Gender and Information Technologies Essay -- Feminist theories of tech

Technology is socially and culturally constructed as a male practice carried out in male institutions (Hellman, 1996). The dominant value system of underlying technological creative processes and decision making, is considered to be fundamentally masculine. This is because during the late 19th century mechanical and civil engineering increasingly came to define what -technology is, crucially it involved the creation of a male professional identity, based on educational qualifications and the promise of managerial positions, sharply distinguished from shop floor engineering and blue-collar workers (Wajcman, 2010). Take engineering for example: an archetypal masculine culture, where mastery over technology is a source of both pleasure and power for the predominantly male profession. These images resonate with MIT computer hacker students. Though they would deny their culture is macho, the preoccupation with winning and subjection to increasingly violent tests make their world male in s pirit and unfriendly to women. However that is not to say all women reject ‘geek culture’, nor that computer science is universally coded as masculine (Wajcman, 2010). In Malaysia women are well represented in computer science. Still Women in ICT sectors stand one to five in information technology electronic communication professions and managerial positions (Wajcman, 2010). Thus this brings me to my hypothesis that Information and communication technologies breed a culture of misogyny. Within this research it is shown that women are largely excluded from the technical design processes that shape the world we live in. In Ecofeminism (1993) authors Vandana Shiva, Maria Mies Critique and Evan Bond, they view the dominant stream of modern science as a ... ...the global economy. Information Technology for Development 14 (4): 262-279. DOI.org/10.1002/itdj.20098 Gurumurthy, A. (2011). Feminist Visions of the Network Society. Development 54 (4), 464-469. doi: 10.1057/dev.2011.82 Hellman, H. (1996). A Toy for the Boys only? Reconsidering the Gender Effects of Video Technology. European Journal of Communication 11(1): 5-32. Lee, M. (2006). What's Missing in Feminist Research in New Information and Communication Technologies? Feminist Media Studies, 6 (2): 191-210. doi: 10.1080/14680770600645168 Wacjman, J. (2010). Feminist theories of technology. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 34, 143-152. doi:10.1093/cje/ben057 Wyatt, S. (2008). Feminism, Technology and the Information Society: learning from the past, imagining the future. Information, Communication & Society, 11 (1): 111-130. doi: 10.1080/13691180701859065