Some time ago I got sent Mary Kirk’s book Gender and Information Technology. It’s taken me a while to get round to writing about it as it’s quite a thick book and is not exactly what I’d call a light read. The book covers all aspects of women and Information Technology.
I was initially really excited to get my hands on this book, as someone who runs events and who has seen first hand the impact of a lack of women in the Technology industry I was hoping that this book would have some clear insights into how to make improvements and take things one step beyond the traditional complaints of there not being enough women in the industry. Unfortunately for me this book definitely wasn’t that. Instead it goes through the same things that people are already complaining about.
- Business as social institution
- Dominator social institutions
- Dualisms
- Education as social institution
- Gender Philosophy of science
- IT culture
- Language as social institution
- Mass media as social institution
- Partnership global IT business
- Partnership language and mendia
- Partnership Science
- Partnership social institutions
- Stereotypes
- Technology education
- Tools of domination
And if you want to read about what the industry is like at the moment this book would set you back $165 or £105 and no that’s not a spelling mistake! It’s even more if you also want the online access as well for updates to the research ($330 inc book) to me this seems totally crazy! As someone in this industry I can find the same information spread out across the internet, I don’t think the book really adds anything to it and so far I’m yet to understand who would want to buy it an why? Maybe a large corporate trying to understand their corporate social responsibility. But honestly NO do your homework first. Read the online resources from around the web. The information is out there, there’s loads on wikipedia as well as through the UKRC as well. All of it well reasearched and free!
I guess this book really didn’t gel with me as it’s very much a feminist book. The first chapter is titled Demyth-ifying Feminism – Reclaiming the “F” word. Gaaah… the ironies and irrelevances just scream out in the headline of the chapter. The same subject has been broached at Girl Geek Dinners and the same comments come up in this book about what children are influenced by and what they learn from parents, friends and teachers that could affect their career choices and expectations of employment in the future. This book didn’t talk about how to make positive change or even any change, in fact it appears to just accept the myths not break them down at all. It is so frustating!
Rather than continuing with the assasination of this book, I’m just going to say that I wouldn’t spend the money on it, I’d rather buy a few decent programming book and donate them to a local school.
