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ISSN for PRINT: 1072-8325
Institutional price: |
$211.00 |
Issues per year: |
4 |
2003, Volume9
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121 pages |
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Issue price - $42.00
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WOMEN IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING BUILDING COMMUNITY ONLINE
Sharon S.
Kleinman
Quinnipiac University
ABSTRACT
This article explores the constructs of online community and online social support and discusses a naturalistic case study of a public, unmoderated, online discussion group dedicated to issues of interest to women in science and engineering. The benefits of affiliation with OURNET (a pseudonym) were explored through participant observation over a 4-year period, telephone interviews with 21 subscribers, and content analysis of e-mail messages posted to the discussion group during a 125-day period. The case study findings indicated that through affiliation with the online discussion group, women in traditionally male-dominated fields expanded their professional networks, increased their knowledge, constituted and validated positive social identities, bolstered their self-confidence, obtained social support and information from people with a wide range of experiences and areas of expertise, and, most significantly, found community.
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Article price - $35.00 |
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