This afternoon, Bobby forsakes the cartoons on television for a personal date with Rocky and Bullwinkle, honing his expertise on pint-sized quiz-show questions. Or perhaps he romps through an exciting journey with Aladdin as he learns to read, piecing together the Disney version of an ancient Arabic puzzle. Or maybe, if he’s a preschooler, he will rhyme with his friend Elmo and “cook up words” with his buddy Chef Cookie. Where is Bobby? In front of a computer, of course.Folks, there’s no doubt about it: we live in a world of computers. Every relationship – personal, business, academic – is conducted in a world of word processors and spreadsheets, e-mail and electronic files. My little sister is applying to colleges over the Internet. My dad buys plane tickets for business trips and regulates our finances on his laptop. My mom is writing a cookbook in Word and put a house up for sale online. Is it any wonder economists have predicted that in just over a year, 65 percent of jobs will require computer skills? For parents, this means acclimating kids to computers: providing them with games and educational software that make them comfortable with the technology they will need to succeed in the future.No problem, you say. Just go to Toys R’ Us and pick up a few of the six hundred bazillion games on the market for Bobby. But what about his sister, Suzy?You stroll down the aisle past dozens of “co-ed” games featuring male characters such as Elmo, Aladdin, Blue the Dog, until you finally reach the “girls section” of the software department. Blinded by the neon pink, you peruse the paltry selection of games marketed to girls and desperately grab the one which looks the least mindless. When you get home, you find that Suzy can now “Create a Friend,” choosing a body, face, hairstyle and outfit (but not a personality) for her cyber-companion. Or maybe if you bought a different game, she can “decorate a pony” with flower garlands, braids, ribbons and glitter. If she is really lucky, another game will let her drive to the mall, try on some clothes, and date a boy. Excuse me, but something tells me that decorating ponies and picking out clothes might get old fast. Bobby’s games, which are somewhat interesting but have boys in the lead roles, exclude girls like Suzy.Six years ago, the big beef with the educational system was the gender gap in math and science. Girls’ recent advances in that area should be a cause for rejoicing. But there is a new cause for alarm. Researchers have found that computer software (including educational software) is targeted almost exclusively to boys, noting that only 17 percent of high school students taking the Advanced Placement test in computer science are girls. According to the executive director of the American Association of University Women, computer software “portrays boys in combative aggressive roles and girls more as princesses, and therefore [is] not conducive to promoting an identity with the future and engaging girls in technology.”What does this mean for young girls? Game software is “the gateway to mastering computer technology,” and being excluded from playing quality games means that girls will not use computers as much as boys and will not develop the requisite skills for acquiring good jobs in our changing society. Software companies need to recognize that their computer software is promoting behavior which will reinforce the stereotype of girls as “bad” at computers. Parents need to encourage their daughters to become comfortable with computers and to use them for more than just word-processing. And schools need to ensure that girls are encouraged to enroll in computer science classes and hire female computer science teachers to set examples.Don’t let technology be yet another barrier to women’s success. Think it doesn’t matter? Just hope that some boy who played the Blue’s Clue game as a kid (and now is a computer whiz on the side) doesn’t snatch away your daughter’s job because you were content to let her play with Barbie.
Jessica Weeks’ column appears on Mondays in the Lantern.
