Gender and Computer Anxiety

Because of their ability to enhance productivity, computers have become ubiquitous in the workplace. By the early 1990s the use of computers in the workplace reached a per capita penetration that the telephone took 75 years to achieve (Webster & Martocchio, 1992). During the past several decades, there has been both speculation and hard research related to the psychological effects of computer technology. More recently the role of attitudes towards computers in influencing the acceptance and use of computer-based management information systems (MIS) has been highlighted by a growing number of MIS researchers. Generally, these studies focus on the negative attitudes towards computers and concerns about the impact of MIS on individual performance in the workplace. Computer anxiety has been reported to be associated with negative attitudes towards computers. As computers play a pervasive role in MIS and decision support systems, these findings emphasize the need for additional empirical research on the determinants of computer anxiety and attitudes towards computers. Furthermore, with the increasing participation of women in information technology professions, important questions are whether men and women differ with regard to computer anxiety and attitudes towards computers, and what factors explain such differences where they exist, and how to ameliorate anxiety where it occurs.