An Investigation Into the Relationship Between Gender Perception of Computing, Computer Self-Efficacy and Anxiety: Comparison Between the US and India

Computing has always been perceived as a male domain. This perception can discourage women to participate in computingrelated careers/educations/activities. The researchers’ previous studies on gender perception toward computing compared the difference of gender perception toward computing, computer self-efficacy, and computer anxiety across cultures. The goal of this study is to continue what left out and overcome problems we found from the previous research. In the nutshells, this study aims to (1) define more parsimonious gender perception toward computing construct, computer self-efficacy construct and computer anxiety construct, (2) empirically tests the relationship that forms a model among these constructs, and (3) conducts the cross cultural study by comparing the model results from two populations, namely the US and the Indian. A model developed to explain behaviors/phenomena in one country may not hold in other countries due to culture difference. Thus, a model should be subjected to test before applying it in other cultures. One of the main findings shows that in the US computer anxiety has negative impact to gender perception toward computing in the US. This relationship, however, is not found in India.