Explaining the technological gender gap: self-efficacy, utilitarian attitudes, and computer use among college students

Abstract

This research utilizes liberal feminism and social learning theory to explore the relationships among gender, computer self-efficacy, utilitarian attitudes toward computers, and computer use by college students. The analysis includes comparisons of male and female college students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University on computer use, on computer self-efficacy and on attitudes about the utility of computers. Data are derived from a self-administered questionnaire from a non-probability sample of 243 undergraduates enrolled in an introductory sociology course at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the spring of 1996. Consistent with hypotheses, women in the sample report significantly lower levels of computer self-efficacy, although not of utilitarian attitudes toward computers, and consequently less computer use than men. Regression analysis shows that computer self-efficacy is a significant predictor of computer use, but that utilitarian attitudes are not. Implications for subsequent research and theory in this area include that computer use should be specifically measured as hours of use, that gender differences in computer use may be application-specific, and that a cause-and-effect relationship between attitudes about computers and computer use should be established.