Women and IT

I found the Light article on gender and IT to be interesting when you consider the older statistics that we read in previous articles. Those statistics cited a greater percentage of women not being online. I always found that hard to beleive somehow. Having been in a technical field, I know that the atmosphere in workplaces that grow advanced tech is one of long hours, high-stress projects, and often unpredictable schedules. It was very difficult to have a family waiting for me and know that my other guy colleagues could just call up and say, I'm not coming home tonight until we finish this test, etc. Light wrote: "Women who engage with CMCs as the technology and reg framework develop have the opportunity to influence the deployment of this new medium..." That's the development side. Here's an article that addresses some of that further. http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Why-Women-Leave-I-T-&story_id=31000

But we are looking at the USAGE side. Today, when I do a mental inventory of who is online IMing, emailing, googling, writing, researching, etc. I find that my male friends and colleagues spend less time on the computer. My daughter never left her IM unless she was asleep or in the shower. My son could care less if he ever IMs anyone, although girls ask him to get online all the time. Historically, didn't women co-opt the telephone technology for intercommunication? Yet how many women are involved, as Light argues, in the actual production of the technology? Yes, we're good little consumers...what could explain this?