• Bibliographic information in APA style (1 point)

Fisher, Allan, and Jane Margolis. Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing. London: The Mit Press, 2003. Print.

• Goals of the book (1 point)

The major goal of Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing was to tell of

a study done at Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science in the 1990’s, by Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher. The purpose of the study was to look at the social, familial and institutional reasons for the gender gap in computer science and programming. By collaborating with admissions directors and starting a grassroots type of reform, they have been able to increase the number of female students in computer science six-fold at Carnegie Mellon. I think part of the real focal point of the book was to explain why the lack of female computer scientists is a problem that starts in the home and elementary years, rather than it being as a result of personal or even innate preferences later on in adolescence and early college years.

• Strengths (2 points)

The strengths of Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing lie in its ability to present facts and statistics in a personal, relatable kind of way. I initially did not expect to enjoy reading the book, but after the first chapter I actually found myself to be very interested in the topic as a whole. I suppose that I am naturally a feminist, but I never expected to care so much about women in computer science until I read the book. Some of the major issues highlighted by the book revolved around the way girls are raised in America. The family computer is usually found in the boy’s room, girls generally do not play and are not encouraged to play computer games; and in one astonishing instance, it was found that the classroom set of computers in an elementary school class room were placed in the “boys” side of the room. I assume this meant near the building blocks and such. One narrative from a female computer science student told of how ostracized she felt in a college class. She described her general confusion as being as a result of not programming as a hobby, and felt as though she was at a disadvantage. She couldn’t understand how the males in the class knew as much as they did, and this undoubtedly would lead any female to feel inferior. The book even pointed out that early voice recognition systems did not recognize female voices! I consider these examples to be strengths of the book because they are not simple statistics that one would easily forget.

• Weaknesses (2 points)

While reading the book, I did not find anything that I would consider a blatant weakness. I do think it was well put together and easy to understand. I suppose a weakness would be something that I had trouble understanding while reading. There was much talk about “geek culture” and the way of life of typical male computer programmers: that they are loners that only hang out with other computer programmers. I can understand why this is a problem in terms of not being welcoming to females, but I didn’t really understand why geek culture is such a problem in and of itself. Also, I definitely think more time could have been spent explaining or emphasizing what the computer science world is missing out on by not encouraging females to take part.

• Implications for education in general, and for science education (2 points)

The implication for education in general would be to plan instruction with cultural norms in mind, in order to prevent any inherent biases from interfering in how a class is conducted, particularly when science is involved. In science education, I think it is important to remember to treat boys and girls as equals, and not make the assumption that boys will be better at building things in physics, or dissecting things in biology, or lighting Bunsen burners in chemistry. These assumptions can obviously be detrimental to a girl who notices them, and then begins to believe they are true.

• How might you use what you've learned in your use of technology in your teaching (2 points)

I would use what I’ve learned in my use of technology in teaching by encouraging girls to explore technology and computer programming, even more so than the boys. I would also try to make sure that all of my students are on the same page when it comes to their ability to work with technology, and practically force the more advanced boys and girls to teach the rest of the students what they know. I do not think that class work should be treated as a competition of who knows more- it should be a collaboration that works toward all students leaving with a relatively equal understanding of the material. Technology is no exception, and a deeper understanding of it would probably benefit my students more than traditional science in the long run, anyways!