Professor Sharon Meraz discussed the topic of gender and the Internet and blogging. In the beginning she discussed the topic of computer science and the lack of females involved. She later when on to discuss the differences in female and male computer games. I did not find it surprising at all that male games were centered more around violence and games from females were more low key however, required more multi-tasking. She also talked about web design and how it is a predominately female occupation and also the gendering of blogs on the Internet.
As a young women who is involved with the Internet and familiar with blogs, I felt like I was better able to understand and relate with what Professor Meraz was talking about. I also took a GWS class at UIC and we discussed issues like this and also how women are very deceived, seen as less tech savy and not taken seriously by men, especially when it comes to politics. It is unfortunate that women are not noticed unless they post "sexy" pictures of themselves or write about sex. I do not write a blog, however, I have looked at blogs on the Internet and have seen how so many are gendered. For example, a "mommy blog" just for moms.
Another thing Professor Meraz talked about was the C.E.O of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg. As she discussed her and we watched the interview, it made me think of ethics and how I could relate Sheryl's controversial issue to it. After years, Sheryl came out to the public and said she left work everyday at 5:30 to be home for dinner with her children. People were outraged. Many questioned, how could this be ethical? Many ethical principles could easily relate to this tissue. As an example, I am going to use Utilitarianism. This principle is based on happiness. Sheryl Sandberg left work at 5:30 everyday to be home for dinner with her kids, which made her happy. However, every other employee stayed longer until all the work was completed. I would assume the other employees would side more with Rule-Based Principles in that they would work the full hours under almost any conditions, as their duty and obligation. Personally, I believe it was wrong of her to leave early everyday to be home with her kids when everyone else stayed as long as they needed to. In this incident, I agree with the rule-based principles because I believe as adults with jobs it is our responsibltiy, obligation and duty to complete the tasks and jobs we're asked to do.
In addition, I also find myself to be somewhat frustrated over the gendering of women not only on the Internet but also in our society. I find it unfortunate that women have to "womanize" themselves even more to get attention and recognition. I also find it upsetting that men do not take women seriously and feel they are not as good as they are and cannot perform and succeed as well in almost any industry.
I agree, I feel like the internet is very gender bias, and women do outlandish things in order to be noticed or taken seriously on the internet. There definitely needs to be more integration in this field in order to prevent a larger gap between the number of men and women in the computer science field. In the case of the CEO of Facebook, I agree she is definitely using a utilitarian stance to justify her actions. However I feel that others that work with her should have some of the same flexibility. I don't feel that her actions are completely unethical, she has other obligations besides work, as long as she is able to complete what needs to be done. I do find it surprising that this field is so strict with their policies, I imagined it to be a more lenient field as far as work policies, which is interesting to know that that is not always the case.
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