Software companies are targeting girls,
but is their marketing on the mark?

By Kathleen Vail

Click on the wedding cake icon and she appears before you, impossibly long legs, cotton-candy hair spun into a curly halo atop her head. She wears nothing but a snowy white bra and panties. She waits, as she always waits, for you to dress her. You choose a flouncy strapless with a full skirt. Click on another icon and the dress sprouts a demure collar and billowy sleeves. Next come the pert pointy shoes, modest nosegay, full-length gloves, and cascading veil. Barbie's wedding dress is white, of course. But if you're in a playful mood, you may choose from 11 other colors, including three shades of pink.

Barbie is ready to strut down her pink festooned runway in your creation. Once in the spotlight, she abandons her timid bride facade. She rolls her hips and swings her arms, undulating in a virtual bump and grind. She halts at the end of the catwalk, thrusting out her considerable bust. Cupid's-bow lips parted slightly, her vacant cornflower-blue eyes fix on you. Barbie, the unlikely revolutionary.

Singlehandedly, this symbol of hyper-femininity who once chirruped "math class is hard" has cracked open the elusive market for girls' computer games. She elbowed aside her testosterone-drenched brothers--Duke Nukem, Mortal Combat, Twisted Metal--and carved a pink niche for herself on the male-dominated computer game shelves. Since its release last year, the Barbie Fashion Designer CD-ROM has sold an unprecedented half a million copies.

The power of games

The collective eyes of the software world suddenly are gazing into the heart of a long invisible market: girls between the ages of 6 and 16. Judging from the prototype girls' games now available, what software makers see in the young female heart are clothes, makeup, boys, and precious little else. The heavy emphasis on feminine stereotypes is objectionable to educators and women in technology professions, but many women are reluctant to reject these games outright. The new games, say their manufacturers, attract girls to computers the same way Nintendo attracts boys. And in a high-tech arena still largely dominated by men, women acknowledge the special power of games.

"Anything that develops computer skills is good," says Julie Sheridan-Eng. "Even if it's pointing and clicking; they don't feel intimidated by it."

Sheridan-Eng is an engineer who works with lasers at Lucent Technologies, formerly AT&T Bell Laboratories. She has a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford. In her first year as an undergraduate, she realized she was at a disadvantage. "I didn't play with Matchbox cars, I played with Barbies," she says. "When you get into college with boys who have been in all the science fairs and built computer chips with their fathers, it's intimidating."

As chairwoman of Women in Engineering, formed by women who belong to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., a professional organization, Sheridan-Eng and her fellow female engineers work to interest young women in careers in engineering. She's ambivalent about the content of the current batch of girls' games. But the games' potential to draw girls to technology overcomes her doubts.

"I don't think a program that designs dresses will make them want to be engineers," she says. "But it will be one tool in their belt. They'll like computers and see them as friendly."

Bringing girls to the technology table

Not all girls need Barbie to hook them on technology, though--not if they have the advantage of a savvy teacher. When the girls in Tamra Oliver's after-school computer club have free time, they know exactly what they want to do: disembowel a computer. "They can't get enough of it," says Oliver, a second-grade teacher at Margaret Beeks Elementary School in Blacksburg, Va. "They unscrew the screen and look at the electronics inside. They know where the hard drive is."

Oliver started the computer club for second-grade girls when her daughter Eva, also a second-grader, wanted to quit the chess club. It didn't take Oliver long to figure out the problem. Eva was the only girl in the club; not only did she miss her friends, but she also was intimidated by the older boys' aggressive style of chess. Oliver reasoned that more girls might participate in math-oriented activities such as chess if they had a peer group doing the same thing. With a $1,000 grant from her school district, Oliver started the club last fall with 21 girls. She now has a waiting list of girls wanting to join. The girls design stickers, stationery, and cards and take apart floppy discs and mice as well as the monitor and hard drive. "I look at it as a way to open up areas that have been stumbling blocks for females," says Oliver.

Oliver gave the girls a software catalogue and allowed them to choose some games. They picked science and graphics programs--no girl games. "I'm amazed at what they really like," says Oliver.

Girls' computer clubs, technology mentoring programs for girls, and web sites aimed at girls (see sidebar below) are proliferating in U.S. schools, as teachers like Oliver stretch to cross the gender gap that has been a feature of school computing ever since computers first began appearing in classrooms more than a decade ago.

From the beginning, computers have been a sort of technology magnet, attracting boys and repelling girls. Now, after years of research, studies, grants, collaborations, teacher training, and pilot projects among educators, businesses, and government, the efforts to bring girls to the technology table appear to be helping. In 1984, according to a U.S. Department of Education study, 17 percent of boys used a computer at home compared to only 9 percent of girls. By 1993, girls had caught up with boys in home computer use--27 percent of kids of both genders had access to computers at home, though boys were twice as likely as girls to use the computers daily.

When she first started teaching a computer class eight years ago, says Nina Hansen, a computer teacher at Timothy Edwards Middle School in South Windsor, Conn., the girls approached computers the same way they would automobiles. They didn't want to appear unfeminine by knowing about the innards of the machine. "It was cool not to know about them," Hansen says.

That's changing, she says. Girls come to class more confident. They've had female role models in the younger grades as more elementary school teachers use computers in the classroom. In this affluent district, most girls have computers at home. When Hansen asked for volunteers to tutor and assist in the computer lab this year, all the applicants were girls.

But Hansen still sees differences in the way girls and boys approach computers. Girls use the machines for tasks; the boys want to mess around with the software. "Most boys use the computer for games, and the girls use it for work," says Hansen.

And the boys' play turns out to be serious. Boys who play games on the computer spend more time on the machines than do their task-oriented sisters, according to researchers. The extra playtime gives boys an ease with computers and the comfort to experiment with them. Why don't girls play on computers? The reason, according to market researchers, is that they're turned off by boys' games. The rock-'em, sock-'em action computer games released since the mid-'80s have been targeted to the male adolescent audience.

Isabel Walcott, a market research consultant in New York City, has talked extensively to young women about computer games. Girls' interest in computers tends to drops off when they reach puberty, she says. Walcott blames this drop-off on the dearth of games for adolescent girls. They've grown out of the educational games they play at school and find nothing to replace them.

Teen girls tell Walcott that boys' computer games are too violent, that they're boring, unrealistic, and irrelevant. The only women characters in the games are unnatural sex objects, the girls say, and the characters die too soon. "These girls hate having to start over once they have put effort into something," says Walcott. "The games aren't designed for them; they aren't girl friendly."

What do girls really want?

Kim, Samantha, Trish, McKee, and "E" are waiting, big-eyed and breathless. Who's it going to be, Derrick or Brandon? You click on Derrick, class clown and Madison's star pitcher. The girls explode in uproarious giggles, pelting each other--and you--with pillows. Before the screen dissolves, they discuss whether you should ask Derrick out. They banter briefly but agree with Sam's conclusion: Get him to ask you out by appearing wherever he is. That'll let him know you like him; he'll make the next move.

Welcome to McKenzie and Co., by Her Interactive, a software company in Albuquerque, N. M. The goal of this giggly game--a pioneer of sorts that came out a year before Barbie--is to get Brandon, Brett, Derrick, or Steven to ask you to the prom. Along the way, you're accompanied by a gang of gal pals who advise you on different actions throughout the story line. For example, one of the story lines offers this sitcom dilemma: You've been asked to the dance by both Derrick and twin brother Eric (who you thought was Derrick). Variously, your girlfriends advise you to date both guys or dump one or the other. Careful: deciding to deceive the brothers has repercussions.

McKenzie and Co. pays unabashed homage to the stereotypical feminine triumvirate of clothes, makeup, and boys. The CD-ROM comes packaged with a tube of sheer lipstick; the shade is Pink-a-Boo. The girls shop at a mall, choosing clothing from real stores, where you can mix and match the tops and bottoms to create the perfect outfit. In the privacy of your bedroom, you can apply virtual makeup, chat on the phone with friends, or retrieve e-mail.

McKenzie, like Barbie, has drawn criticism from feminists for its narrow stereotyping. But its manufacturer defends it.

"Is there an unwritten law that girls' games have to provide social models? Boys games don't have to," says Sheri Graner Ray, product developer for Her Interactive. "Why can't the girls just have fun?"

In creating the game, the company talked to Albuquerque junior high girls and others about what they wanted to see in a computer game. Ray points to research on the different "play patterns" of boys and girls.

Females, she says, are not as visually stimulated as males but are more likely to be stirred emotionally. In resolving conflicts, males want a head-to-head conflict, while females prefer compromise and diplomacy. Girls don't want to be lone heroes in virtual reality, saving the universe on their own. They want companions. They take their opponents' feelings into account. In the end, females want emotional issues resolved. "They want stories that engross them, characters, and endings," says Ray. "The solution must benefit the player and the other characters."

The same sort of thinking appears to have gone into the development of Let's Talk About Me, by Girl Games, of Austin, Texas. Created by Oscar-winning film producer Laura Groppe, Let's Talk steps away from McKenzie's focus on appearance and dating but doesn't stray far. You can change a girl's hairstyle and color, take a personality test, interpret your dreams, mix and match clothes in the Ultimate Closet, find out why your parents bug you or how your adolescent body is changing. A section on mentors features brief bios on famous women, who discuss their outfits and their first kiss as well as offer career tips.

Beyond Barbie

In a completely different universe is You Can Be a Woman Engineer, a game developed by an engineer who worked for NASA and on the Hubble Space Telescope. Judith Love Cohen and her husband, elementary school teacher David Katz, based the game on the first of a series of books they wrote to encourage girls to consider math and science careers.

You won't find any pillow fights or lipstick here. You Can Be a Woman Engineer asks questions like: What does an engineer make? (Earth and air, no. CD-ROMS and airplanes, yes.) It also has an "Ask the author" section on the different parts of an engineer's job.

Barbie and some of the other girl games "are going where the girls are, with makeup and clothes," says Cohen. "We are talking about going into space and studying physics and astronomy. We point to what else there is. We show them the outside world."

Girls also like some games that haven't been specifically marketed to them. The old geography standby Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego is one such game; another is the role-playing fantasy Myst. And as the girls who answer market research consultant Walcott's survey questions on her web site can attest, some girls like to play shoot-'em-up games as well.

But they are hungry for games and other programs designed just for them. Walcott says girls are purchasing these games, Barbie included, not necessarily because they buy into the content but because they're happy to find games they can identify with. "They've opened up the market so people can get investors and buyers," she says of the early games. New games--and they are coming--will have more variety. Girls who are turned off by the stereotypes of the early games will find alternatives.

They'll have Barbie to thank for that.

Sidebar: gURL power

Calling all Geek Girls, Cybergrrls, Webgrrls, SmartGirls, and gURLs. Young women who find the current batch of girls' computer games vapid or offensive might have better luck on the web. An abundance of so-called girl-friendly sites have appeared on the Internet in the past few years, opening another avenue for involving girls in technology use at home as well as at school.

Isabel Walcott, a market research consultant in New York City, is also the creator of a web site called SmartGirl Internette, where girls can post reviews of other web sites, software, and a myriad of other things. The most common reason girls like particular web sites, Walcott says, is that the sites are about things that interest them. "Something which an adult man might take for granted about the web is still considered a special thing by a teenage girl," she says. Girls also mention they like the chance to chat and meet new people, and they appreciate good graphics.

The girls' opinions about web sites are remarkably different from their views of computer games, though (see main story). "The typical comments about irrelevance to a girl's life, violence, technical difficulties, or all-male characters, did not surface" in the girls' reviews of web sites, Walcott says.

The Internet is still a mostly male domain. About 70 percent of Internet users are male, according to a CommerceNet Consortium and Nielsen Media Research survey conducted in May 1996. Men also tend to use the Internet more often and for longer periods of time than women, accounting for 77 percent of online time.

But cyberspace is a big place, and sites for girls are appearing rapidly. Their content--and intent--vary. Some are sponsored by companies with products to market to girls, such as Bonne Bell and Tampax. Several of the girls' game software companies--Her Interactive, Girl Games, Cascade Pass-- have web sites, too, as do popular magazines for girls, such as New Moon. And there's a cybermagazine started by two former Columbia University graduate students, gURL, where girls can find stories about dealing with emotions and health concerns as well as play satirical games like dressing a paper doll and finding out what your choice of outfit says about you.

While some of these sites rely on the traditional female world of makeup and dating for material, others have a more serious edge, emphasizing learning about technology, finding mentors, navigating the Internet, and forming career goals. One such site is Girl Tech, founded by Janese Swanson, a software developer who left Brøderbund after designing Carmen Sandiego to develop her own line of girl-friendly toys and technology. The Girl Tech site offers, among other things, links to other "pro-girl" sites on the Internet. Swanson's company also publishes Tech Girl's Internet Adventures, a book that comes with a CD-ROM with free hours of Internet time as well as instructions on building your own home page. Girl Tech hopes to show girls "there's more to life than dating and the prom," says Linda Halunen, communication director for the company.

Cybergrrl, which made its debut in January 1995, was one of the first sites for women on the web. Though it's aimed at women, the site is visited often by girls. In response, the site's creator, Aliza Sherman, is launching a girl site. What girls seem to want most from a web site, she says, is the chance to meet and talk with other girls. In chat rooms, Sherman says, girls discuss everyday concerns and interests: school, hobbies, games, books, as well as boys and their relationships with other girls.

"It's rarely frivolous," she says. "They want to make a connection."

-- Kathleen Vail is an associate editor of Electronic School and The American School Board Journal.

Photography by Nola Lopez. Portrait by Michele Mann.