William Cope
Helen Repp.png "Rita van Haren")
Rita van Haren
Nadia Ayub
Micheal M Van Wyk
Clifford Blizard
Mellissa Rosal EspirituUbiquitous Learning and Instructional Technologies MOOC’s Updates
Essential Update #2 Gender Inequality as it Relates to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Make an Update: Raise an issue about technology and gender. Provide examples and discuss implications.
It’s hard to think of gender inequality without thinking of gender and racial inequality. Dr. Pamela Maynard points that out: “ As a woman of color — and one of the only black female CEOs in the technology industry — I know how it feels to often be the only one in the room who looks like me. That’s why creating a workplace where everyone feels that they can bring their true selves to work is a personal passion of mine.”
Pamela Maynard, member of the Forbes Councils, asks the crucial question in her article: “Are We Really Closing The Gender Gap In Tech?” She states that there’s much more work to be done to close the gender gap and make the tech industry more diverse across the board. She mentions the struggle to attract women into STEM as a whole is actually worse today than it was in 1984.[i]
Compounding this gender gap in tech are additional barriers due to lack of children and the global pandemic. She cited research that shows evidence of “one-third of mothers face opting out of or scaling back their careers.”[ii] This is a compelling illustration of a gender inequity.
Pamela Maynard asserts the approaches which she believes are effective in addressing this gender disparity in technology. : …”we have much more to do if we are to go beyond the gender gap and make the industry more diverse across the board.”
As a whole, there is no consensus in approaches to achieve gender equality in technology and the workforce, however we see pockets of marginalized populations protesting injustice and consulting institutions, scholars and researchers involved in facilitating and training in diversity and inclusion that may contribute to a movement for gender equality in the long run, especially if communities keep it on the forefront agenda for our entire nation and institutions to address.
An example of approaches which everyone benefitted from is the Civil Rights Movement in the USA. “The Civil rights movement was an organized effort by Black Americans to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights under the law. It began in the late 1940s and ended in the late 1960s. Although tumultuous at times, the movement was mostly nonviolent and resulted in laws to protect every American’s constitutional rights, regardless of color, race, sex or national origin.” [iii]
Recruiting diverse individuals is only one step, however insufficient in and of itself. Once diverse employees, women and women of color get hired, there has to be support by way of equity and inclusion. Dr. Torie Weiston-Serdan, Scholar. Practitioner and Mentor breaks down (JEDI) Justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion concepts as it applies to marginalized communities. She facilitates mentoring with youth and training to wider constituents. Diversity she explains is everyone sitting at the table be different from another person. Equity is shared resources and giving everyone what they need to be successful at their workplace. Inclusion is (diversity + equity) combined and it leads to the next step in the process, which is shared power and action in decision making.
More recently, The Muse, a career site has contributed to the dialogue by interviewing employees[iv]
and posting them to https://www.themuse.com. In addition to the dialogue there are career advice videos and articles which can be accessed directly from their Website at the Diversity and Inclusion Webpage. [v]
Example of Diversity
[vi]
Summary:
Achieving gender equality is tied in with initiatives of Diversity and Inclusion. In order to achieve this, people have to come together to have dialogues around these issues. Women and women of color need to be treated equitable and given what we/ they need and deserve to succeed. 'I Am Because We Are': [vii]
Endnotes:
[i]https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/03/03/are-we-really-closing-the-gender-gap-in-tech/?sh=5db7590c5d71
[ii] https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/03/03/are-we-really-closing-the-gender-gap-in-tech/?sh=458a7d9d5d71
[iii] https://www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/civil-rights-movement-timeline [iv] Prioritizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in a Pandemic: How to Support Black Colleagues - YouTube
[v] https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-truths-diversity-and-inclusion-at-work [vi]https://cacm.acm.org/news/253555-tech-company-initiatives-encourage-greater-diversity-equity-inclusion/fulltext?mobile=false
[vii]https://www.ttbook.org/interview/i-am-because-we-are-african-philosophy-ubuntu
Make an Update: Raise an issue about technology and gender. Provide examples and discuss implications.
While following Cris Mayo's lectures, I was thinking about my language and literature lessons. Before the pandemic and after returning to in person lessons, schools provide you with limited spaces and basic updates to enhance your practice. You are always told that technology needs to be included in your lessons, but we continue to use it as a means and a gadget rather than an resource for significant and long-term learning.
While listening to Cris Mayo on diversity and gender, I was thinking on African-American literature. However, when reading the update task on gender and literature. Ibsen's A Doll's House came into my mind. The Victorian Era. Nora being told what to do, how to behave, what to expect and what NOT to do. Torvald, Krogstad, Mrs. Linde (a female character whose thoughts, perceptions, feelings had become those of men). Not actually so different from today. I think of my female students and of myself. Occasional STEM talks at the end of the school year to show girls options they have never considered even though they are part of an International program. What has changed? You talk to them and many more than before want to follow a major on politics, international relations, law or business. Still, there is a trend to stay away from science or math. Parents and career-oriented tests that continue to suggest or impose the old model, like in my case (engineering is for men).
So many Torvalds, Krogstads and Mrs. Lindes still around. Alex Krotoski writes about the wide gap in the opportunities and access women have to careers involving technology and how, like Nora, they continue to be objectified as rewards for male geniuses and creators, The industry does little to help itself: networking socials in strip clubs; booth babes at trade events – scantily clad models swamped by hungry geeks; the misogynistic-toned brogrammer culture that's making women uncomfortable with questionable recruitment tactics, and perks such as bring-a-girl-to-the-office-days. [i]
Aleks Krotoski also refers to the undermined skills and potential women rely on for technology, The men make the technology, while the women think about it. Nora or Mrs. Linde were programmed for motherhood, house chores, sewing, pleasing their husbands. Nora's father practically sold her to Torvald for her to be a paid wife and please his whims. Never to think. But wasn't it Nora who took strength and was able to negotiate to get a loan to save her husband's health when sick? Although she became a victim of sexual harrassment when doing so later by Krogstad? Did not she have the skills to keep finding plans to try to hold such a negotiation secret? Was not Nora who managed the budget Torvald gave her? This is mirrored by Krotoski's article when bringing forward the assumption computing is not viewed as a girls' sport. Young women aren't exposed to computing, or steered in that direction by parents, peers or career counsellors. Recent headlines about gender pay gap disparities won't help matters.
I have gained such an important insight about how to integrate technology in a literature class to make it significant due to this connection between techonology and gender. Not to know about an author, or the precarious condition of women in Europe, or how much the gap has narrowed to today when it is still wide in so many more ways. It is about self-representation, ideological patterns and the possibility to make connections that were not allowed before. It is a journey of self-discovery, perception, understanding and liberation.
[i] https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/women-in-tech-female-representation
[ii]https://www.jstor.org/stable/1495386
@Christina Scharbaai,
Thank you for sharing. Reading this information you have shared has made me reflect about what international schools and teachers are actually doing with these programs to make students become citizens striving for a fairer world. As a teacher, you try to find material to show and explore what happens around the world (movements, demonstrations, cases, studies, etc), but as you mentioned above, methodologies and this resource search continues to perpetuate the old classroom. Now, I understand how technology is not only a means, but needs to get an active role in the teaching, learning and discussion around JEDI. And this is by agency rather than just using it for just inquiry and sharing opinions. Thanks a lot.
Thanks for this information. I've been following discussions on DEI and other issues on The Muse and find them useful. it seemed that one of the original hopes of distance or online learning was to allow more women/mothers to participate in higher ed, but as higher ed even online basically replicates the old school models discussed in this course, many students feel no more engaged in or part of the classroom community. I'm hoping that by learning more we can do better.@Christina Scharbaai,