In this series of Web pages, I will be looking at a research study conducted by Hope Morritt, a Professor at Brooklyn college, who decided to do her own research on women's experiences with computer based technologies. We studied this within the context of our course on Feminist Standpoint Research Methods.

Past studies illustrating the effects of computer usage between men and women have been conducted. Unfortunately through quantitative reseach methods, many of the results have failed to understand women's perspectives and tended to focus on a male standpoint with the technology.

Through this research project, it is extremely evident that Morritt is a Standpoint Feminist. She believed that by incorporating the Feminist Standpoint theory into her study, she would be able to document her findings more accurately. The structure of this research was based around Sandra Harding's (Professor of Social Sciences and Comparative Education) eight claims of theoretical framework for Feminist Standpoint theory.

Although Morritt believed that Feminist Standpoint theory was an ideal framework for her approach, she also acknowledged that it had limitations. This theory predominantly favoured white, Western, educated women. It is a concept that may not be necessarily reflected among all women, due to cultural or socioeconomic systems. Despite its disadvantages, Morritt believed that the strengths of this theory outweigh its weaknesses. She also believed that this theory and by using a set of "thematic lenses" would be essential for investigating and chronicling the female experience with computer technology.

In order to understand and reveal the female perspective of this technology, Morritt felt that she could uncover more valuable data that would help illuminate the female experience through qualitative research methods. It was time to have data that truly reflected women's attitudes towards computer mediated technologies. For Morritt, her methodology enabled us to understand women in this computer age through narratives. These narratives revealed how women's experiences were affected their attitudes in terms of class, race and culture towards computer based technologies.

Morritt's research process was extremely extensive and provided tremendous insight on female attitudes towards these technologies. One of the conclusions that she found through this study, was that early childhood conditioning plays a significant role in determining how girls will embrace this medium, as women in the future. Other links to various websites investigate other research on women's attitudes towards cyberspace and other areas of computer based technologies. Although her findings are somewhat predictable, I believe that this is an important study for identifying factors influencing women's attitudes towards computer based technologies and confirming the obvious changes that are required to improve women's dispositions.