Yet another Brainstorm

To satisfy part of our requirement for the implementation of this group project, we are to submit any document pertaining to planning. Though we relied on our computers for the majority of our project, a couple of good old fashioned pieces of paper were sometime the quickest way to document our thoughts. We made lists, mind maps, feverishly took notes in meeting with Dr. Lee and jotted things down when they cam to us.

These pictures are of this process. We wanted to include these documents in their original form-unedited, crumpled and barely coherent. These were our thought processes that led to the project you see today.

Sometimes when we were talking out our ideas, they flowed quicker than it took to turn on our computers. Because of the wonders of technology, we were able to take digital photos and post them to our blog.

This way the entire process is transparent. This way we don't have to print anything out on more paper, just to end up in a pile. This way we have included our planning process so that our Proff. can track our progress, which was certainly not all online.

In reflection, it has been very rewarding to use so many different mediums to present the information we have gathered together. It is visually appealing, textural despite being on a computer scree, it has impact and creates its own narrative.

It is personally rewarding to look back and see just how far this project has come. I feel a sense of pride considering these crumpled pieces of paper have taken an entirely new format. They are the fledgling steps that we have completed, they are the foundation on which this project was based. I enjoy looking back on them and realizing we have accomplished what we set out to do a short time ago.

From bits of paper to the computer; we have come along way as a group, similarly to Girl Power.

Erin's Guide to adding a menu bar to your blog!

Sometimes I think this project plays to my strengths,
and then I have to learn how to make tabs!!!!!!!

So at the top of a blog you may find something that looks like a menu. It is always present no matter what page you are viewing. We are using this feature to organize our blog, which is acting like a learning journal (a requirement of our Engaging Girls project). So we want to have headings like those you would find in the table of contents of a paper...but online and interactive!

So I learn something new today!

The learning curve always seems steeper when there is the added pressure of a deadline. I think it is really important to make our blog easily accessible so more time can go into enjoy in the content instead of trying to manoeuvres around it.

Here is my How-To if you would like to learn as well.

1. Sign into your blogger account and on your Dashboard page, click Design.
2. Next click the Add Gadget button on the top horizontal section of the template.
3. Scroll down to Labels and press Add.
4. In the screen that pops up, select the Selected Labels option

5. There is an Edit option coloured blue, click that.

6. This will bring you to a screen with all your previous posts, click the boxes to select which ones you want as labels for your menu bar

7. This reminds me, when we are labelling our blog posts, we should label them according to which section we wish them to appear. Now each post with that label will automatically fall under our pre-selected categories. Just like a written learning journal

8. Click Done, and don't forget to press save.

You can now click View Blog to see all your hard work!

I think it is a nice addition to our blog. And I hope it will help you find what you are looking for as well as learn to make some tabs for your own blog.

Enjoy, and happy blogging!

Terri Oda, Debunking Biology

How does biology explain the low numbers of women in computer science? Hint: it doesn't.

View more presentations from Terri Oda

This is reposted from SlideShare.

This post proves the idea that women are not as good as math, and therefore computer science, is false. Ideas like these have been supported in the past by biology and other sciences, and even though many of the studies have been exposed as biased or sexist, there findings can still perpetuate today in to explain the differences in the percentages and participation of women in certain male dominated fields.

These constructions of girls and women were detailed in Nancy Lesko's article Past, Present and future concept of Adolescence, showing the shifts in discourse and accepted beliefs in relation to time period and scientific field of study. She traced the paths to a more accurate and inclusive discourse of 'girlhoods' and this presentation supports Lesko's stance on the drawbacks of discourse based on biology while refuting wrongly applied data to explain stereotypes supported by science.

My critique of this slide presentation is that it does not offer a feminist critique, nor does it attempt to explain why the numbers show there are less girls represented in the computer sciences field.


However, this slideshow does reveal a disconect between the reality of girls’ skills and potential to engage in technology and the socially constructed portrayal of girls’ potential.

“For, example, anthropologists Yanigasako and Collier (1990) argue that inquireies into childbearing and child rearing as socially constructed in particular historical situations are fundamentally undermined by the assumed natural biological division between women who bear children and men who do not. Yanigasako and Collier discuss how an acceptance of the nature/cultural division in anthropological theory and research is concomitant with an acceptance of biology as universal, outside of cultural influences, and with inevitable social consequences for gendered divisions of labour. They argue that in not examining how biological sex differences are socially constructed, feminist theory ultimately is undermined by these biological differences” (Lesko, 1996, p p. 143).

Therefore, we, girl power 3.0 will refuse to let our feminist theory be undermined but not drawing attention to how socially constructions based on biology has limited girls involovment in technology, specifically computer sciences!! Girls, statistically are just as capable of the level of math required for computer sciences as boys. They have the skills, so innate biological factors to not get in their way. However, what does limit girls’ involvement in computer sciences is how computing jobs have been culturally portrayed as a boy’s club. When girls think of computer sciences employees most envision a nerdy White or Asian male typing away at computer desk, when this does not have to be the case. We, girl 3.0 aim to debunk this myth and attack these social constructions to help other girls, and even ourselves as girls feel more comfortable about engaging with computers in the professional realm.

All in a day's work...

I get tired.
I get tired of technology!

Today I created surveys for the 6 tech girls we are interviewing. Nathalie emailed me the amazing waiver she made, I downloaded it, saved it, signed into our girlhoods group email account we made, attached the two files, and sent them off! Nat and I talk back and forth about project ideas on google chat, and I text Whitney once in a while.

But is doesn't end there!

Nat and I met to discuss a quick meeting I had with our professor. We have to define technology! That is a much more involved task than it sounds like, but we must narrow our scope, and so we shall. We assigned tasks to be completed for tomorrow too. We feel the pressure of our Wednesday presentation looming.

Nat will rework the waiver, finish her intro to the project and apply some of our feminist analysis learned in WS 329 Re-Thinking Girlhoods, and edit her profile as a contributor.

I will edit the questionnaires remembering to be specific, learn how to put tabs at the top of the blog so that we can post into the assorted categories the learning journal requires, post a film, and start making posts that include the course readings we found relevant to this project.

Whitney is going to edit her profile too, start posting the outside research she did, and make sure to include reference to course readings.

We meet tomorrow night, Tuesday at 5:30 pm to go over what we have accomplished. We will organize our presentation for Wednesday and discuss anything we need to tweek on the blog.

Wow, this blog is looking really good! Great work Girls!

WELCOME TO GIRL POWER 3.0... Here's how we came to be.

Welcome to our blog!! We are so excited to have you joining us!!

We, Erin, Whitney, and Nathalie, are undergraduate Women's Studies students at the University of Victoria, in Victoria, BC, Canada. We met in an upper level wostud's course called Rethinking Girlhoods, designed by our brilliant and inspiring professor Dr. Jo-Anne Lee. The class introduced us to feminist Girl's and Girlhood Studies from an intersectional, anti-racist, decolonizing, transnational perspective. We learned about the geneology of Girlhood Studies, which is a relatively new field of study (circa 1990s), about the importance of taking a critical perspective on the knowledge produced about girls in the earlier days ( which tended to universalize experiences of white, able-bodied, heterosexual, middle class girls as representative of all girls), about the ways neoliberlism and consumerism present a post-feminist notion of "girl power", about girls and media, about how girls bodies are regulated and medicalized, about how issues around girls represent larger moral /political concerns in our society, about girls and interenational development (very frightening stuff), and so much more. For our group project part of the class, we were given creative freedom to synthesize our new knowledge and also engaged girls in producing new knowledge.

We initially had a project that involved meeting with a group of young moms and doing some culture jamming stuff in response to the negative representations of teen moms in popular culture , but unfortunately, the adults in control of the group decided we should not talk to them. Although we were disappointed, we were not surprised because we had been learning about how girls voices are often silenced by adults who think they are protecting them, doing the "right thing". We started analyzing the situation. It struck us that if girls have access to technologies that allow them to produce their own self-representations and the skills to use such technologies, they don't need to be given permission by adults to have their voices heard. They can become cultural agents and produce their own knowledge, unfiltered and unapologetic. We remembered back to a section of our class where we learned about girls and media production, how cultural messages that promote technology as a "boy thing" often prevent girls from learning the skills to share their voices publicly through the use of technology, and how empowering it is for girls to produce their own media. We learned that "as girls begin to create their own images and generate narrative that truly reflect their lives and concerns, they have the opportunity to take hold of the stereotypes of girlhood learn, disrupt or deliberately deconstruct them, and offer something else instead" (Lipkin, 2004 p.147). 

We recognized how important this is, and were all really keen to produce knowledge and disrupt the 'girl' stereotypes that we had learned about. We wanted to create our own narratives , our own stories, but how? We needed the very technological skills that we lacked in order to produce media and alternative messages. Bingo!! This would be our project -- learning the technological skills required to communicate publicly from a self-identified 'girl' identity and then doing it!! We started talking within our group. Nathalie had recently learned how to make films, Erin had recently learned how to blog, and Whitney wanted to learn both. Given the time limits, we agreed it made the most sense to work collaboratively on making a blog about girls, technology, and culture. Our goal is to subvert popular stereotypes that tell us girls and technology don't mix by learning new technological skills ourselves and supporting other girls to do the same. Only couple weeks ago some of us believed we didn't have the ability to create and maintain a blog, and now here we are doing it and loving it!!

However, we recognize that we are very lucky in our access to computers, internet, and cameras available through UVic. We are able to learn these skills because we are surrounded with costly equipment that we can use freely as part of our university program, and this is something not all girls are able to do. However, even without all this equipment, blogging is something you can do at an internet cafe, or on school computers, and in our increasingly technological world, it is imperative that girls are encouraged to seek out technological skills so they too can speak publicly. We need to hear girls voices. We don't need adults regulating them. We as girls need the technological skills the produce and disseminate our own knowledge freely. We also need to encourage each other that we are capable, that technology is not some "dorky" "boyish" thing, but that it is a political tool that we can use to get our voices heard.

Our blog is a space to track our learning and research, share information and skills, and engage with girls from all around the world about our relationships with technology. We hope you enjoy your time here and share your comments with us!!

We're sick of postfeminist notions of 'Girl Power' that are all about shopping and sex appeal. So we present Girl Power 3.0 ... we're pushing buttons, we're speaking out, and we're not asking for permission.

Technology Defined!

The word of technology is so broad. We defined the term earlier in the blog but I wanted to share my thoughts on the word. In the context of today……..I posted the question “Girls, what is your relationship with technology?” on Facebook and I got mixed bag of responses, but most referred to their cellphones, or Skype, or computers. But when I think critically about it, technology can be anything, according to the Encarta World Dictionary (1999) it is defined as:

tech·nol·o·gy n

1. The study, development, and application of devices, machines, and techniques for manufacturing and productive processes

2. The sum of a society’s or culture’s practical knowledge, especially with reference to its material culture

Technology can be anything from your blender to web design. However, for the purposes of this blog, we aim to interrogate girls’ involvement in production technology. This is technology that is used to produce something for public access, to communicate something, to express opinions, to pubically produce! We focus on a few main forms of production technology, this entails:

*Music production and DJing.

*Film, Photography and Videography

*Production of Public internet sites, such as blogs and webpages.

We want to see how girls interact with these forms of technology because it is in these forms where the great power of resisting and expressing ideas to the public exists. It is with this power that girls are recognized, girl activity switches from bedroom culture to public access. It is with these technologies that the girls’ voices, which were once missing in public discourse are now made loud.

Girls in a Tech World

Quote from the above movie: "If we don't have women designing the products we use, then it's just going to turn into boys toys that has nothing to do with anything we care about."

This quote draws on Kearny's concept of the "girl gaze" (Lipkin, 2009, p.p. 152-153). Using a girl gaze, instead of a male gaze, challenges the hegemonic power relations around production and consumption. It allows girls to create products for girls that resist the temptation of reproducing products that support normative and hetero-normative values, that are normally produced by males for female consumption. These girls in this short clip utilize this girl gaze, and our version of girl power re-vamped (girl power 3.0) to create technological products for girls, by girls in a male-dominated technological world.

Guess What... I'm BLOGGGING!!!!!!!!!!

When Erin offered to teach us how to blog, I was both excited and a bit nervous. I once had my own blog (on street style in Victoria), but I had NO idea how to navigate it or make it fancy / cool, and although it became quite popular, and a couple guys signed on, and took it over and basically kicked me off because I was unable to keep up, which has left a sour taste in my mouth about the whole blogging thing...

I've talked with friends before about starting a blog, there are so many things worth talking about publicly, however my insecurities around computer 'stuff' has always prevented me from doing anything besides think / talk about it. But now, here I am, blogging!! Our learning session with Erin was so wonderful, so easy, so much fun!! It's amazing how easy technology can be when its explained in comfortable environment. We learned all the basics, and then got into the 'gadgets' which add some jazz to the plain page. I went home after our session and played around, pushed buttons, screwed up, fixed my mistakes, and within hours I knew what I was doing. So now, just like that I have the skills and abilities to share my voice on the world wide interweb! It's pretty cool, and way more empowering than I thought it would be.

Only a couple weeks ago I was looking at a friend's blog and wishing that I was able to do something like that, but then telling myself it would take too long, be too expensive to learn, be too complicated, but really, it's so easy.

So thanks Erin for pushing me into the realm of cyberspace... I feel strangely at home here, sending my thoughts into the ether... I might just get used to this ;)

Journal #4: After learning how to blog….

I am so grateful to Erin for this new skill! It’s amazing, being able to explore my thoughts and express myself and post it online for everyone to see. Someone from Germany and Japan looked at our blog! So cool. And anyone can do it, you can learn how to blog in minutes and make your voice heard. I love this, and I think everyone who wants to learn should be allowed the space, especially girls.

Member Meeting

What we have been up to....

Nathalie learning how to start a blog, and mastering it in minutes!

Last night we all met to work on our project! The goal was to introduce the girl to the world of blogging. I feel this was an important experience for us all- girls learning from girls!

Timeline

5pm -7pm: We took pictures and edited them, made facebook interview questions, wrote a reflection response, made an email address for our group-which is the first step of creating a blog

Then we ate dinner all together!

7:30-10:30: We brainstormed interviewquestions, created the blog, learned how to post and how to design ablog, shared our research, discussed what we found in the readings to apply to our project, planned our next meeting and set out tasks to be completed

Goals-

We will have interview questions to email to our 5 participants by Sunday

Nat will write the introduction to explain what our blog/project is about

We will post our reflections

Whitneyresearches blogs to link to

Erin uses quotes from readings for posts that each member then can comment on

Narrow our subject by defining technology further

Fill out our individual contributor profiles

Meet on Monday!

Words of Wisdom from Li'l Azúcar, 13

"It's important for girls to learn how to DJ because it's a fun hobby and it's fun to learn. It also proves girls can do the same things guys do. I learned how to skip beats, set up the turntables, and mix music together. I learned that old music can sound better than new music. My friends are proud and they all want to try. Plus they want me to do parties. DJing is harder than I thought it would be because I have to set it up just right or it won't sound good. I would tell girls do not give up on it (DJing) even if it's not something you want to do, because in the end, you're going to have fun."--Li'l Azúcar, Gemini, 13 years old

http://www.girlsdj.com/participants.html

Research Study on Girls and Technology

Kekelis et al. conducted a research study to engage a group of 126 girls aged 11 to 19 from a range of ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds to investigate why girls interested in technology do not choose to go on in a career in advanced technology. They designed an after-school program, called “Techbridge”, which taught and engaged girls in software engineering, robot making and other avenues of technology, and they formed focus groups to give the girls a space to discuss their relationships with technology. The researchers found three main hurdles girls face when considered pursuing a career in technology:

1) Negative Stereotypes about Computing Jobs

2) A Disconnect between Dreams and Plans

3) Lack of Career Guidance and Support from Family

Application to Girl Power:

Many girls are told by their parents and schools to graduate, go to college or university and to keep their options open and try many things in post-secondary education. Girls are told they can be anything, do anything, and as a result change the world, hence giving them a false sense of power. However, this open-minded guidance has made it hard for girls to focus in on a career, especially technology careers, and it leaves them unaware of the future challenges, barriers, and work required by the careers. Many girls set their minds on a dream career, singing, acting, web designer, or world class D.J., but have no idea of the high school courses, resources and skills needed to get into these vocations. How then, do we get girls to harness the true power of engaging technology and participate in positive prosumption?

Kekelis, L.S., Ancheta, R.W.. & Heber, E. (2005). Hurdles in the pipeline:

girls and technology careers. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 26(1) p.p. 99-109.

Mini Doc on a FGBG (For Girls By Girls) Learn to DJ Program in Philidelphia

Journal #3: Pa Pa Pa Power!

I think the girl who knows technology has access to the greatest girl power of all, the power not only to consume and deconstruct media, but to combat popular media with new, alternative media! It’s a marriage of consumption and production! Also known as PROSUMPTION! Proactive, positive ways of consuming to produce, and producing for others to consume positive messages. You go girls, GIRL POWER REDEEMED!!

The Gendered Dialectic of Technology

So much analyzing media and so little producing it. This is a common theme in feminist studies; we critique, critique, critique, but don't offer an alternative. And why not? Perhaps its because we don't have the technological skills to do so... Many of us girls were never encouraged to learn media technologies, because it's not a "girl thing". So we're left overflowing with ideas, yet lacking the ability to disseminate them. It's interesting our that production technology, our communication and media technology, is largely dominated by men. Generally speaking, girls and women lack the technological skills, knowledge and perhaps even motivation to produce media and communicate publically. Why? Is it because girls and technology actually don't mix? Because they don't have anything to say? Or is that a master narrative in our society, a story that is told over and over, that permeates our institutions and discourses in such a way that it appears natural, inherent...? I argue it is the latter.

I am beginning to realize that this lack of technological skills and abilities in girls and women is part of what Luce Irigaray calls a phallogocentric economy, an economy of castration, an economy of lack. By this she means that women are signified, defined, by what they lack in relation to men. It is women's lack of a penis, lack of "rational thinking", lack of "production skills", lack of "power" that defines her. Men's power and higher social status is dependent, is contingent on what women lack. So to bring it all back together, the master narrative that girls and technology don't mix is a cultural story that keeps girls and women locked into a position of inferiority, of naturalized lack.

But, just like Hegel's master / slave relationship, men's supposed natural technological abilities are in a dialectical relationship with women's supposed natural inabilities. What happens if girls and women start touching the buttons, crossing the wires... ?? That's what we want to do here... we want to empower each other to master the skills many of us have long believed and accepted as purely boys and men's domain.