Abstract
The new field of computer occupations has acquired a masculine character in a very short time, even in a period in which women’s participation in the labour market increased significantly. In this article, I want to show how the computer on symbolic level became inextricably bound up with prevailing masculine values as early as the ′50s and ′60s. The empirical material is based on an analysis of newspaper articles on computers from this period. I will argue that the brain metaphor played an important role in transferring masculine values to the computer and to the computer worker. At the end, I will discuss other meanings that could have led to a less masculine image, but I suggest these meanings were less powerful than the brain metaphor.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Bowden, B.V. (Ed.). (1953). Faster Than Thought. A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines. London: Pitman & Sons
Hâpnes, T. and Rasmussen, B. (1991). The production of male power in computer science.
In Eriksson, I.V., B.A. Kichenham and K.G. Tijdens, Women, Work and Computerization:Understanding and Overcoming Bias in Work and Education. pp. 395-406. Amsterdam:
North Holland.
Harding, S. (1986). The Science question in feminism. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Heinämaa, S. (1991). Women's Place in Artificial Intelligence: Observations on Metaphors of Thought and Knowledge. In Eriksson, I.V., B.A. Kichenham and K.G. Tijdens, Women, Work and Computerization: Understanding and Overcoming Bias in Work and Education, Amsterdam: North Holland, pp. 41 - 52
Hesse, M. (1966). Models And Analogies In Science,Notre Dame (I): University of Notre Dame Press
Hoffmann, U. (1987). Computerfrauen. Welchen Anteil haben Frauen and Computergeschikte und -arbeit, München: Rainer Hampp Verlag
Kelly, A. (1985). The Construction of Masculine Science, British Journal of Sociology of Education 6, no. 2, pp. 133 - 154
Kraft, P. (1979). The industrialization of Computer Programming: From Programming to "Software Production". In Zimbalist, A. (Ed.). Case Studies on the Labor Process New York: Monthly Review Press, pp. 1 - 17
Lie, M. (1995). Technology and Masculinity: The Case of the Computer, European Journal of Women's Studies 2, p. 379 - 394.
10.Oost, E.C.J. van (1998). Aligning Gender and New Technology: The Case of Early Administrative Automation. In Disco, C. and B. van der Meulen (Eds.). Getting New Technologies Together: Studies in Making Sociotechnical Order. p. 179 - 203. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Spender, Dale (1995). Nattering on the Net. Women, Power and Cyberspace. North Melbourne: Spinifex.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Van Oost, E. (2000). Making the Computer Masculine. In: Balka, E., Smith, R. (eds) Women, Work and Computerization. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing, vol 44. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35509-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35509-2_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-6977-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-35509-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive