December 1997: Volume 11, Number 2
- Daughters of the computer revolution: A look at IU's wired women
- Wanted: Poster
- Brave new librarian: A profile
- Yes, but can she type?
- Women in Science
- Majority Report Index
- December Index sources
- From the Dean: OWA responds to ZBT
- Women in Science Project (WISP)
- Dreaming of a blue Christmas?
- Women's Student Association takes on the Man Question
- New women faculty, part two
Daughters of the computer revolution: A look at IU's wired women
If there is one trait in common among the women at IU who have computer jobs, it is this: They haven't studied computer science. There are exceptions, of course, but overall these women bring astonishingly eclectic backgrounds to their rendezvous with PCs. With degrees ranging from high school diplomas to PhDs, in areas as diverse as chemistry and English education, they have seized opportunities offered by the technological transformation of the university in the last quarter-century, profiting by the rapid innovations that rob entrenched seniority of its advantages.
A striking number of them entered the labor force late. Often, divorce and unexpected single-parenthood precipitated the move into salaried jobs. For some women, the newness of the computer field seemed to offer greater possibility to advance than their first career choices. Others found the jobs they started out in transformed over time into technical ones. Computers allowed them to escape the trap of playing catch-up with men whose careers had never been interrupted.
It is easier to compare the career paths of these women than it is the jobs themselves. Every department, every job at IU has been altered in some way by computers. While it's easy to point to University Information and Technology Services (UITS, formerly UCS) as a haven for techies,
it's not necessarily right. And positions that are not, at first glance, wired may demand a high level of technical skill.
Getting started
Norma Holland, a director at UITS, got a job at IU as a computer programmer in the '70s. When she first started out, Holland saw lots of other women programmers but none as managers. A male colleague explained that there had been a woman manager once before, but "that didn't work out."
That kind of attitude was all too familiar to Holland, who as a student in the '60s majored in chemistry, "when," as she says, "girls didn't do that stuff." When her hometown newspaper printed an announcement that she had made the dean's list at college, her mother had them change her major from chemistry to English, a more suitable field. And once, after graduating, she was working at a lab where she was the only woman chemist. The lab administrator came in to ask her to do some typing for him. Holland lied, saying she didn't know how to type. "I can't believe it," he answered. "We hired you here, and you don't even know how to type?"
By coincidence, Phyllis Davidson, director of information technology for the IU Libraries, was also trained around the same time as a chemist. Her initial push into science had come from her father, a conservative Southerner, who expected his children to be interested in the same things he was. Encouraged in college by a woman chemistry professor, Davidson went on to work for a cellophane company and as a cancer researcher at the University of North Carolina.
Both Holland and Davidson moved into computing after having had children. And in spite of a few discouraging experiences, overall, according to Holland, "computing was a good field for women to be in." The glass ceiling was pretty fragile. After all, the very same man who had so glibly answered Holland's question about women managers advised her that she could probably go about as far as she wanted to in her career at UITS. "And I guess I have," she says.
When Becky Batman started working in the records department of the IU Alumni Association 15 years ago, her job was straightforward data entry. Now, as records services supervisor, she spends most of her time creating computer shortcuts for others to use. She credits her boss for allowing her to take computer classes and to spend time now learning how to save time in the future. "That's what keeps my job fresh," she says. "It keeps me learning, keeps my eyes wide."
Batman, like most of the women I spoke to, has learned on the job what the job requires. A training session or the odd class is about the extent of the formal computer education these women have. And for many, the demands of their job are so all-consuming there is little time to learn more than they have to. Doris Wittenburg, lead systems analyst at UITS, notes that some younger colleagues lack respect for her expertise with the programming language COBOL, seeing it as out-of-date. That kind of apparent obsolescence can be a pitfall for women whose technical training dates back 10 or twenty years. They may find themselves scrambling to keep old systems running while newer employees take charge of replacements. It's a mistake, however, to write off the old too soon, says Wittenburg, citing the sudden demand for COBOL programmers to reset computers' internal clocks for the year 2000. "They've been pulling people out of retirement," she adds.
Work and home
The Pollyanna version of the future of work prophesies salvation through personal computing. The environment will be saved when a telecommuting workforce no longer has to drive to work. Prejudice and glass ceilings will disappear, because no one will have to know what anyone else looks like anyway; we'll be judged by our work alone. And parents will be able to work from home, eliminating the problems of parental leave and babysitters which is, of course, a goody for women, since childcare continues to be very much the mother's bailiwick.
But don't throw away your pantyhose yet. While a few organizations, such as UITS, are experimenting with telecommuting and job-sharing, it is the exception even there. As a whole, the university is not yet ready for this particular millennium. And maybe it's just as well. To the extent that boundaries between work and home are already being blurred by cell phones, fax machines, and e-mail both women and men are finding it a double-edged sword.
"We put in long days," says Norma Holland, "go home, and dial in. The technology is making it possible anytime, anywhere, everywhere. People work a regular workday, then go home and telecommute." For Holland, work and home life blend together from the moment she wakes up until she goes to bed at night. And when she goes on vacation, she takes her PC, so she's always in touch. "But," she admits, "that's self-imposed." Or, as Davidson amends, "self-inflicted."
Holland and Davidson, like most of their colleagues, do make time for their families. But they are much less likely to make time for themselves. Reading, watching TV, and exercising have become rare luxuries. "I would never be able to sit down for two hours on a Sunday afternoon to read a book," says Davidson. It helps, says Holland, to have a supportive husband who shares responsibility for housekeeping. "But I know women who get home at seven and are expected to have dinner on the table. Men at this level just usually have that support."
Davidson agrees, "I keep wishing I had a wife at home." But as she listens to some of her younger male colleagues, she hears reason to be hopeful. There is, she says, a big difference in what they expect of themselves at home compared to many older men. And that is crucial, if the technological bridge between home and work is to be a boon, not a bane, for women with families.
Linda Sieboldt, manager of the Y2K (Year 2000) project for UITS, has so far resisted buying a computer for her home. The last thing she wants when she gets home from work is to be chained again to a desk. Some of the newest innovations hand-held computers, for instance have tempted her to change her mind. She compares the new computers to new features in house design, such as kitchens opening into other rooms, that allow people to get work done without being cut off from their families. "It used to be that when you were in the kitchen you were really in the kitchen," she says. "Now you can watch TV, be with your family, put your feet up, and still get work done."
Still, for most women, both the pleasures and the problems of working from home are entirely theoretical. As Becky Batman says, "I'd love to be able to do that come in once a week, no clothing allowance, work in my pajamas, take a break to clean the house. But I don't see it happening."
That is not to say that she does not see a connection between her work and her family life. Constantly taking on new challenges, and learning to like her work, both of which she connects to her increased involvement with computers, has been good not just for her but for her now-teenaged daughter as well."Had I not had a child," she says, "I think I still would have been drifting. Sometimes, I do things because I think it's good for her to see me doing them. She went through the stage of wanting to do what I do when she grows up. Now she's thinking past me. Right now she wants to be a doctor. Whatever else she does, she'll know how to use a PC."
Boyland?
There are plenty of theories floating around these days about gender and computers, most of them arising out of low-tech stereotypes. Do men like to surf the Net, while women make a beeline for the information they need? (Picture a distraught mother logging on to find out how to lower a sick kid's fever, interrupting the father's session in a chat-room where he is simultaneously carrying on a cyber-affair and sending flames to Chicago Bears fans.) Do men favor the linear logic of DOS, while women prefer to intuit their way around Windows? Are men the phallic ones of digital code, women the womb-like zeros?
None of the women I spoke to found any of this convincing. Cathy Spiaggia, of UITS, does research on how people actually use their computers, helping departments develop more accessible applications. In her experience, gender is not a good predictor of how people work. "It's really a question of personality," she says, noting that the most successful computer users are those who don't mind making mistakes.
Spiaggia adds that when she first came to work for UITS 13 years ago, she was terrified of computers. Initially hired as an educational consultant, she had no technical experience. It took a few years, she says, before she finally realized that she was never going to master everything. There is simply too much information, and too much innovation, ever to settle in to one way of working. It was a hard lesson. "Working in technology is an exercise in getting comfortable with being uncomfortable," she says.
As for whether men or women are better at making these constant adjustments and accepting the limits of their own expertise, the only consensus is that the question is becoming less and less relevant. The real past masters of technology are kids. Jokes about parents who have to ask their kids to program the VCR or figure out what's wrong with the Mac hold too true to be funny any more. It has become a commonplace that along with shorter attention spans and a constant craving for eye candy, the post-MTV generation has acquired an adaptiveness, a mental readiness to turn on a dime that leaves their mothers and their fathers alike in the dust.
—Leora Baude
Wanted: Poster
The Office for Women's Affairs is seeking a poster design for use during Women's History Month 1998. Entries should focus on celebrating the historical or current accomplishments, talents, or work of women. The design selected may be used for promotional material in addition to use in the Majority Report.
Entrants may be male or female, amateur or professional artists, from the campus or the community at large. Entries accepted January 2-16. Entries, which are limited to three colors (black, 229 purple, and a third Pantone color), must be submitted camera-ready on 8½ x 11 paper. There will be a prize of $200 for the winning design.
For more information, call 855-3849 or e-mail owa@indiana.edu.
Brave new librarian: A profile
In the early days of the Soviet Union, Lenin and Stalin had their political enemies airbrushed out of photographs once they had fallen from favor, or had themselves added to scenes it would have done them credit to appear in. In what you might call a negative image of that scene, our own self-deprecating and famously truthful president, Abraham Lincoln, has recently turned up honest! in a photograph he was well (but wrongly) known not to be in. The picture, taken at Gettysburg, is in the collections of the Library of Congress. Lincoln's image was discovered only when the photograph was digitized and blown up for careful examination.
Suzanne Thorin points to this story as an example of how a digital library can benefit scholarship. It is rare, she admits, to see more in a digital document than in the original but not impossible. More generally, providing both searchable text versions and facsimile images of historic manuscripts and books can bring these collections to people who would never see them otherwise, including schoolchildren. "History really comes alive," says Thorin. "You can see it gather them in."
Under Thorin's leadership, the IU Libraries are undertaking a new digital library program, which will bring together various digital projects already underway — including Variations, at the School of Music, and the Victorian Women Writers Project — into one cohesive whole. Thorin managed a similar project for the Library of Congress, but says coming to work at a university is like finding "a whole new Garden of Eden."
Name: Suzanne Thorin
Title: Dean of libraries
Last job: Associate Librarian for the Library of Congress.
First computer: A Lexitron word processor in the main reading room of the Library of Congress.
On librarians and computers: "Five or eight years ago, librarians were really into the nuts and bolts of technology. Now there's been this funny shift away from that, and we've been able to back off being technologists. Librarians can go back to doing the content. We have a lot of [technological] expertise, even though we're not writing code. The level of expectation is way up."
On librarians and reading: "We all read in bed until the book drops on our face."
What she'll be reading tonight: The Perfect Storm, the story of a shipwreck off the coast of Maine.
Yes, but can she type?
Although Bill Gates' technology summit of 103 international cyber-poobahs included only two women, in the real world women have made (and are making) computer history.
In 1843, Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, (whose father was the poet Lord Byron), wrote an extensive commentary on the "analytical engine" conceived by Charles Babbage. Her annotations include what is generally considered to be the first computer program.
Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, the first woman to be awarded the U.S. Medal of Technology, proved in 1956 that computers could be programmed in words or phrases resembling English. Her concept led to the invention of the programming language COBOL, a giant step toward the democratization of computing.
In 1982, Susan Kare designed the first icons for the original Macintosh computer.
And in 1995, Kim Polese, a biophysicist, unleashed Java on the computer world. Java is a computer language used on the Internet.
Women in Science
It has been argued that both women and machines have been shaped and controlled by men throughout history. They have both played similar roles in the service of men: servants, mirrors of male ideas, means of communication, and vehicles for the reproduction of male ideas and bodies. However, women now are using computers to reflect their own ideas and communication styles.
Women's use of computers is increasing, and the number of women in the workplace means a greater knowledge of computers by more women than ever before. Fifteen years ago, 70% of all personal computers were bought by men, but today men and women are buying the machines in almost equal numbers.
The community of science researchers and supporters at IU needs to consider how computer technology is affecting the future of women in academic science. Technology changes how we view the world and interact with others. It also changes the nature of research and scientific investigation. In a recent article in AWIS Magazine, Martha A. Krebs from the U.S. Department of Energy writes:
No other `popular' technology has more of a potential to change the way we go about our lives than the changes in information technology. This technology is bringing people, and research, together in very different ways. No longer do we need to be in the same room to exchange ideas, information, research data, or even control the instruments that help us in our research.
Sociologist Sherry Turkle confirms that women are moving more aggressively into the computer culture because the computer environment is productive and friendly. Women tend to be attentive to language, collaboration, and community, supporting technologies that promote collaboration in work.
Programs advocating collaboration and cooperation, the ways women traditionally prefer to work, are needed to advance scientific understanding. Information technology is providing ways to connect, share information and ideas, and create new technologies and applications for technology. Transcending physical infrastructure can create a power that comes from collective knowledge generously shared. As Krebs reminds scientists,
We must remember that amidst all the innovations and technologies that revolutionize our way of life and the new organizations that will emerge, the demand for results from the research communities will not change...That makes for an interesting discussion of how the research community will evolve in the future.
Young women students need role models and to see examples of women in academic science. As of September 1997, the computer science department has a 22-member faculty, yet there is just one female faculty member, an assistant professor. The economics department is similar with one female associate professor on a 25-member faculty. The math department also has one female associate professor, but its faculty members number 53. The biology department fares better: Eight of 44 faculty members are female (still only 18% of the faculty). Women are needed in science to foster women's ways of working, because the next innovator of technology may already be at IU looking for opportunities to use academic science to shape the future of research.
—Lynn K. Wilson
WISP coordinator
MAJORITY REPORT INDEX
Number of square feet in IUB Halls of Residence: 4.6 million
Approximate number of rolls of toilet paper used each year in the IUB residence halls: 500,000
Number of parking spaces on the IUB campus: 19, 697
Approximate number of parking permits sold annually at IUB: 16,000
Rank of Malaysia among foreign countries with the most IU alumni: 1
Percentage of American academics who were married as of 1996: 77
Percentage whose partners are also academics: 32
Chance that an American academic would agree that faculty at his or her institution respect each other: 1 in 3
Percentage of male faculty members who say women faculty members at their institution are fairly treated: 90
Percentage of their female colleagues who agree: 72
Ratio of the average black female college graduate's salary to that of the average white male high school dropout: 1:2
Number of IUB's 22 computer science professors who are women: 1
Number of Time magazine's Top 50 cyber-elite who are women: 7
Number of the 550 computer-science faculty members at the nation's 25 highest-ranked universities who are black: 0
Percentage of Americans who either walk to work or work at home: 5
Chance that a U.S. teenage girl will be pregnant within one month of becoming sexually active: 1 in 5
Age of consent for a woman in mid-17th century Massachusetts: 10
Number of monuments in Washington, D.C., honoring Pres. Warren G. Harding: 0
Number of monuments in Washington, D.C., honoring Pres. Warren G. Harding's dog: 1
Percentage of college graduates who say a book most people disapprove of should be kept out of public libraries: 24
Percentage of high school graduates who agree: 52
Percentage of high school dropouts who agree: 73
Percentage of U.S. adults who have only a high school diploma or less: 44
Percentage of U.S. adults who have a bachelor's degree or higher: 20
Chances that a Hoosier Lottery millionaire has bought a new truck or car with the winnings: 4 in 5
Percentage of Hoosier Lottery millionaires who hold the same jobs they held before winning: 31
Rank of IU library size among U.S. university research libraries: 13
Number of volumes in the Bloomington collections of the IU Libraries: 5,790,384
Year of the IU library's first major technological innovation (electric lighting): 1896
Ratio of the average salary of a member of the all-male NBA to that of a member of the Women's NBA: 68:1
Maximum number of rodent hairs the F.D.A. permits to be present per 100 grams of chocolate sold: 4
Percentage of Americans who believe that the Constitution establishes Christianity as the national religion: 16
December Index sources
1, 29, 30 IUB Office of Business Affairs; 2 IU Fact Book 1996-97; 3,4 Chronicle of Higher Education (9/13/96); 5-7, 17-21 Chronicle of Higher Education (8/29/97); 8 Guerrilla Girls Web site ( http://www.voyagerco.com/gg/gg.html); 9, 10 Time (Oct. 1997); 11, 13 Harper's (Oct. 1996); 12 USA Today Snapshot http://usatoday.com/leadpage/snapshot/snap194.htm; 14 Harvard (Nov./Dec. 1997); 15, 16 I2, Harper's Interactive Index (http://www.harpers.org/harpers-index/online.html); 22, 23 Herald-Times (8/17/97); 24-26 IU Libraries Web site http://www.indiana.edu/~libadmin/stats96.html; 27 Parade (10/12/97); 28 David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace, The Book of Lists (1993); 31 IUB Parking Operations; 32 Herald-Times (8/16/97)
From the Dean: OWA responds to ZBT
After Dean McKaig expelled ZBT from the Bloomington campus in October, I heard from several women faculty, staff, and students. Each expressed concern about the incident and urged the university to strengthen its commitment to improving the campus climate. Each woman also worried that the gender issue might "get lost" in the discussion. I think those women were right and so I issued the following statement:In concurring with the sanction in this case, we do not suggest that "the problem has been solved." The particular harm caused by this incident is compounded by our conviction that this action is only one instance of a more pervasive challenge to diversity facing the Bloomington campus.
Whenever one group of people thinks it is acceptable to subjugate other human beings — whether on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, anti-semitism, or other source of difference — there is a lasting harm which must be healed. It is not enough to learn a few phrases (or to learn how not to get caught). Instead, the necessary lesson — to respect the worth and dignity of all human beings — is a profound one that we will not learn overnight. But such profound education is the purpose of Indiana University and other higher education institutions. Regaining the trust of those who have been harmed and truly appreciating diversity are long-term and difficult challenges. We cannot afford to fail to meet these challenges.
The mission of the Office for Women's Affairs is to create a campus environment in which all women can thrive. We provide education and programming on issues such as sexual harassment and gender equity. We were deeply offended by the contents of the ZBT scavenger hunt list, which objectified and degraded women, and we agree with Dean McKaig's statement "There should be no question that our campus can do better." In particular, we agree with his call that "[n]ow is the time to...define the high common ground we must learn to share."
It is a mistake to think that the entire solution is the education of others. We must each educate ourselves and take personal need for all of us to agree — for academic debate prospers from differing views —but we must respect each other and recognize the worth and dignity of each individual here at IU.
The Office for Women's Affairs will continue to provide education and programming on issues important to women. We are reminded by this incident that we have undertaken a daunting task. We are committed to equal dignity and respect for women in classrooms, residence halls, offices, and greek houses at IU. We challenge you to join us.
Faculty interested in encouraging students to join and stick with the sciences should note that the Women in Science Project (WISP) is funding four $5,000 awards to support the development or redesign of math and science courses. WISP is particularly interested in courses that address issues of gender in science and math education. The deadline for applying is January 12. For guidelines and more information, call us at 855-3849, or contact Lynn Wilson, WISP coordinator, Memorial Hall East 123, e-mail lkwilson@indiana.edu.
Dreaming of a blue Christmas?
If the prospect of upcoming merriment and mirth leaves you cold if, for any reason, you find the holidays hard to endure join us at the Office for Women's Affairs for a special group meeting, Holiday Blues: You Don't Have To Be Alone. Learn strategies to survive the season and perhaps even to thrive. Join us on Thursday, Dec. 11, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., in room 127 of Memorial Hall East. For more information, call 855-3849 or e-mail owa@indiana.edu.The office also provides ongoing individual and group counseling. There are currently openings for any woman student, staff, or faculty member who is interested either in one-on-one sessions with our licensed therapist or in participating in the women's support group, Journey.
Women's Student Association takes on the Man Question
Is there room for men at the top?
The question was up for debate this fall, when the newly founded IU Women's Student Association (WSA) considered whether or not to add to its governing board a fifth directorship, this one devoted to men's issues. Senior Regan Rush, one of the associations's founding members, was worried what effect the debate would have on an organization still in its infancy. As if it weren't enough to have one of feminism's big questions where do men fit into the movement? on the table, they were faced with the additional hazard of being dismissed as man-haters. Newspaper coverage of the issue, moreover, displayed an almost prurient interest in the disagreement. "In the press," says Rush, "it was like we were pulling each other's hair out." In fact, not only was the debate carried on with civility, it turned out to be, according to Rush, a lucky chance for the fledgling group to test its wings.
Rush and co-founder Lisa Williams never imagined the group without men. Their original plan was to form a coalition of men and women already involved in other student advocacy groups who shared an interest in feminism. But first there needed to be a women's advocacy group enter WSA. Just a few weeks into its existence, the group held a mass meeting to vote on whether to add a men's director to the existing slate of four: director of activism, director of social programming, director of educational programming, and director of outreach. Other options under consideration were leaving the directorate alone but rewording the constitution to make more explicit the role of men in the organization, or simply letting it stand. Rewording the constitution was chosen as a compromise, but, according to Rush, the debate was really more important than the outcome.
The arguments against the new directorship ranged from charges of tokenism to concern that it would draw men away from the broader issues. Some members objected to the idea that they should make concessions, saying that it is time for men to listen to women without having to be courted.
In support of the directorship, senior Lucas McGregor pointed out that men who are interested in discussing gender roles, believing that sexism hurts everyone, have no public forum. And Rush herself doesn't think feminism can succeed unless men are involved and committed. "I'm sick of seeing women being the only people fighting sexism," she says.
site-seeing guide
IU Women's Student Association
www.indiana.edu/~wsa
The Ada Project on women in computer science
www.cs.yale.edu/HTML/YALE/CS/HyPlans/tap/
The Victorian Women Writers Project
www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/
Amy Seely Flint comes to the IUB language education faculty from the University of California, Berkeley, where she completed a PhD in literacy development. Other research interests include the relationship between theoretical orientation and teaching effectiveness in elementary teachers, the social nature of literacy events in the classroom, and the roles of intertextuality and stance in the classroom. Before her stint at Berkeley, she spent a number of years as a classroom teacher and curriculum developer. She holds a master of education degree in administration and policy from UCLA and a BA in elementary education from the University of Northern Colorado.
In addition to her appointment as associate professor, K. Anne Pyburn is the director of the Center for Archaeology in the Public Interest. Pyburn received her PhD in anthropology from the University of Arizona. Most recently she held an appointment at IUPUI. Her research specialty is archaeology of Mayan sites on Belize, where some major discoveries were made in the last field season. In addition to offering courses in prehistoric archaeology, this semester she is teaching a seminar on Women in Civilization.
Debra Hale, whose specialty is voice and speech, received an MFA in acting from the California Institute of the Arts and a BS in speech and theater education from Indiana University. She was designated by Kristin Linklater to teach voice production. Hale received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for her acting and has taught at Los Angeles City College and the University of California, San Diego, as well as in several professional theaters in California.
Associate Professor Laureen Maines received her PhD and MBA in accounting from the University of Chicago and a BS in accounting and MBA in finance from IU. She previously taught atDuke University and the University of Chicago. Her teaching interests include both managerial and financial accounting. She worked as a small-business consultant and auditor with Deloitte & Touche, Chicago, from 1979 to 1983. Maines's research, which focuses on the use of accounting information in investment decision making, has been published in the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, International Journal of Forecasting, and Behavioral Research in Accounting. In conjunction with board and staff members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, she is currently working on research which addresses financial accounting policy issues. Her other current research includes examining managerial accounting issues in healthcare and professional service organizations.
Majority Report
Dean for Women's Affairs...................Julia Lamber Editor.......................................................Leora Baude
Assistant.................................................Karen Frane
In 1972, the year the Office for Women's Affairs was founded, the student body at IU Bloomington was 43.5% female. Today, 53.2% of the students are women, constituting a clear majority.
Last Updated: February 2, 1998
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