Polity Gender and Technology: An Introduction

Technology has advanced significantly over the past 200 years, but have ideas about gender and technology also changed over time? Are modern technologies gendered? In this comprehensive text, Holly Kruse explores how notions of gender and technology have been socially constructed. Organized historically, the book provides a broad overview of global developments in technology and how these technologies have been (ideologically) gendered. Focusing on communication and media technologies and analysing an array of household and workplace devices, the text examines the ways in which they have been considered "feminine" or "masculine". These associations, as the text reveals, often have little to do with the complexity of the technology. Rich with historical and contemporary examples – from bicycles and washing machines to the telegraph and the computer - Gender and Technology encourages us to take a closer look at how and why modern technologies are gendered. By understanding the origins of our ideas about gender and technology, we can see how they have and have not changed over time. This text is essential reading for undergraduates taking courses on gender and technology, and will be of interest to general readers who want to learn more about the historical relationship between gender and technology.