(You can be the one to tell Angelina Jolie!)
Lots of people think that Computer Science and IT are strictly for men only. That’s really bizarre given that right from the start women like Grace Hopper and Ada Lovelace played pivotal roles in the development of computers, and women are still at the leading edge today. To be a successful modern IT Pro you have to be a good team player, not to mention good at dealing with clients, which are skills women are generally good at.
‘Geeky male computer scientist’ is of course just a stereotype, like ‘helpless female in need of rescue by male hunk’, ‘scientist as mad eccentric in white coat’, or ‘evil robot wanting to take over the world’.
Where do false stereotypes come from? Films play a part in the way their (usually male, non-scientist) directors decide to represent characters.
Students on a ‘Gender in Computer Science’ course at Siena College in the US watched lots of films with Computer Science plots from as far back as 1928 to see how the way women, computers and computer scientists are portrayed has changed over time. Here are their views on some of those films.
Do you agree – when you are done read what the real IT Pros think of their jobs…and remember stereotypes are fiction, careers are what you make of them and real robots are (usually) nice!
1928: Metropolis
In a city of the future the ruling class live lavishly while the workers live poorly in the underworld. An evil scientist substitutes a robot for a female worker activist. It purposely starts a riot as an excuse so reprisals can be taken. All hell breaks loose until the male hero comes to the rescue…
X Computers: Evil
X Women as IT Pros: Helpless
X Computer Scientists: Evil
“Women are more or less portrayed as helpless … The computer scientist … as evil”
1956: Forbidden Planet
An all-male crew travel to Altair-4 to discover the fate of the colony there. They discover all that is left is scientist Dr Morbius, his beautiful daughter Altaira and a servant robot called Robby, programmed to be unable to harm humans. But what have Morbius’ machines and experiments to do with the colony’s fate?
✓ Computers: Helpful & Harmless
X Women as IT Pros: love interest
X Computer Scientists: Evil
“Altaira plays a typical woman’s role…helpless…unintelligent …Barbie-like”
1971: THX 1138
In an Orwellian future, an android controlled police state where everyone is made to take drugs that suppress emotion. LUH 3417 and THX 1138 stop taking their drugs, fall in love and try to escape…
X Computers: Evil Police
X Women as IT Pros: Few
X Computer Scientists: Heartless
“The computer scientists are depicted as boring, heartless and easily confused”
1982: Blade Runner
In the industrial wastelands of a future Los Angeles, large companies have all the power. Robotic ‘Replicants’ are almost indistinguishable from humans but have incredible strength and no emotions. Deckard (Harrison Ford) must find and destroy a group of Replicants that have developed emotions and so threaten humanity as they rebel against being ‘slaves’.
X Computers: Evil
X Women as IT Pros: None
X Computer Scientists: Caused the problem
“A woman plays the minor role of a replicant…but is portrayed as a topless dancer”
1986: Short Circuit
A comedy adventure about a robot that comes ‘alive’ after a power surge in a lightening storm. The robot, called ‘Number 5’ built for use by the US military and tries to escape its creators as it doesn’t want to ‘die’. It is helped by Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy) who realises, that like the animals she loves, it is sentient and helps it escape from the scientists of company Nova that built it.
✓ Computers: Nice
X Women as IT Pros: None
X Computer Scientists: Thick-headed
“The male computer scientists are often thick-headed… introverted…no life skills…There were no female computer scientists”
1995: Hackers
A group of genius teenage hackers become the target of the FBI after they unknowingly tap into a high-tech embezzling scheme that could cause a horrific environmental disaster. Dade Murphy and Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie) square off in a battle of the sexes and computer skills.
X Computers: Used illegally
✓ Women as IT Pros: Elite…but illegal
X Computer Scientists: Criminals
“Angelina plays a hard hitting, elite hacker who is better than everyone in her group except Dane who is her equal”
So it wasn’t great. Robots were killers, scientists evil. Computer scientist’s were introverted and thickheaded. Women were either sexbots or helpless love interest to be rescued by the hunky male star. 1995’s film Hackers was about as good as it got. At last a woman had expert computing skills. It’s hardly surprising some girls were led to believe computing isn’t for them with a century-long “conspiracy” aiming to convince them their role in life is to be helpless.
As our area on women in computing shows the truth is far more interesting. Women have always played a big part in the development of modern technology. So have things improved in films in the 21st century? There are more films with strong action-heroine stars now, though until very recently few films passed the Bechdel test: do two women ever talk together about anything other than a man? So can we at least find any 21st century films with realistic main character roles for women as computer experts? Here goes…
1999-2003: Matrix Trilogy
Hero Neo discovers reality isn’t what it seems. It is all a virtual reality. Trinity is there to be his romantic interest – she’s been told by the Oracle that she will fall in love with the “One” (that’s him). It’s not looking good. In film 2 Neo has to save her. Oh dear. At least she is supposed to be a super-hacker famous for cracking an uncrackable database. Oh well.
X Computers: Enslaving humanity
✓ Women as IT Pros: Elite…but illegal (there to be saved)
✓ Computer Scientists: The resistance
2009: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
This is the story of super-hacker Lisbeth Salander. Both emotionally and sexually abused as a child she looks after herself, and that includes teaching herself to be an expert with computers. She uses her immense skills to get what she wants. She is cool and clever and absolutely not willing to let the men treat her as a victim. Wonderful.
X Computers: used for hacking
✓ Women as IT Pros: Elite…but illegal look after themselves)
X Computer Scientists: hackers
2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
This film is all about a male hunk, so it’s not looking good, but then early on we see Agent Natasha Romanoff, (also known as superheroine the Black Widow). She is the brains to Captain America’s brawn and from the start she is clearly the expert with computers. While Captain America beats people up, her mission is to collect data. And she even gets her own film series…eventually!
X Computers: used for hacking
✓ Women as IT Pros: Elite…superheroes
X Computer Scientists: hackers
2015: Star Wars: Episode VII – the Force Awakens
Rey is a scavenger with engineering skills. She is very smart, and can look after herself without expecting men to save her. She’s not a hacker! Instead, she creates and mends things. She repurposes parts she finds on wrecked spaceships to sell to survive. She learnt her engineering skills tinkering in old ships and fixes the Millennium Falcon’s electro-mechanical problems. She is even the main character of the whole film!
✓ Computers: make the universe work
✓ Women as IT Pros: Elite, scavenges and fixes things
✓ Computer Scientists: at least some build and fix things
There are plenty of moronic films, made by men who can’t portray women in remotely realistic ways, but at least things are a bit better than they were last century. The women are already here in the real world. They are slowly getting there in the movies. Let’s just hope the trend speeds up, and we have more female leads who create things, like the real female computer scientists.
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London
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This blog is funded through EPSRC grant EP/W033615/1.
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