CLOSING THE TECHNOLOGICAL GENDER-GAP - FEMINIST PEDAGOGY IN THE COMPUTER-ASSISTED CLASSROOM

Feminist Audre Lorde states, ''The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.'' In this paper, however we encourage women to seize computer tools for their own educational purposes in order to counteract the ''null environment'' they experience in the traditional classroom. We argue for a proactive feminist pedagogy that enhances women's computer learning by demystifying the computer and promoting technological equity in the classroom. To accomplish these goals, we introduce a quantitative and a qualitative software program which help to create a proactive environment that enhances women's computerized learning when used in conjunction with feminist pedagogical techniques. We also discuss the implications of introducing feminist proactive computer learning into the sociology curriculum and, more specifically, into the women's studies classroom.