Gendered attitudes to web sharing
I'm wondering what people think about this study, recently released by Northwestern. It says that although women and men produce creative content at the same rate, men post their work more frequently than women. Do you think this difference carries over into Second Life?
The Northwestern study was on first-year students. I wonder what the results would be on the SL demographic.
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http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2008/06/hargittaistu...
"“It appears that lack of perceived skill is holding women back from putting their creative content out there,” says Hargittai. She says that other factors that may be responsible for the observed difference, although not measured in the study, may relate to lack of confidence in the quality of one’s work or privacy concerns.
Hargittai and Walejko found men were more than twice as likely to share music on the Web that they had created or re-mixed than were women; and that men were also considerably more likely to post film or video they made when compared to women who engaged in film- or video-making."
The Northwestern study was on first-year students. I wonder what the results would be on the SL demographic.
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http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2008/06/hargittaistu...
"“It appears that lack of perceived skill is holding women back from putting their creative content out there,” says Hargittai. She says that other factors that may be responsible for the observed difference, although not measured in the study, may relate to lack of confidence in the quality of one’s work or privacy concerns.
Hargittai and Walejko found men were more than twice as likely to share music on the Web that they had created or re-mixed than were women; and that men were also considerably more likely to post film or video they made when compared to women who engaged in film- or video-making."
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Joe Clark (SL: JS Saltwater) on -
I have not read the study, but given what I have read about gender differences overall (in the US, anyway) one could attribute the differences to other concerns as well; for example, men might be less concerned about sharing because they are less concerned with personal privacy and safety online, for practical reasons. My creative work may reveal more about me than I want to post that way. I also wonder if there is some relation to a sort of Cartesian split in socialized gender roles, whereby men are more OK with putting their ideas "out there" apart from themselves and social connections, whereas that might seem cold to women. I am sure I'm not making that point as clearly as I could.
But to answer your main question, I think no, it does not carry over, in my experience. In fact I have found (apparent) women in SL are very forthcoming about what they're creating, etc. Attributable to what? Anonymity, perhaps, since many of us don't connect our SL personas with RL. But that's probably not the whole answer.
Joe/JS
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Collingwood / Ellie Brewster on -
>I also wonder if there is some relation to a sort of Cartesian split in socialized gender roles, >whereby men are more OK with putting their ideas "out there" apart from themselves and >social connections, whereas that might seem cold to women.
...are you saying that women may feel more comfortable expressing their ideas from within a network or community?
I agree with you that SL women seem more forthcoming, and even with the probability that some of those women are RL biological men, I think this says something important, not only about gender, but about SL itself. It would be interesting to make a comparative study of SL and RL women, but it seems to me that to do that, the RL group would have to be about 10 years older, given the SL stats.
Still, a worthwhile project.
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Permalink Reply by Joe Clark (SL: JS Saltwater) on
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>> ...are you saying that women may feel more comfortable expressing their ideas from within a network or community?
Pretty much, though I also know there are plentiful male communities that provide supportive environments for their members. The gender history of the online world as a kind of men's club makes womanish communities less common. But like I say, only one piece of the puzzle.
Sounds like you would have to control for a zillion things comparing those groups (RL/SL), but it would sure be fun figuring it out.
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Collingwood / Ellie Brewster on
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Let's hope a graduate student reads this, otherwise we might have to do it.
As a female whose avatar is also female (I have not been adventurous with my avatars) my perspective of Second Life is that is centered around female social groups, with a few males playing with guns on the periphery. I know this is biased and incorrect, but it does go to show that if you identify with one gender in SL your view will conform to that choice.
This doesn't include the educational community, in which gender doesn't seem to play a role one way or the other.
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