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Gender and Computer Use refers to masculine and feminine computing use and activity. Global concerns about female under-representation and disadvantage and their roles in computing have gained more importance with the emerging information and communication technology era. The assumption is that gender differences in computing ability exist. Computers and computing have historically comprised highly gendered domains of practice, dominated and controlled by males in education and the workplace. However, information and communication technology (ICT) is a rapidly changing and highly varied field and issues of female under-representation and disadvantage are contentious and contested (Abbiss 2008). We are moving away from ‘women and computing use and activity’ debate rather to a debate where gender and computing is theroized. Gendered computer identities shift and change. Female users are no longer seen as the stereotypical end users of technology, but are recognized as contribuotrs, creaters and facilitators. The stereotypical representation of masculine and feminine computing use and activity is that male users of technology use the computer more often the female users. Research shows that participants in studies have a commonly held idea that males are more interested in and spend more time on activities such as computer gaming, creating websites, generally programming and loading software. Consequently, male users are seen to be as experts at such particular practices. In studies conducted by Abbiss, participants summarize that girls’ ability with computers, particularly with keyboarding and document production, use of networking sites – especially for the purpose of chatting, exchanging and forwarding content, creating and simply communication purposes. Stereotypical portrayal of gender and computer use is that males have the tendency to focus on the technical side of computing and females on text production.

Abbiss, Jane (2011). Boys and Machines. Gen¬der and Edu¬ca¬tion, 23, 5, 601–617.

Abbiss, Jane (2011). Boys and Machines. Gen¬der and Edu¬ca¬tion, 23, 5, 601–617.

Abbiss, Jane (2011). Boys and Machines. Gen¬der and Edu¬ca¬tion, 23, 5, 601–617. Handcock, Mark S. et al. (2004). "Focus on Women in Computer Science", University of British Columbia. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012.