In the community colleges women make up about 2/3 of the total students and
only about 10 to 20 percent of the students in the advanced computer
classes; e.g., languages, systems and network management, etc. How do you
propose to correct this imbalance given your statements about the role of
"reams and reams of logic" as a tool of heterosexual, male domination?
All of those advanced computer classes, as well as everything that has to do
with the technological side of computers, even down to the electronic part,
is fundamentally based on "reams and reams of logic". It would seem that
the development of skills in that area is precisely what is necessary to
address the imbalance you are dealing with.
In the community colleges, the male/female ratio in electronics
classes--mainly digital circuit design, is likewise about 90/10. It would
seem, on the basis of your comments, that a feminist version of Luddism is a
more appropriate response to the technological revolution we are currently
experiencing.
Don't take this as a simple rhetorical question. Both the two women with
whom I work on community college research and I are very concerned about
how this shoud be addressed and we have often discussed the possibility of
the inscription of the logic of male discourse into the very structure of
the computer technology (a sort of Geza Roheim analysis of cybernetic
technology).
Paul H. Dillon