From the NY Times:

Research shows that among the youngest Internet users, the primary creators of Web content (blogs, graphics, photographs, Web sites) are not misfits resembling the Lone Gunmen of “The X Files.” On the contrary, the cyberpioneers of the moment are digitally effusive teenage girls.

“Most guys don’t have patience for this kind of thing,” said Nicole Dominguez, 13, of Miramar, Fla., whose hobbies include designing free icons, layouts and “glitters” (shimmering animations) for the Web and MySpace pages of other teenagers. “It’s really hard.”

Nicole posts her graphics, as well as her own HTML and CSS computer coding pointers (she is self-taught), on the pink and violet Sodevious.net, a domain her mother bought for her in October.

“If you did a poll I think you’d find that boys rarely have sites,” she said. “It’s mostly girls.”

Indeed, a study published in December by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that among Web users ages 12 to 17, significantly more girls than boys blog (35 percent of girls compared with 20 percent of boys) and create or work on their own Web pages (32 percent of girls compared with 22 percent of boys).

Girls also eclipse boys when it comes to building or working on Web sites for other people and creating profiles on social networking sites (70 percent of girls 15 to 17 have one, versus 57 percent of boys 15 to 17). Video posting was the sole area in which boys outdid girls: boys are almost twice as likely as girls to post video files.

Explanations for the gender imbalance are nearly as wide-ranging as cybergirls themselves. The girls include bloggers who pontificate on timeless teenage matters such as “evil teachers” and being “grounded for life,” to would-be Martha Stewarts — entrepreneurs whose online pursuits generate more money than a summer’s worth of baby-sitting.

And how is this impacting the computer industry?

But even though girls surpass boys as Web content creators, the imbalance among adults in the computer industry remains. Women hold about 27 percent of jobs in computer and mathematical occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In American high schools, girls comprised fewer than 15 percent of students who took the AP computer science exam in 2006, and there was a 70 percent decline in the number of incoming undergraduate women choosing to major in computer science from 2000 to 2005, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

Scholars who study computer science say there are several reasons for the dearth of women: introductory courses are often uninspiring; it is difficult to shake existing stereotypes about men excelling in the sciences; and there are few female role models. It is possible that the girls who produce glitters today will develop an interest in the rigorous science behind computing, but some scholars are reluctant to draw that conclusion.

“We can hope that this translates, but so far the gap has remained,” said Jane Margolis, an author of “Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing” (MIT Press, 2002). While pleased that girls are mastering programs like Paint Shop Pro, Ms. Margolis emphasized the profound distinction between using existing software and a desire to invent new technology.

But even though girls surpass boys as Web content creators, the imbalance among adults in the computer industry remains. Women hold about 27 percent of jobs in computer and mathematical occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In American high schools, girls comprised fewer than 15 percent of students who took the AP computer science exam in 2006, and there was a 70 percent decline in the number of incoming undergraduate women choosing to major in computer science from 2000 to 2005, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

Scholars who study computer science say there are several reasons for the dearth of women: introductory courses are often uninspiring; it is difficult to shake existing stereotypes about men excelling in the sciences; and there are few female role models. It is possible that the girls who produce glitters today will develop an interest in the rigorous science behind computing, but some scholars are reluctant to draw that conclusion.

“We can hope that this translates, but so far the gap has remained,” said Jane Margolis, an author of “Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing” (MIT Press, 2002). While pleased that girls are mastering programs like Paint Shop Pro, Ms. Margolis emphasized the profound distinction between using existing software and a desire to invent new technology.

“Girls are trained to make stories about themselves,” said Pat Gill, the interim director for the Institute for Communications Research and an associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

From a young age they learn that they are objects, Professor Gill said, so they learn how to describe themselves. Historically, girls and women have been expected to be social, communal and skilled in decorative arts.

“This would be called the feminization of the Internet,” she said.

Boys, she added, are generally taught “to engage in ways that aren’t confessional, that aren’t emotional.”

Research by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, the result of focus groups and interviews with young people 13 to 22, suggests that girls’ online practices tend to be about their desire to express themselves, particularly their originality.

“With young women it’s much more about expressing yourself to others in the way that wearing certain clothes to school does,” said John Palfrey, the executive director of the Berkman Center. “It ties into identity expression in the real world.”

I’m sure there’s no irony that this article appears in the NY Times’ Fashion and Style section, instead of Business or Technology.

I don’t intend to counter the researchers’ findings about cultural treatment of, expectations and influence on young women and men. But it seems like there’s a distinct comparison of apples and oranges going on here. Content creation is a whole different animal than the nuts and bolts of code crunching at the heart of the computer industry. Figuring out why women are not better represented in the latter and how to address that should begin with a recognition of what computers do for the end user.

If women are demonstrating their chops as content creators, then industries dependent on content production should be reflecting that. Are women filling the majority of jobs in graphic design, ad agencies, digital newsrooms and the like? If not, this data suggests those businesses are bypassing a treasure trove of talent.

Second, the first wave of content producing software - like all things computer - reflect a tendency of geeks to create their own terminology that acts as a frustrating and unnecessary barrier (or at least, an extra step) to end users. Is that terminology, in itself, a ‘male’ language, acting like initiation rites in a boy’s clubhouse? Software should be evolving to become more intuitive for end users. Why compel people to adapt to software demands instead of vice versa?

Taken to its logical conclusion then, software intended for the purpose of content creation should involve greater input by the creating group of end users. Is the computer industry asking these young women what they want to see and use that could simplify their creating efforts? Doing that would boost the number of women within the computing world. And once they’re through that door, it might expose them to more of the backend of the coding culture, granting them insights and opportunities not immediately visible or appealling within school classrooms.

Consider first generation use of computer animation. It was heavy with conflict and competition common to guys’ predilections towards war games and competitive sports in the development of video gaming. Now, with more anime and other realms of the fantasy world, girls are finding it more alluring than the old action-adventure models provided them.

To some degree, cultural roles get assigned to women, but culture may also originate in real differences in how women process, interpret and express themselves. And it seems to me that, within both the content creating and computer business worlds, the entrepreneurial may be missing a massive potential talent pool if they’re overlooking who’s using their products and the needs and desires of women end users.