Class Notes 4/16/07

Class Notes 4/16/07

By Erin D.

Argument: The need for women to become active producers of technology, not just users of it.
Men are the main creators of technology and women need to find a balance.
Once women became involved, it was easier to produce out of the home and for the technology created to reflect the political and social concerns of women everywhere--Bejing+5 conference example
Started at the grassroots level and gave voice to these smaller activist groups i.e. President Bush donations to Planned Parenthood
More involvement in the world of technology means greater political and economic power.
More women creating means more products and services targeted toward women--male creators should also strive to include women more
Not enough women in science and technology fields--pushed away by education system
Tendency toward gender bias from those who create--maybe subconscious, maybe not--more encoded and subversive than other examples like violence or pornography
Article focuses too heavily on differences between men and women and assumes there are fundamental reasons for these differences--social constructions of femininity and masculinity vs. biological construction
Lee argues that men and women have different perspectives and worldviews on technology
Men programmers and creators are socially conditioned to disregard the concerns of women
Is more women representation the answer?
More than two sexes and more than two worldviews do exist
Implied that women will automatically balance out inequalities or other minorities will diversify a workplace or situation--again implies that there are fundamental differences between different groups
Hypocrisy of multiculturalism for the sake of multiculturalism
Tokenism of Bush cabinet

Advertisements for technology are not targeted toward women--section in "Maxim" for tech ads - same isn't true for Cosmopolitan magazine.