IBM's Technology Camp for Teen Girls - Reinforcing Stereotypes?
IBM Camp apparently has a camp which tries to get teen girls interested in technology. That's great - it really is. But their approach seems something like "hey, let's get women to learn about computers by showing them how to look up recipes!" The article scares me. Here's a few snippets:
Look! Pretty pink flowers!
Contrast the image of pink flowers, making bracelets and cooking candy with the 7th and 8th grader's essays:
Way to go IBM - you've taken geeky girls and shown them how to do things "more appropriate" for their gender.
Look! Pretty pink flowers!
... they watched a scientist from M.I.T. (Massachusettes Institute of Technology) dip a pink carnation into a vat of liquid nitrogen, and then shatter the frozen flower against the side of a tank.Let's hold hands and make bracelets!
... girls learned how to make "binary bracelets" (of beads that sported ones and zeroes on them)Girls like cooking and candy!
The girls learned ... how to make bubble gumSeriously - whatever works to get girls more interested in technology, and I do applaud their efforts to try to look at it from a girl's perspective. I just question if this is really the way to get girls interested in learning about technology, any more so than little girls playing a barbie computer game would want to learn how to program. Instead, the camp seems to just reinforce existing stereotypes.
Contrast the image of pink flowers, making bracelets and cooking candy with the 7th and 8th grader's essays:
The application process involved an essay in which the girls imagined an invention that would improve their worlds. Yehia wrote about a biodegradable trash bag. Gidla wrote about a USB-based application-specific device designed to help organize her schedule. Bahnham wrote about a double-sided television that would allow family members watch two different shows, while still spending time together in the same room.Call me crazy - but it sounds like these 7th and 8th grade girls might want to do more than make bracelets, cook candy and play with pretty pink flowers.
Way to go IBM - you've taken geeky girls and shown them how to do things "more appropriate" for their gender.
Hmmm ...
This is a tough one to call. There isn't enough information in the
article to determine what these young women's interests are, and how
important it was (is) to link these interests to computers. There are
several types of projects listed in the article, so it's possible to
assume that the young women have a variety of interests; some
traditional and some not.
If you knew some young women who had traditional interests, and that
was the only way to excite their interest in computers, would you
hesitate to publish that information, for fear that it would be
interpreted as encouraging only traditional interests?
BTW, the article mentioned that women tend to be more interested in
the application than the technology. I don't know if it is true in
general, but it's something I've observed. By nature, I'm more of a
systems/networks person than an applications person, so I'm not
necessarily the best person to encourage someone (of any gender) to do
application work.
I don't believe in this fun and games approach. Computer science is a serious business and there's no use in diluting the realities. Girls need to be prepared for real life. If it were up to me I'd make a program for girls which teaches the fundamentals in a rigourous and serious manner. Then they can be equipped to go out and kick ass. Anything worthwhile is hard and requires discipline. They need to be groomed to be the best and then sent out to show the world that women can produce quality code as well as men can. Maybe girls just need a bit more confidence and we need a way to supply them with it. Being really good at something is what gives confidence and inspires anyone to do something. I would do the same for inner city kids. All this crap with bracelets and pink, it's just that crap. I agree with you Gayle.
Hello - I'm a grown up girl tech. I was the only girl in my electronics and engineering classes at SF State in the 70', the only girl grown up at my construction engineering office now. Anything to interest girls in technology is cool. Sometimes it's lonely in a sea of guys!!! Here's something I've come across that may excite, (not just interest) girls - livewire camp at Walt Disney World! Giant Campus and Disney started this camp in the summer of '07 at Epcot, and the camp is going on the summer of '08 too! (And there's a promotional code to reduce expenses - Spok117) Here's a link:http://www.onlinegamerkid.com/teensummercamp
Have a cool summer at tech camp!
Penny