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Chapter Summary
The book would not be complete without a critical engagement with the topic of gender and technology. Often gender is ignored in the design, adoption, and use of tools and apps, despite the fact that an analysis of gender provides rich insights into fundamental differences between men and women and how they approach technology. The chapter looks at historical and contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches to the study and critique of gendered technologies. Of particular interest is the relation between household technologies and physical and mental labour. This chapter also seeks to discern the similarities and differences in how men and women adopt and use digital technologies. This analysis reveals that there is a gap between men and women in terms of their digital skills, perceptions of competency, and uptake of digital tools. Based on these differences, the chapter goes on to examine the role of women in the IT industry and provides an overview of current interventions, such as Ladies Learning Code, aimed at increasing gender equality in this field. Finally, the chapter investigates how the gendered body becomes reintegrated into the digital world in the form of images, discourse, media depictions, and user-generated content.
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you should learn to do the following:
- to examine the meaning of the term genders and the range of conceptualizations available in the academic literature;
- to look at historical and contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches to the study and critique of gendered technologies;
- to investigate the relation between household technologies and physical and mental labour, and call into question perspectives of technological determinism;
- to examine the role of women in the IT industry and obtain an overview of current interventions aimed at increasing gender equality in this field;
- to take a closer look at how the gendered body becomes reintegrated into the digital world in the form of images, discourse, media depictions, and user-generated content.