Nothing changed in ten years
A new study conducted in Australia indicates that girls still think
that IT is boring. The study of attitudes to technology and career
skills follows an earlier one conducted by the
Victorian Government in 2001. The 2001 study showed that 36 per cent of
girls, compared with 16 per cent of boys, found information
and communication technologies boring.
According to educator
Dannielle Miller things have not got better after nearly ten years.
Miller, the chief executive of Enlighten Education, a company she
helped found to foster
education and self-esteem among young girls, says a big proportion of
future
job opportunities will be involved in the IT field. She said that there
will be a generation of young women who have been excluded from
that knowledge then there is going to be a stark gender divide which
will be
quite problematic.'
Miller who penned a book The Butterfly Effect, which examines the pressures placed on teenage
girls and acts a guide for parents wishing to connect with their daughters,
said girls really do understand maths but society didn't want them too.
She said that teachers need to tap into female strengths and dispel discouraging stereotypes.
'Girls tend to be social learners and like to discuss problems, but they might
have minimal opportunity to do that in computer subjects.