeartaigh.
"Ten years ago, 40 per cent of students registering for first-year computing programmes were female. By last year, girls were taking up only 20 per cent of places." In Europe, numbers of women registering for first year computing in Europe range from 25 per cent in Portugal to 5 per cent in Iceland.
These figures translate directly into jobs. Of the 1,400 people recruited by Hewlett Packard over the last two years, only 30 per cent were women. O hEigeartaigh thinks more research needs to be done but that the roots go back to second class in primary school.
Why are girls as young as six being turned off computers? One difficulty in girls' engaging with ICT is that boys physically dominate computers. At home, it is the males of the family who spend time on the PC, making access problematic for the females (of all ages). The lack of a female role model within the family may be of vital importance in influencing the attitude of girls towards technology. Parents often reinforce this message, by supporting boys in their leisure use of computers while doing little to actively encourage girls to participate in the IT revolution.
"Five times as many boys as girls use computers at home and parents purchase twice as much technology toys and products for their sons as they do for their daughters," reveals a US study. Norwegian research found that, of the top 10 per cent of girls in terms of computer competence, almost all were the eldest child in the family - presumably because the eldest girl would be able to elbow aside her smaller brother(s).
In schools too, boys dominate. Recent Irish research, done at DCU, into primary school children working in pairs at a computer workstation found: "in mixed-gender groups, girls may be prepared to sit back and allow boys to take the initiative". Maria Diskin noted in her study: "Girls will not compete for equipment. When a male partner puts the mouse out of reach, girls will give up rather than attempt to get the mouse back."
The study discovered that boys were more likely to ridicule their partner's efforts than girls, that mixed-gender groups had the most disagreements and that girls were more likely than boys to declare themselves incompetent. Diskin concludes that girls may become alienated from technology if they are paired with a boy - and this should be addressed by schools.
Gender equality is recognised as an integral part of ICT in-service training for teachers. "It's a huge issue," says Seonad Cooke of the National Council for Technology in Education. "The tutors running the teacher-training courses were specifically briefed on the gender issue." Teachers are told to be aware of the problem, to ensure work-sheets are cross-gender and to look out for boys dominating a computer.
A facilitator of the gender equality module on these courses, Brian O'Doherty believes the issue is not of gender, but of self-esteem: "Children with high self-esteem are not so influenced by conditioning and are more likely to achieve their full potential. They are not afraid of new challenges or afraid of failing."
He is, however, concerned that children at second-level are beginning to see ICT is a subject for boys and feels that introducing computers in primary schools may serve to combat that attitude. "Primary schools can blaze a trail for equality by starting IT at an early age," he enthuses.
In another DCU study, on ICT and gender differences in senior classes in primary schools, Karin Duffner stresses that teachers should be aware of the bias in software and should encourage both genders equally. She also recommends that teachers introduce role models to the children (for example, female workers in the computer industry).
A further problem in attracting girls to technology is with games, which are generally a child's first experience of computers: boys have always had fun with the often violent and aggressive games and therefore gained valuable hands-on experience, but the need to create an incentive for girls to use computers has been ignored, until recently.
"We saw girls falling behind boys and losing interest in computers around the ages of 11 and 12," says Nancy Deyo of Purple Moon, a new US company specialising in software for girls aged 8 to 12. "We want to get in there early and keep them interested." Purple Moon's games are backed up by an interactive Website where girls can make friends, collect virtual treasure, create homepages and, naturally, go shopping.
According to Ann Bergin of DMC, the leading distributor of games software in Ireland (which does not import Purple Moon products), the demand for girls' games exists but there are very few of them: "Most of them are sports or shoot-em-up games for boys."
Girls need software specifically designed to encourage them to use computers. "Using girls' imaginations and learning styles as the starting point, rather than expecting girls to be accommodated by male-produced and male-targeted games, is the next step in providing alternatives that may lead to re-capturing girls' interests in computing and its associated professional opportunities," concludes a US study into girls' preferences in software design.
The list of Websites below shows that girls are catered for on some sites and by some games producers.
The need to interest girls in computers - in order to reduce the under-representation of women within the ICT industry - must be addressed both at home and at school. If our IT miracle is to continue, we cannot afford to ignore a potential pool of talent. We need more girls like Sinead, for whom using a computer is as natural as using pen and paper.
Web sites for girls:
www.purple-moon.com
www.girlgamesinc.com
www.girlsplace.com
www.razzberry.com
www.girltech.com
Sarah Marriott: sarahmarriott@hotmail.com