Abstract
Speech assistants with a female voice are already part of our everyday life. Simultaneously, women continue to be under-represented in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), a situation that does not seem to be changing substantially. Meanwhile, new human-like robots are increasingly being equipped with female characteristics, and the global entertainment industry expects a new generation of female sex robots to thrive. With these developments in mind, the chapter asks to what extent the role of women and contemporary technology are connected, and where this relationship is heading in the imminent future. One focus is on the latest technologies equipped with Artificial Intelligence systems that, if we trust some scientists, may change the future fundamentally toward a general feminization of avant-garde technology. The authors consult various feminist theories with the aim of analyzing and understanding these developments as well as stimulating discussion about the issue of transcultural feminization at the human-technology interface.
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Gruber, M., Benedikter, R. (2021). The Role of Women in Contemporary Technology and the Feminization of Artificial Intelligence and Its Devices. In: Keskin, T., Kiggins, R.D. (eds) Towards an International Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74420-5_2
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