Multiple Meanings and Multiculturalism. Women in It Education

Information technology (IT) education and the industry continue to be male dominated and less women are entering computing courses at the university level. Research into gender and IT suggests that this is partly due to the masculine meanings generally ascribed to computing. Earlier research by authors of this paper (Greenhill, v. Hellens, Nielsen and Pringle, 1996a, 1996b) indicates that despite the masculine computer culture, women of Asian extraction have done well and outweigh other ethnic groups in IT education in one Australian university suggesting that these women have challenged dominant meanings of both gender and computing, and have developed strategies to cope with the hostility of computing culture. The paper continues the research into this aspect of multiculturalism in Australian IT education by interviewing female high school students to identify factors particular to Asian women that affect the decision to undertake and successfully carry out IT studies in university. The emphasis is on the issue of control, power and access to internet identified in the focus group interviews at schools. The current literature on virtual reality and cyberspace is discussed, and Asian women in IT education is considered from the multiculturalism viewpoint, especially the potential conflict between the dominant national culture and the individual cultures. The paper also discusses how to overcome the problem issues in order to achieve a more satisfactory gender balance in IT education.