Grint, Keith and Rosalind Gill. The Gender-Technology Relation: Contemporary Theory and Research. London: Taylor and Francis, 1995.

Rosalind Gill and Keith Grint, "Introduction: The Gender-Technology Relation: Contemporary Theory and Research"

The central project of this work is to survey recent articles on the subject of gender and technology, in order to identify some of the ways in which gender and technology can be understood. This assumes a variety of theoretical forms and foci. As Wajcman also notes, there have not been many attempts to explore the issues raised by different technologies, nor to fully develop theoretical frameworks for understanding the gender-technology relation. While it is important to study various technologies in their own contexts, it is also helpful to make connections both on the level of discourse and practice. As Grint and Gill note, the issues raised have deeper roots in structures of patriarchal power, epistemology foundations of privilege and subordination, and gendered subjectivity and identity.

Grint and Gill begin by noting the cultural association of technology with masculinity, and feminist interrogation of the gendered process of exclusion and segregation of technology creation and use. According to Grint and Gill, feminist theory creates a tension between trying to sever links between technology and masculinity, while acknowledging the cultural force and effects of this connection.

Identity is one important mechanism of the reproduction of the gender-technology relation. Doing technology in certain ways is often taken as "doing gender" (whether appropriately or inappropriately).

Grint and Gill see the stream of social constructivism as a fruitful source of attentive feminist theory, although they argue for the diversity of constructivist approaches. Feminists have appropriated the tools and methodology of social constructivist theory, but also moved beyond traditional treatments of such models as actor-network theory (ANT) in assigning gender primacy.

Susan Ormrod, Chapter One, "Feminist Sociology and Methodology: Leaky Black Boxes in Gender/Technology Relations"

In this chapter, Ormrod examines feminist methodologies of research into gender and technology, arguing that employment of social theory runs the risk of reducing social relations to simple explanations of how pre-existing manifestations of patriarchy "express and shape" technology. She is concerned with two approaches: first, the classically poststructuralist approach which views "the social as constructed in and through discourse, meaning and representation which also construct human subjectivities" (p.31); and second, ANT, which holds that "the social is seen as performed by actors, some which may not be human, but each of which may be enrolled or 'translated' in the creation of technologies."(p.31)

Gender (and technological) relations, here, are seen as part of a process of continual negotiation between subjects and structures, neither of which are ontologically given. Power operates through "enrolling many actors in a social and political scheme."(p.37) Subjects invest in social identities which have value, although there is the possibility for change. Ormrod sees this model as providing a good balance between how "human actors both act during the process of a network being constructed, and are considered to come into being as a product of such interactions".(p.38) Gender and technology are a series of relational practices which are under constant redefinition and reinscription. This is not to say that relations between these things are in a state of complete relativism; indeed "[f]or a network to endure, it has to effect a stability of social relations, to make some meanings and practices (of, say, identity and technology) less likely than others."(p.40)

Ormrod concludes by reiterating that "feminist sociology of technology must be able to show how relations of power are exercised and the processes by which gendered subjectivities are achieved."(p.45)

Keith Grint and Steve Woolgar, Chapter Two, "On Some Failures of Nerve in Constructivist and Feminist Analyses of Technology"

In this chapter, Grint and Woolgar examine some feminist theories which critique technological determinism, to show that often these kinds of critiques replicate the very theoretical mistakes they identify. Given that theories on technology can have "profound consequences for the practical policies which we adopt"(p.48), Grint and Woolgar are concerned with critically examining "the extent and implications of these problems in some recent constructivist and feminist perspectives on technology."(p.48) In doing so, they argue that "anti-essentialist arguments need to be taken to a more radical (post-essentialist) conclusion"(p.49), which requires subjecting various theoretically "given" categories to an anti-essentialist analysis.

Grint and Woolgar distinguish two central streams of theory around technology: essentialist, in which technical characteristics of the technology are inherent to the thing or practice itself; and anti-essentialist, which encompasses a broad spectrum of perspectives such as constructivism, and holds that technologies are always situated within larger systems and structural relations. Although Grint and Woolgar are sympathetic to the latter position, they note that it has three problems which threaten its radical potential: ambivalence around antecedent circumstances; the specifying of these antecedent circumstances; and the eventual effects of technology in terms of the end results of "stabilized technological products".(p.50) These points are taken up in greater detail below.

The first problem concerning antecedent circumstances is the implication of the ontological neutrality of technology, so that "technology" is posited as a neutral/apolitical thing or object which is then overlaid with meaning. As Grint and Woolgar argue, "it makes no sense to suppose that such an apolitical object could exist independent of evaluative aspects; it exists only and through our descriptions and practices, and hence is never available in a raw, untainted state."(p.51) Here they make the distinction between politics as "attached" and politics as "ascribed".

The second problem of antecedent circumstances is that it assumes an unvalued heterogeneity to the meanings which are "attached", instead of viewing meanings as competing for hegemony, and/or asymmetrically valued.

The third problem is the presumption of the "intrinsic objective properties" of the technology, such that the technology has the same eventual effects regardless of context.

Thus, Grint and Woolgar conclude, although essentialism is ostensibly avoided in these approaches, a new form of essentialism tends to take its place. According to Grint and Woolgar, one significant absence in theoretical analyses is the treatment of technologies as texts, and they find this perspective a fruitful point of departure.

Grint and Woolgar outline a critique of ecofeminist approaches to technology, which has largely been discussed elsewhere, which they situate in their larger critique of essentialism.

Thus, Grint and Woolgar propose that perspectives situated in essentialist positions which "refuse to countenance the possibility that what we take to be the same technology is apprehended in radically different ways by different people that it will, in all probability, continue to fail."(p.63)

What, then, is an alternative? Grint and Woolgar identify post-essentialism, essentialism, and anti-essentialism as "the good, the bad, and the nervous".(p.65) They note that constructivism, although useful in its recognition of the contingent nature of "truth", is limited in its rejection of an ethical political stance.

Valerie Frissen, Chapter Three, "Gender is Calling: Some Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future Use of the Telephone"

In this chapter, Frissen outlines the prescriptive and descriptive nature of technology, arguing that patterns of telephone use emphasize and buttress cultural constructions of masculinity and femininity; but also that women, through their practice of using the telephone, bring gendered relations of technology use into being, in a fashion different from the way the creators originally intended (see also the chapter in Arwen and Mohun on the radio for how technologies move from masculine to feminine spaces). On the latter point, Frissen notes "the amazing discrepancy between the intentions of the telephone industry and the actual uses of the telephone in everyday life."(p.84)

Women's use of the telephone, then, illustrated both stereotypical gendered behaviour in that they used it to perform "gender work" of communication and community cohesion, but also the transgressive space between the intentions of the technology's creators and its ultimate use.

Danielle Chabaud-Rychter, Chapter Four, "The Configuration of Domestic Practices in the Designing of Household Appliances"

In this chapter, Chabaud-Rychter explores "the relations that the designers of domestic appliances establish with domestic practices in the course of their work"(p.95); in two specific ways. First, the codification of women's cooking practices and their consequent incarnation in mechanical operations. Women's knowledge here is thus translated into a series of "scientific" and "technological" practices which comprise a body of technical knowledge once it has been appropriated and formalized. Second, the manifestation of the creator's control over the eventual form and function of these appliances, which means "distributing skills, responsibilities, and actions between the user, the technical object, and possibly other actors…"(p.103) Thus, the development of household appliances requires a codification of "women's knowledge" into a series of quantifiable practices.

Eric Hirsch, Chapter Five, "New Reproductive Technologies and the 'Modern Condition' in Southeast England"

Vicky Singleton, Chapter Six, "Networking Constructions of Gender and Constructing Gender Networks: Considering Definitions of Woman in the British Cervical Screening Programme"

Singleton finds ANT a useful framework because it "provides a way of approaching science without assuming a priori distinctions between, for example, science and society, human and nonhuman entities, valid and invalid knowledge."(p.148) Thus no dichotomies are inherent, and ANT concerns itself more with the "how" of mapping their construction in an interdisciplinary way. Singleton identifies three central premises of ANT: generalized agnosticism (an analytic impartiality to the actors themselves); generalized symmetry (use of abstract and neutral lexicon to describe conflicting viewpoints of actors); and free association (the repudiation of a priori distinctions between fields).

In terms of the CSP, Singleton argues that "we can conceptualize each actor in the CSP not only as a network in its own right, but also as an internal network-builder."(p.150) Furthermore, Singleton proposes that the notion of "a variety of actorial perspectives at once exposes the ambivalence and multiplicitous identity of actors… these multiple perspectives are missing from ANT in its traditional form."(p.150)

Applying ANT to feminist theory results in some problems. First, the role of power in ANT is somewhat unclear. According to Singleton, "[p]ower is a consequence rather than the cause of action", and "[p]ower relations are the consequence of defining and associating entities."(p.152) Second, in its emphasis on "giving voice to the object", ANT risks both essentializing women to the status of undifferentiated objects, and providing an insufficient means through which to eradicate problematic dualisms. In attempting to "give voice to woman", ANT also has "a need to impose order and to simplify woman which results in the occlusion of difference and diversity."(p.166) Third, ANT may result in an endless slippage, with no ethical or political stance resulting from its use.

Tove Håpnes and Knut Sørensen, Chapter Seven, "Competition and Collaboration in Male Shaping of Computing: A Study of a Norwegian Hacker Culture"

In this chapter, Håpnes and Sørensen examine a male Norwegian hacker culture to "explore the interrelationship between gender and technology… [and] maleness and computing."(p.175) They are curious as to whether it is possible to view the gender identity of hackers as autonomous from their mode of computing.

Identifying some theoretical roots, Håpnes and Sørensen note some problems in much of the theory on gender and technology. First, there is the difficulty of "reflexivity… reduction and reification" in ascribing certain kinds of masculinity to the creation and use of technology. Second, "there are the preconditions of arguing the translation of masculinity into the artefact or system being designed"; this is reminiscent of feminist postmodernists arguing against the designation of sexual difference as the difference.

In choosing their research subjects, Håpnes and Sørensen set out to examine a group who stood for everything problematic about gender and technology. In their deviance and marginality, they represent some extremes of the intersection between masculinity and technology. Håpnes and Sørensen's project was threefold: "first, to analyse this particular culture to learn about the interaction between gender and computers; second, to improve our understanding of how users of an artefact construct the artefact, so to speak, as an ensemble of technical and cultural elements through processes of negotiations with human and nonhuman actors; and third, to assess the notions of a universal hacker culture…"(p.179)

Interestingly, despite the construction of this group as an extreme of macho culture, Håpnes and Sørensen noted some disparities between models of masculinity and positivist technology use and actual cultural practice. For example, they noted combinations of "competition and collaboration, individualism and caring"(p.186) which were inherent to the imagining of the community. In fact the culture was quite complex, evidence of both the fluidity of masculinity and the flexibility of computers as a cultural medium.

Margaret Tierney, Chapter Eight, "Negotiating a Software Career: Informal Work Processes and 'The Lads' in a Software Installation"

In this chapter, Tierney examines the relationship between work practices and emergent software careers to show that "social networks which pertain in a software installation become an extremely important site for workers to demonstrate their worth; gain a reputation; acquire new forms of expertise; and so advance their careers."(p.193)