Gender, Technology and Group Decision-Making:
An Experimental Study in Secondary Education International Studies Programs

Project Summary
Women working for peace; men waging war. Cooperative women; conflictual men. Such images can be found throughout feminist international relations research, educational psychology studies of learning styles and approaches, and throughout many other academic disciplines. These images also pervade research and conventional wisdom about the efficacy of women in leadership roles and the roles they can play in most decision-making environments. These images are sharpened when technological efficacy is inserted into our understanding of the differences in the ways men and women, boys and girls interface with the world around them. This study proposes the use of an experimental design to study gender differences in leadership and decision-making styles and in approaches to technology. Using the ICONS (International Communication and Negotiation Simulation) simulation approach, we will conduct three experimental simulations across each of three years with students in middle school and high school social studies programs.

The importance of the proposed project is based on the following observed phenomena:

• the prevalence and dominance of men in high level decision-making roles in government and business and the implications gender differences may have for decision-making and negotiation outcomes in those venues;
• the growing pervasiveness of technology in interpersonal and transnational communication and in educational environments and the impacts it has on the educational experiences of both genders.
• differences in substantive interests and career paths chosen by the genders and how the educational environment may foster these differences.
• the growing of conflict resolution strategies in government, business and throughout the world and how different approaches brought to these problems may be hindered or helped by the different leadership and decision-making approaches of men and women.

The series of experiments are aimed at investigating the emergence and solidification of gender-tied leadership and decision-making styles in secondary school age groups and to test the role played by cross-gender interaction in decision-making and its outcomes on issues ranging from arms control to international political economy and environmental affairs. The project will allow us to better understand:

• the implications of gender mixes in educational settings dealing with a range of contemporary economic, social and political issues;
• the longer-term implications such differences may have on our next generation of governmental, educational and business leaders; and
• how we can better structure today's classrooms so that both genders will show greater openness than may exist today to alternative strategies for problem-solving and conflict resolution at interpersonal and international levels.