.Article Review:The Secrets to Increasing Females in Technology.

Summary:
This article suggests that it is possible to increase the number of females in technology by making the technology classroom and the profession as a whole more appealing and welcoming to girls. Teacher education is also recommended. Author Betty Shanahan believes the number of females in technology fields will increase. Teachers of technology education programs should create an environment in which both girls and boys feel welcome and can be successful in order to recruit women into technology fields. Instead of changing or, “fixing,” girls, Shanahan suggests that teachers need to be more sensitive and the lessons more gender neutral.
Analysis:
As a woman taking her first technology class since the 1990s, I have found the classroom to be female friendly. The classroom atmosphere is most likely more considerate than most because it is a graduate level class in education and three quarters of the students are female. That said, as a student at the University of Washington, I would walk by the computer science building and see only one or two women per every hundred men. The article is arguably from a feminist perspective and it is appealing to me as a woman. Women are often told that they must shed female traits to succeed in male dominated professions or academic areas, and it is refreshing to see an author who is willing to combat this idea.

References:
Shanahan, B. (2006). The Secrets to Increasing Females in Technology. Technology Teacher, 66(2), 22-24. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.