Tartu
The next session starts with a presentation by Veronika Kalmus on equalities in accessing the Internet in Estonia. For a transitional or 'informatising" society and economy like Estonia, such inequalities are critical, of course, and it is shaped by econmic and cultural factors (there is an interaction between structure and agency). Critical aspects of digital inequality and information stratification are issues such as home access to the Internet, socially relevant asects of Internet use, cognitive aspects of information stratification, and cultural attitudes towards technology, gender, and society. This is investigated here from a diachronic perspective spanning 2002-5, and builds on a two-stage survey of 15-74-year-old Estonians in 2002/3 and 2005. Additional data is from surveys of pupils in 2000-2.

Main results indicate that the initial gender gap has decreased remarkably in 2000-5, from a 2:1 ratio in favour of males to near-equality in 2005. This may be driven by the increased availability of material resources in Estonian society. Digital gender inequality amongst 'grandmothers and grandfathers' (especially in the 55-64-year-old group) has significantly increased, however. This might be explained by developments in home access to the Internet - men in this group have better and more frequent access, and women in this group appear to be more heavily loaded with professional and domestic work and have less time for Internet use. At the same time, women tend to use the Net more pragmatically and in more socially relevant ways (as a tool for participating in the economic and civic sphere, purchasing, auctions, bank transactions, tax submissions, etc.).

The self-evaluation of computer skills amongst Estonians has improved over the last few years - but a significant gender gap in favour of boys has emerged here. At the same time, it must be noted that technical skills are implicated in the construction of gender identities, and technical skills are often seen as a feature as masculinity. There may be an associated rise of gender-stereotypical attitudes here: teenage boys and men and women in the older age groups agree tend to agree with statements favouring technical education for boys over girls - as do women in the 45-64-year age groups.

Gender-stereotypical attitudes are correlated with each other, and two of them are positively correlated with age. This is consistent with studies elsewhere, which indicate greater gender gaps as well as more egalitarian attitudes amongst younger generations in post-industrial socities. More active users of the Internet tend to evaluate their computer skills more highly, feel themselves more informed, and have weaker stereotypes (this is also an effect of age); further, women of more advanced compter skills tend to be less convinced in males' superiority in using such technologies.

Overall, then, the strong gender-specific attitudes towards technology amongst the grandparent generation appear to be very resistant to change. There is a dialectical relationship between such cultural stereotypes and gender differences in computing skills, as these function as a cultural norm leading to differential skills education practices, and the resultant variances in computer skills in turn further enforce these stereotypes. Finally, too, ICT competency is also a symbolic resource related to (gender) identity,the gender order and social order - and so it has become a tool for reproducing and/or challenging existing orders in both discourse and everyday social practices.

The Czech Internet

David Šmahel now presents on the situation in the Czech republic. How do gender and age differences play out here? There is a theory of moratoria and achievements in identity developement which plays out in an iterative fashion at different ages, and men tend to experiment more strongly with their gender identity in this context. Similarly, adolescents especially tend to find it easier to express their emotions online rather than offline.

This study is part of the overall World Internet Project, which built on a representative programme of direct interviews with a variety of Czech citizens. Some 50% of Czechs use the Net, and overall the gender balance is relatively even; men use the Net more for playing games, hobbies, pornography (but this might not have been disclosed fully in face-to-face interviews), downloading music, creating and maintaining Websites, and shopping; women focussed more on finding medical information, and searching for jobs or looking at classified ads.

There is a great wealth of data here which I won't be able to cover in detail. Importantly, men felt more open that women on the Internet, and men pass themselves off as someone else more often than women on the Internet - however, this difference did not exist in adolescents, but was strongest in the 31-40-year group. Overall, younger groups were more likely to pretend to be someone else than older participants - and this goes for most of the questions relating to communication, while gender differences were far less significant. Other factors here were the hours spent on the Net per week, the amount of time spent playing games, and the level of use of online messaging.

Overall, then, this study finds that men do not find it easier to express themselves, nor do they prefer the Net as a means of communication; however, there are clear age-related differences in either case, as there are in the adoption of alternative online personas. Is this driven by specific aspects of adolescent life, or is this a sign of the advent of the Internet genration? Of course, such changes will also continue as broadband is rolled out further in the Czech Republic, and this needs to be watched further.

Technorati : CATaC2006, Czech Republic, Estonia, Internet, age, gender, inequality, statistics
Del.icio.us : CATaC2006, Czech Republic, Estonia, Internet, age, gender, inequality, statistics