In the 1980s, home computers were mostly used and tinkered with by men, while women were more commonly faced with PCs in the workplace. However, a study conducted by the Sociological Research Institute in Goettingen on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Youth, Family, Women, and Health, found that women were actually the “motor of technical innovation” in medium-sized companies.
The study, which was conducted in 25 small and medium-sized companies, interviewed executives, managers, clerks, and works councils to investigate the importance of new technologies for female employees. The study’s authors, Karin Gottschall, Heike Jacobsen, and Ilse Schütte, found that women who had computers at their desks did not show fear of technology, contrary to popular beliefs.
The research also discovered that often, there was a lack of accompanying training, and personal initiative was required to learn and develop IT skills. Women who invested their own time and effort into reading manuals, attending programming courses, or attending events in computer science, were able to become IT experts, and assist in the conversion to digital data processing.
The study showed that the conversion to digital data processing required a lot of work, often done by women, who were usually unsystematic, but had an impact on workflows and structures. Many of these women became IT specialists, who were crucial to the success of the company’s IT infrastructure.
Although women found the competent use and increased requirements of the company PC consistently positive and satisfying, personal initiative and further training had no effect on salaries or opportunities for advancement. The conclusion of the study’s authors sounded rather bleak and they summed it up as, “Our study shows that women are a resource that is optimally used. But they don’t benefit from it.”
Despite this, women in the 1980s found the conversion to digital data processing to be an exciting and challenging time, which promoted self-confidence. Today, c’t 14/2023 aims to make programming accessible to all by introducing the programming languages Python, JavaScript, and Java, without frustration.
