Gender, computers and other school subjects among Japanese and Swedish students

This paper describes a study on gender, computers and other major school subjects. The sample consisted of 773 ninth-grade school students both from the municipality of Tokyo, Japan (204 girls and 266 boys) and from Stockholm, Sweden (144 girls and 159 boys). The measurement of gender-typing of computers and other major school subjects has been done on the basis of three dimensions: usefulness, aptitude and liking. The analysis focused upon the calculation of descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance. In general, regardless of the country, males reported higher scores of usefulness, aptitude and liking to computers and more positive attitudes toward mathematics, and sciences than girls did. Girls consistently reported that computers, mathematics and sciences were the subjects which were less liked and languages the most liked. The persistence of gender differences in computers, despite a general rise in computer awareness, indicates a failure in the way gender issues are addressed and tackled in schools.