LITTLE GIRLS AND COMPUTERS
 By Dan Gutman

 This will be considered to be a very sexist question, but has it occurred to
anybody that maybe, just MAYBE, little girls don't love computers as much as
little boys do?

 Experts are constantly telling us that American girls are way behind boys
when it comes to computer skills. Something must be done about it, they say.

 It is widely believed that computer literacy will be an important factor in
getting ahead over the next decade. If girls don't start using computers now,
they'll be left behind as they grow up.  The usual explanation why girls
haven't embraced the PC is that our male-dominated society is keeping them
away.

 Excuse me--I'm no social scientist, but I'm not buying it.  It may be
fashionable to say girls don't get the chance to use computers, but eventually
we have to ask ourselves if maybe boys simply love computers more than girls
do and stop making excuses about it.

 Back in the 1950s, the Lionel Company attempted to market "Lady Lionel"--a
train set specifically for girls.  It was a bomb.  it was the Edsel of trains.
The company had to admit that girls just don't love model trains.

 I'm not exactly shocking the world to say that males in general love gadgets
and machines more than females do.  Men most frequently are the ones
interested in robots, home video, cameras, model planes, video games,
automobiles and other mechanical gizmos.

 I don't hear complaints that women actually love stereo equipment but are not
getting the opportunity to use it.  I have yet to meet a woman who has
anything other than contempt for stereo equipment.  But stereo literacy
doesn't get anybody into college or advance them up the career ladder.

 Since the personal computer was invented, men have shown more natural
interest in it.  Boys enrolled in computer classes without being prodded to by
educators.  Males are the overwhelming majority when they count up the
subscribers to computer magazines, purchasers of computers, users, hobbyists,
hackers, fanatics, members of user groups and programmers.

 This cannot be attributed solely to peer pressure or upbringing. Boys just
love machines.


                                      

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