Women Encounter Technology: Changing Patterns Of Employment In The Third World (unu Intech Studies In New Technology & Development)

Women Encounter Technology This collection of essays explores the effects of information technology on women’s employment and the nature of women’s work in the third world. Contributors discuss the challenges faced by women, along with their responses and organizing strategies, as they adjust to new technologies in less affluent communities. Also outlined are the roles that family, ideology, state policies and trade union structures can play in distributing information technology-related employment among women and men. Particular chapters highlight differences in the interests and needs of different groups of women, challenging the concept of a monolithic, specifically feminine vision of technology and science. The book provides a critique of postmodernism and ecofeminism and suggests ways in which modern technologies could promote gender equality in the developing world. In looking at the impact of information technology on the working lives of women in the third world, this volume begins to redress the imbalance in the literature, which has so far tended to focus mainly on the experiences of first world countries. Presenting fresh research from leading academics around the world, Women Encounter Technology lays a vital foundation for further debate and research in this important area. Swasti Mitter is the Deputy Director of the United Nations University Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH), Maastricht, the Netherlands, and holds the Chair of Gender and Technology Studies at the University of Brighton, UK. Sheila Rowbotham has written extensively on women in history and the contemporary position of women. She is a Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology, University of Manchester and an Honorary Fellow in Women’s Studies at the University of North London. UNU/INTECH Studies in New Technology and Development Series editors: Charles Cooper and Swasti Mitter The books in this series reflect the research initiatives at the United Nations University Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH) based in Maastricht, the Netherlands. This institute is primarily a research centre within the UN system, and evaluates the social, political and economic environment in which new technologies are adopted and adapted in the developing world. The books in the series explore the role that technology policies can play in bridging the economic gaps between nations, as well as between groups within nations. The authors and contributors are leading scholars in the field of technology and development; their work focuses on: • • • • the social and economic implications of new technologies; processes of diffusion of such technologies to the developing world; the impact of such technologies on income, employment and environment; the political dynamics of technology transfer. The series is a pioneering attempt at placing technology policies at the heart of national and international strategies for development. This is likely to prove crucial in the globalized market, for the competitiveness and sustainable growth of poorer nations. 1 Women Encounter Technology Changing Patterns of Employment in the Third World Edited by Swasti Mitter and Sheila Rowbotham 2 In Pursuit of Science and Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa J.L.Enos 3 Politics of Technology in Latin America Edited by Maria Inês Bastos and Charles M.Cooper 4 Exporting Africa Technology, Trade and Industrialization in Sub-Saharan Africa