GENDER
&
STRUCTURAL
CYBERBULLYING


Andra
Keay
:
Assignment
2


ARIN
6901
:
Network
Society

Gender
Divide
and
History/Future
of
Computing

by Andra Keay - Sunday, 9 August 2009, 01:12 PM
Anyone on this site

The
gender
divide
affects
more
than
participation
and
access.
The
very
formation

of
cyberspace
is
controlled
by
the
gender
of
the
inventors,
whether
intentionally

or
not.
We
also
subscribe
to
the
view
that
progress
always
happens.




Statistics
show
that
women's
participation
in
the
work
force
(particularly
in

computing),
their
promotional
chances
and
their
remuneration
is
declining.
It's
a

simple
gender
analysis
but
one
I
can
never
avoid
making.
I
count
the
number
of

women
vs
men.




The
list
of
Fellow
Award
holders
from
the
Computer
History
Museum
is
telling.

There
are
4
women
out
of
47.
They
are
amongst
the
OLDEST
recipients,
not
the

youngest
(Linus
Torvalds
b.
1969)
It's
well
worth
reading
each
story
btw.




Plus
visit
the
Anita
Borg
Institute
or
wiki
influential
women
in
computer

engineering
for
more
stories,
but
the
contributions
made
by
women
are

tangential
to
the
development
of
digital
culture
and
I
see
no
significant
changes.

The
Digital
Divide
is
Divisive


I
was
shouted
down
in
my
second
class
for
expressing
my
view
that
women

haven’t
exactly
achieved
equality…
even
if
and
when
we
have
equal
access!
I

think
the
answer
might
lie
in
quotas
in
order
to
reach
the
percolation
threshold.

(Watts,
2003
p235)



“Indeed,
it
is
a
considerable
irony
of
the
network
society
that,
for
most
of
its

members,
securing
the
minimum
condition
of
inclusion
(and
thereby
averting

complete
exclusion
and
the
radical
powerlessness
it
would
bring)
simply
grants

them
access
to
the
infrastructure
of
their
own
continued
inequality
and
relative

domination.”
(Castells,
2004
P
31)



I
suggested
a
simple
gender
analysis
like
the
number
of
women
cited
in
the

reading
7/58
vs
the
ratio
in
the
class
18/23
should
give
pause
to
think.
But
I
do

not
apparently
make
a
convincing
argument.
Is
that
me
or
is
that
the
network?



The
Gender
Agenda,
website
from
Equal
Opportunities
Commission
UK,
suggests

200
years
to
impossible
to
achieve
equality
in
some
areas
at
the
current
pace.



The
Australian
Census
on
Women
in
Leadership
is
reporting
a
gradual
decline
in

women’s
participation
in
Australian
business
and
government.

(Australian

Government
Equal
Opportunity
for
Women
in
the
Workplace
Agency)



“Women
still
trail
in
pay
stakes”
Dan
Harrison,
the
Age

“Women
urged
to
sue
to
fix
pay
gap”
Kirsty
Needham,
Sydney
Morning
Herald

“Fewer
women
holding
top
company
jobs”
Adele
Horin,
Sydney
Morning
Herald

Users
and
Consumers
are
Not
Wearing
the
Pants



 



Sure
lots
of
women
are
blogging,
but
are
any
of
them
making
a
living?
Some
of

the
most
high
profile
bloggers
have
found
the
cost
too
high.
Kathy
Sierra,
the

game
developer,
tech
blogger
and
author
of
“Code
Like
A
Girl”,
one
of
the
few

female
voices
in
the
technology
sphere
quit
after
becoming
the
target
of
death

threats.
(“Cyber
threats
against
well‐known
blogger”
David
Louie,
ABC)



“A
new
social
system
starts,
and
seems
delightfully
free
of
the
elitism
and

cliquishness
of
the
existing
systems.
Then,
as
the
new
system
grows,
problems
of

scale
set
in.
Not
everyone
can
participate
in
every
conversation.
Not
everyone

gets
to
be
heard.
Some
core
group
seems
more
connected
than
the
rest
of
us,
and

so
on.

Prior
to
recent
theoretical
work
on
social
networks,
the
usual

explanations
invoked
individual
behaviors:
…
We
now
know
that
these

explanations
are
wrong,
or
at
least
beside
the
point.
What
matters
is
this:

Diversity
plus
freedom
of
choice
creates
inequality,
and
the
greater
the
diversity,

the
more
extreme
the
inequality.
…
The
very
act
of
choosing,
spread
widely

enough
and
freely
enough,
creates
a
power
law
distribution.
“
(Shirky,
2003)

“Power
Laws,
Weblogs
and
Inequality”



The
presence,
or
absence,
of
women
in
computing
starts
with
very
few
women

involved.
By
simple
growth
law,
fewer
women
will
become
involved.
Add
the

power
law
or
Pareto
distribution
behaviour
of
preferential
attachment
and

women
will
become
powerless.



Women
in
Computing


“Around
75%
of
girls
and
60%
of
boys
say
they
would
consider
work
normally

done
by
the
opposite
sex,
but
many
types
of
work
are
still
highly
segregated.

With
more
support,
things
could
be
different.“


from
the
Gender
Agenda
UK



In
March
2009,
Dr
Maria
Klawe
joined
Microsoft’s
board,
bringing
the

representation
of
women
to
2
out
of
10.
Said
Klawe:


“The
underrepresentation
of
women
in
the
fields
of
science
and
engineering
is

one
of
the
critical
issues
facing
the
computing
industry….I’m
looking
forward
to

helping
the
company
continue
to
make
progress
on
this
important
issue.”



Dr
Klawe
has
a
background
in
mathematics
and
computer
science
including

functional
analysis,
discrete
mathematics,
theoretical
computer
science,
and
the

design
and
use
of
interactive
multimedia
for
mathematics
education.
She
has

written
widely
on
Women
in
Computing.
I
can’t
help
but
wish
it
was
in
network

theory
and
social
analysis.


Structural
Cyberbullying






In
“Critical
Mass,
how
one
thing
leads
to
another”,
Philip
Ball
says,
“I
want
to

suggest
that,
even
with
our
woeful
ignorance
of
why
humans
behave
the
way

they
do,
it
is
possible
to
make
some
predictions
about
how
they
behave

collectively.”




Bullying.
Cyberbullying.
Structural
cyberbullying.
The
situation
where
the

revolutionary
new
network
society
is
structurally
opposed
to
equality,
and
is

relatively
stable
and
thus
unlikely
to
change,
to
reach
a
tipping
point
without

radical
measures.



“The
network
society
is
less
inclusive
than
the
mass
society.
You
may
be
a

member
of
some
part
of
the
mass
society
by
birth
or
ascription.
In
the

individualized
network
society
you
have
to
fight
for
a
particular
place.
You
have

to
show
your
value
for
every
network.
Otherwise
you
will
be
isolated
in,
or
even

excluded
from,
the
network.
In
the
network
society,
you
have
to
stand
firm
as
an

individual.
You
are
not
that
easily
taken
along
in
solidarity
by
proximate
people.”

(Van
Dijk,
2006
p
36)



“By
specifying
precisely
how
connected
systems
are
connected,
and
by
drawing

explicit
relationships
between
the
structure
of
real
networks
and
the
behavior

(like
epidemics,
fads,
and
organizational
robustness)
of
the
systems
they

connect,
the
science
of
networks
can
help
us
understand
our
world.”
(Watts,

2004,
p303)



Barabasi
believes
that
we
are
not
far
off
a
scifi‐like
ability
to
predict
and

influence
human
behaviour.
Will
this
be
used
for
the
good
of
mankind?

Perhaps
that
depends
on
who
is
doing
the
coding.