Gender, Technology, and the History of Technical Communication

Durack, Katherine T. "Gender, Technology, and the History of Technical Communication," in Technical Comcommunication Quarterly 6.3 (1997): 249-60. Rpt. with "reflection" in Central Works in Technical Communication. Ed. Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart Selber. Oxford, UK: Oxford UP (2004).

An elegant introduction to "research from the history of technology suggesting that notions of technology, work, and workplace may be gendered terms" (brief abstract, printed as headnote). There's little "may be" about it, and it is important to know that (1) "Men's and women experiences of technology are quite different" (253); and (2) traditional views of technology and work have consistently undervalued technology used in what was long called "the domestic sphere." Relevant here since constricted ideas of technology and work may reduce the "Human/Machine Interface" in SF to the man/machine interface. See KTD's Works Cited for further readings; see in this Category citations for for C. Cockburn,

RDE, Title, 27Aug19