Computer Science, Gender and Knowledge : Situated Readings

• A text is read, interpreted and comprehended in different ways, depending on for example the perspectives of the reader. As a reader I take an active part in the creation of meaning when I interact with the text and so also, indirectly, with the author(s). In this paper I explore what I call situated readings, using the concept of partial perspectives in reading a text. I will read a text on women and computer science, an article from Communications of the ACM 1997. This article has gained a lot of attention and is still frequently cited within the community of computer scientists. This reading exercise reflects my own development, in that I explicitly try to make use of my background and experiences. I am a lecturer in computer science, and for a number of years I have been interested in questions and issues surrounding the under-representation of women within computer science and in the various different attempts to define, describe and suggest solutions to this ‘problem’. I have gone from taking part in, and actively leading, projects targeting women within CS, to an interest in trying to gain a complex understanding of this issue and challenging existing frameworks and explanations. The reading will reflect how my questions mainly concerning the low number of women in CS have evolved, as a result of experience and later from feminist studies, into other questions, approaching “the science question” (Harding 1986).

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kap (ämneskategori)