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In her article, Bringing up Girl Geeks, Jeni Tennison outlines three ways she plans to attack the cultural assumption that girls aren't interested in or competent with computers and raise her daughters to be geeks.



If I had daughters one of the things I would do is take them to places like the Exploratorium and events like Maker Faire to show them that technology can be creative, imaginative and inspiring.

What would you do or what are you doing to bring up geek girls?

Sarah,

I have two daughters, fifteen and eight respectively, so the issue of bringing up geek girls is one I face on a nearly daily basis.

One of the first things I've found there is the fact that temperament does matter. My eldest is an artist - she has a sketchbook within reach at all times, has become a remarkably good cartoonist even at fifteen, and has already decided her career path in that area (though that, of course, may change). She also has one of my older laptops, and her interest in computers not surprisingly tends to center around graphics and multimedia, and its very likely that her view of computers will be that they are art tools first, animation tools second, then something to write scripts on beyond that (as well as the obligatory chat, Facebook and other functions which most kids in this day and age can't do without).

My youngest is my proto-geek. She did her first Linux installation at the tender age of 18 months (by accident, I was attempting to upgrade a Linux distro, she was sitting on my lap, and just as the alternatives for adding a new system or upgrading the existing one came up, she slammed her fingers down on the keyboard, forcing the drive reformat routines and wiping out everything currently existing on the system).

She learned to read on the Internet, navigating through web pages with astonishing ease even as she had problem with books, though when book reading finally clicked for her, she went from having trouble with basic reading books to reading all seven Harry Potter books over two weeks within about six months. Lately she's taken to hacking computer games and has become rather scarily proficient with level editors. In school, she tends to gravitate towards the computers in her free time, to the consternation sometimes of her teachers.

If kids grow up with the technology, they will learn to use it in ways that best fits their temperament. Kate, my eldest, will probably never be a programmer, but she will be a power user within her own domain of art and writing. Jennie, on the other hand, already has the hacker mentality - the persistence to try something until she figures it out, the willingness to take risks that might wipe out what she's done, the curiosity to see what this or that option does.

I think the most important thing there is not to try to force a kid to be a geek if they're not, but to nurture those attributes if they are, especially for girls. Make sure that you have systems available - and that you get them involved in activities that tend to reinforce exploration of the world around them. Monitor and limit when necessary (I find that at least with Jennie especially that there are times where she NEEDS to unplug).

Make sure that they also get exercise and physical activity, and that this becomes a part of their daily routine so that they get used to it. Geeks tend to be too sedentary, and if they learn early the habits of daily exercise, they're more likely to continue these habits as they get older.

On the other hand, I've already come to grips with the fact that Jennie will never be a strongly sociable person; she has trouble dealing with large groups of people, and prefers solitude or maybe one or two friends in small doses. I think that girls in particular who are likely to grow up to be geeks tend to be strongly introverted, if my own girls are any indication, and I'm not really sure what I can (or even should) do as a parent to deal with that.

I'd be curious to hear other parents' perspective on their geek girls (and boys, for that matter).

I have a 5 year old son and a 3 year old daughter. I tell them, when it comes up, that boys and girls can both do pretty much whatever they want. My son loves pink; fine. My daughter loves construction toys; fine.

I hope that I'll be able to transition this type of conversation into things related to "geek" activities and technology. I have worked in technology; I work for a company that focuses on technology now (O'Reilly) and I dabble with my own technology and Maker-style projects. If I'm able to fix one of our computers or one of their toys I make a point of telling them that I'm really good at fixing these things

I do let them play with computers, but I try to make sure that they understand, at the level they can, how they're getting to where they're going at. At least they know how to use search and bookmarks, and I'm starting to look into ways to introduce kids to programming. At the very least, I like to tell them how things work and why they are doing something.

I was a geek as a kid (this will shock nobody who knows me) and while my parents weren't geeks they were supportive of my interests (I took a BASIC programming class pretty early on). I'll probably do the same for both of my kids, and will try to be a good role model for both, but especially for my daughter so that she thinks it's cool to be a girl geek!

I have three teenaged nieces, an eight-year-old nephew and my daughter is a year old. As each is a separate person with his/her own personality and interests, I find myself tailoring my geek approach with each of them.

They know I'm a big geek, and that I spend most of every day "working on computers". Each of the teenagers sees computers in general as the way to get to MySpace, but not one of them seems interested in hacking on them the way I do. My nephew is already on track for geekdom, so I don't feel the need to encourage him, but I do think it's important for him to understand that women can be just as interested in computers and video games as he is.

My daughter is a different challenge because she is so young. Of course, when she gets older, I want her to love mathematics and science and engineering and computing as much as I do, but I must admit she could have no interest in those fields at all. What I *can* do is make sure she understands that those fields are open to her by demonstrating my interest. I can share my work with her, read to her, help her with her studies when she gets older - all in an attempt to show her that (a) these fields aren't automatically "hard" or insurmountable, and ( b ) even if she does find them hard, she can still conquer them.

In short, the best way to encourage any of them is to continue to be an example of possibility.

This post has been edited by ubergeeke: Jan 12 2009, 11:30 PM

I have two girls myself, eleven and two. My Eleven year old has been heavily influenced by myself, her uncle and her grandfather. All of us are heavy book readers and computer users. She doesn't seem too interested in the technical side of them yet, but I keep trying. I imagine its mostly just a thing of patience and attention span, which she has neither of much yet. But the seeds have been sown and I am there to help nurture them. I've taken her to every Bay Area Maker's Faire so far and will continue to do so in the future.

As for science and mathematics, its been much more of a struggle here. Every time I attempt to help her or assist her in these subjects she seems to not have any interest and always tells me its because she's just not good at them. I'm hoping this too is just a problem of patience and attention span that can be worked on.

She reads constantly and always needs a constant supply of books. She's always a few grade levels ahead in reading comprehension. She loves to sing and play her flute as well as participate, as a leading role, in any school plays.

My two year old loves anything that has a power button. By the age of two she has already figured out how to turn on and off every device in the house (much to the frustration of my wife and I). She loves any kind of remote control(TV, Video Game or other) and will steal and covet them. She takes any chance she can get to play with a keyboard/mouse or laptop. She knows how to insert DVDs and start up the respective machines and find the play button. This is only really a problem cause she tends to have food/candy covered hands.

I'm looking forward to starting to teach her how to read this year and garner more understanding of computers and various simple technologies around the house. Its a real joy raising children and I'll continue to do my best to rear them as geeks and assist them in all their intellectual endeavors. I also hope that one day, of their own volition, they will pick and read one of the many O'Reilly books available at home.

It's also important to show girls that technology is relevant in their lives and can help them do the things they want to do. Rather than encouraging them to be interested in things boys are interested in, why not show them that tech applies to girls too.

Girls in the 11 to 13 year old range are always looking for new ways to communicate, they love IM and video chat. Expanding on that, we start to show them how to customize their programs by play with settings. We can also expand the repetoire of programs they use by teaching them how to set up blogs, use RSS feeds, create wikis.

When we use the starting point of their interests and then pull them deeper into the technology, I believe we'll be more successful at getting them hooked on technology.

Role models are also incredibly important. Not just women in technology, but seeing other girls using technology.

I think in today's world being a female technology geek is considered normal. I have two daughters in their teens who grew up from an early age using the computer.

Both of them love to create graphics and are pretty good with using Photoshop. From what I seen, their friends (boys or girls) don't think of them as being geeks.

It seems that it's hard for kids to not be exposed to technology. With cell phones. MP3 players and the Internet, technology is considered "cool" and accepted.

A someone mentioned above, the real key for women to be involved with technology is finding a good role model and is successful in their field.

I don't think women in technology has the same stigma that it once did. As a society we have become more respecting of the careers people have choosen.

There are also programs such as Ugly Betty that seem to glamerise the 'geek' look, and phrase that put geeks in a good light such as 'geek chic'.

I absolutely agree. It does not carry the same stigma as it did over a decade ago. With the dot-com boom, many women began exploring the technical realm and likely realized that it is rather enjoyable.

I'm sure that former CEOs such as Meg Whitman of Ebay and Carly Fiorina of HP helped inspired young women to pursue technical careers.

HI everyone! I'm not a mother, I'm a 20 years old Geek Girl

Encouraging your kid is a good thing, but don't push too hard.
I think, if you keep encouraging, pushing until she becomes a teenager she will think of computers as "the thing my mom wants me to do". And nobody wants to do THAT.

How did I become a geek??
When I was little, we had a computer standing in our basement.
It was a comfy, quiet basement, nobody else there who could bother me, my own little place where I could discover for myself the computer.
My parents have nothing to do with computers. My mom saw my interest and began buying me cute disney games. The basement became the place where I always wanted to be because I knew "the computer is FUN".
That feeling is important!! and the rest will follow.


Greetings from Germany
Fina

I grew up without my parents saying anything to me about technology and it's benefits... they were just always in front of me. My dad is very technologically savvy, as he has worked in IT for as long as I can remember. I got my first computer for Christmas in 4th grade, and that was pretty late compared to all of my friends. I was a HUGE gamer from that time until maybe 11th grade (all computer games... which makes a huge difference by the way. If your kids are going to be gamers, get them into computer gamers and not console games. Computer games are a lot more involved then just turning the Xbox on and putting the game in. Especially with multiplayer on computer games... you learn about Windows networking!)

Post gamer phase I immersed myself into web design and web programming, and that is something my dad never was involved with. I just liked it and enjoyed teaching myself how to do everything. I think you can't really force someone to like technology or become a "geek", but you can certainly encourage your kids to understand why it is important/necessary/advantageous to be more than proficient with computers. However, the bulk of it is up to them.

And I agree, I think the stigma is not really there anymore. You can dress "geeky" and perhaps there is some criticism of that, but being technologically savvy for a woman is, dare I say, sexy. All of my guy friends and anyone else I know ask me for help with their technology issues... more than anything it's empowering.

And one tip- a fun "geeky" activity you can do with your kids would be to build a computer from scratch. Hands on and educational.

The cool thing is the you have your work cut out for you... girls nowadays ARE interested in technology even though they aren't hardcore advocates. Stats show that girls spend more time dressing up their Myspace profiles and updating their Facebook status

My 3 year old loves the computer. If i have it apart she wants to get in there and see what everything is and help me. If i am working on my vehicles she wants to see what is going on. I hope as she gets old she can learn the things that I know and expand on them.

I think the younger generations are automatically drawn towards computers and therefore become a "geek" not matter if it's a boy or a girl.

My little sister loves to sit in front of the computer as much as my little brother, and I know she has some friends who do the same so I think the barriers are dissapearing.

I am writing a paper about how stereotypes are affecting our American culture. And I’m going to be using geek as one of my definition statement and example. As I was reading this article, I paid attention that most have kept identifying a geek to be a person interested in technology (as in computers and electronics); I believe every single human being would always have that fascination in technology, as it is a growing industry. Technology brought us the ability to accomplish what we have imagined to create. And I don’t believe taking interest in computers or electronics as a child to be the geek path. Webster defines geek to be "carnival performers whose shows consist of bizarre acts...” and according to Oxford, geek is defined to be “an unfashionable or socially inept person.” Both dictionaries do not define a geek to be a “computer fascinate”.
A geek can be defined in so many ways as I understand the definition to be “an obsessive enthusiast”, a lions fan can be considered a geek; think about it. (just wanted to share the thought.)

However, the forums provided are very helpful. And I would also like to ask, in your opinions, Does categorizing our children to be geeks or “computer fascinate” affect our culture as a whole? And how will it affect the child?

I expose my kids to all kinds of activity. I'm more worried that they spend time away from the computer, the telephone, and the television. I want them to see the world while they are young and learn as much as they can. Then they can choose whatever career field suits them.

My kids will travel the world as I did. Mind you, I grew up fairly poor. By U.S. standards - but a king's life compared to much of the world I have seen. My kids will have this same perspective. Education is the key. There is no other link that is common to success worldwide than education.

Well I guess these days you ll find geek girls in almost everyfield....and there is no problem being a geek...but you can't actually speak about girls being geek because now every child has become a gizmo or digi freak whether a boy or girl...

NYTimes Stephanie Rosenblum has an article in today's *Fashion* section on Girls in Tech. Wo. Not in the *Technology* section. In Fashion.


Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain talks about how girls are coding up more content online: webpages, web art, blogs and podcasts.

And then they decorate it with an image of a girl at her laptop with a devilish tail. But instead of asking one of the girls they interviewed to make the artwork, they ask Adam Strange to do the art for the article:girlgeek.jpg

So when they interview people like Doc Searls, Loic Le Meur or David Weinberger, all of whom are very smart about tech, those articles are in the tech section or business, but when they talk to girls, who for the record, are far more technical in this article than these three tech experts, girls are put in Fashion. I've never seen coverage with Doc or David or Loic in fashion. Maybe they should be there depending, but they aren't put there by the editors that I know of....

This is not about David or Loic or Doc (all extremely supportive of women in tech, btw), and certainly they don't choose the section the paper puts them in, but rather the way the editors and writers at the NYTimes see them, verses the girl geeks in this article.

My point is that the NYTimes puts men who talk tech and trends or social impact in tech/biz, and women who code web art / pages in fashion.