In story after story, deal after deal, the major players are the same white males who already run the leading cable, communications and computer companies. Just where are the women drivers on the information superhighway? Will women be shut out of this lucrative technological revolution, just as they have been shut out of real power and presence in the computer industry? … As the [San Jose] Mercury News noted, “Women are 10 times more likely to be represented on the Supreme Court of the United States than on average board of directors for a company in Silicon Valley” … Some women are well-positioned to speed down the superhighway once it is built.
Predictor: Fryer, Bronwyn
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “The Information Revolution,” edited by Donald Altschiller, carries a reprint of April, 1994, Working Woman article “Sex & the Superhighway” by Bronwyn Fryer. Fryer hopes for a greater role for women in technical and management positions. She writes: ”In story after story, deal after deal, the major players are the same white males who already run the leading cable, communications and computer companies. Just where are the women drivers on the information superhighway? Will women be shut out of this lucrative technological revolution, just as they have been shut out of real power and presence in the computer industry? … Says leading industry analyst Esther Dyson, ‘You’d think the high-tech industry would be modern, but it really isn’t. It’s run by the old-boys network’ … By 1992, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women made up just 36 percent of the workforce in computer and data-processing services and only 37 percent in hardware manufacturing, That compares to 59 percent in finance, insurance and real estate and over 50 percent in law, accounting and retail … Their numbers are even smaller near the top. None of the nation’s publicly held hardware manufacturers have women at the helm, and only a handful of software firms do. As the [San Jose] Mercury News noted, ‘Women are 10 times more likely to be represented on the Supreme Court of the United States than on average board of directors for a company in Silicon Valley’ … Some women are well-positioned to speed down the superhighway once it is built. Two new government appointees will be supervising its construction: Mary Lowe Good, undersecretary for technology at the Commerce Department, and Arati Prabhakar, head of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which helps small and medium-sized companies with technological development.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Digital Divide
Name of publication: The Information Revolution (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Sex & the Superhighway
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 210-212
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne