"Written with verve, compassion, and passion, Gender and Information Technology offers finely crafted tools for narrowing the digital divide that perpetuates inequality and injustice worldwide, marginalizing women and other socially disempowered groups. [Kirk] offers us a treasure trove of fascinating information that alternately enlightens, enrages, and empowers us to take an active role in creating a more just and caring future."
– Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and The Blade: Our History
Everyone should read Mary Kirk's background on feminism, stereotypes, the digital divide, and the dominator social institutions. She points out the fundamental, and not always obvious, ways in which women are influenced and often undermined in society and particularly in the computing field. She clearly and elegantly describes the issues and aids the reader in better understanding of what is at stake.
– Dr. Carol Zander, University of Washington, USA
The main strength of the book is that it is quite readable and does not push the 'women's issues' line in such a way as to alienate male reader (as some other similar books do). . . I found this book very interesting, and that is from a male reader who has at times felt frustrated with the way this topic is handled by other authors. I like the way you include also other groups in the discussion. The book is well written and quite readable by a reader who is a non-expert in this field. Your arguments are convincing and well presented.
– Dr. Arthur Tatnall, Victoria University, Australia
Building on years of scholarly study and a lifetime of personal experience, Mary Kirk leads readers to understand how our cultural myths, stereotypes, and metaphors perpetuate, and even encourage, a scarcity of women in IT, and further how these same systems teach those who are privileged by them to be blind to the ways in which they are privileged. Students using this textbook will learn the pervasiveness of these myths, stereotypes, and metaphors, and be inspired to rethink these ways of being using the questions for further discussion provided with each chapter.
– Dr. Laurie Anderson, University of Washington, USA
Mary Kirk has written a passionate argument for change in technology and how we approach the haves and have-nots. Her book is meticulously researched, persuasively argued, and absolutely riveting. She has produced a text that has the potential to change how we think about ourselves and our relationship to technology. She guides us through complex issues with care and understanding. And, at the end, leaves us in a better place to understand how we can be the change that is absolutely and critically needed.
– Dr. Helen Correll, Metropolitan State University, USA
The book is definitely the foremost historical chronicle of women in science and mathematics (and now information technology). If I were to explore the topic further, this text and its hundreds of references and citations would certainly be at my side during the research phase. In addition, the citations provide a comprehensive bibliography of resources on the subject of women, computing, STEM, and technology. With respect to this particular portion of the evaluation, I have no recommendations to improve this area; the breadth of the lit review is truly laudatory. . . Well done. You have constructed a very successful examination of women in computing that may become the cornerstone for future examinations in the discipline. Your text will serve as a keystone for future study. Your citations will become the bibliography for investigators who seek answers regarding females and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
– Dr. Lawrence A. Tomei, Robert Morris University, USA
Kirk organizes and assembles research and ideas that germinated as she completed her Ph.D in women's studies and women in computing.
– Book News Inc. (February 2009)
Kirk is much more authoritative when she engages with education at the classroom level...Here her expertise shines though in her suggestions for ways to establish an inclusive science and technology classroom with a climate where students experiment with ideas and develop social confidence and intellectual skill.
– Gill Kirkup, The Open University, UK (Found in The International Journal of Gender, Science, and Technology )