Digital Divide Encompasses More Than Technology

In fact, the information society may be perpetuating social and economic inequalities by race and gender, say Lynette Kvasny, assistant professor of Information Sciences and Technology, and Eileen Trauth, professor of Information Sciences and Technology. By themselves, technology and IT skills will not bring more minorities and women into the workplace. Essential in bridging the digital divide is dismantling the social and cultural barriers that exclude underrepresented groups from equal participation in the information society. Those barriers are explored in the paper, “The Digital Divide at Work and Home: The Discourse about Power and Underrepresented Groups in the Information Society,” presented Dec. 13, at the International Federation of Information Processing Conference in Barcelona, Spain. For the full story by Margaret Hopkins, visit http://www.psu.edu/ur/2002/digitaldivide.html.