This talk points out social patterns based on gender, with a special focus on technology

1. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Memi Beltrame
Mind the Gap
On Gender and Technology
Liip techday, july 1st 2009

2. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
This talk points out social patterns
based on gender, with a special focus on
technology

3. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
What is Gender?

4. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Is it just another word
for sex?
Gender:
Sex: F M

5. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Sex Gender

6. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Sex Gender
Biology Society

7. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Gender is definded by the social
patterns of the male/female
duality

8. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
These patterns in general stand
for stereotypical roles

9. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Gender Boundaries are fluid and in
constant change, evolving in time,
culture or social environment

10. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Gender operates on three levels:
Level 1: Identity

11. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Level 1: Identity
● How I present myself
● Words I choose & things I say
● Things I wear, clothes, jewels
● How I move and act
● Stuff I like and use

12. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Gender operates on three levels:
Level 1: Identity
Level 2: Stuctures & Institutions

13. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Level 2: Stuctures & Institutions
● Boy Scout/Girl Scout
● Boy/Girl boarding Scools
● Locker Rooms
● Barber/Beauty Parlor

14. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Gender operates on three levels:
Level 1: Identity
Level 2: Stuctures & Institutions
Level 3: Symbolism & representation

15. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Level 3: Symbolism & representation
● Images of manhood /womanhood
● Assumptions on what a man/woman likes
● Behaviour that is expected by a man/woman

16. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
The male/female duality is reflected
by other dualities:
Female Male
Home Work
Private Public
Soft Hard
Pink Blue
Extroversion Introversion

17. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
In the Past 40 years the
boundaries between these
dualisms have been blurred

18. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
In the Past 40 years the
boundaries between these
dualisms have been blurred
But the stereotypes
are still present today.

19. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
What has this got to
do with technology?

20. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Glad you ask!

21. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Technology

22. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Technology
A simple definition:
the engineered products and
services that surround us

23. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Ask yourself:
Who
● Engineeres
● Designs
● Produces/Manufactures
● Repairs/Maintains
● Uses
these products & services?

24. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Engineers in Germany
2008:
Women: 77'986 11.6%
Men: 596'280 88.4%
Source: Verband Deutsche Ingenieure e.V.
(German Engineering Association)

25. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Architects & Construction engineers
Electrical engineers
Source: Verband Deutsche Ingenieure e.V.
(German Engineering Association)

26. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Production
Electronics assembly line

27. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Users
Internet usage in relation to age and sex
Men
Women
15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Age
Source: Bundesamt für Statistik
(Swiss Federal Buro of Statistics)

28. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Is there gendered
technology?

29. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
#1 The superfluous hair problem

30. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
#1 The superfluous hair problem

31. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
#1 The superfluous hair problem
Form follows function Form follows emotions

32. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
#1 The superfluous hair problem
● Beard trimming for men, with blades
●Full body epilation for women with a
wide variety: shaving, waxing, depilatory
creams, laser treatment

33. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
#1 The superfluous hair problem
The 1920-40 featured a variety of
mostly bizarre techniques:
● Abrasives made from sandpaper
● Aggresive chemical treatments
● Removal by electrolysis where the
hair was galvanised and roasted away,
predecessor of laser treatment.
● X-Ray Epilation where the hair was
removed by radiation

34. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
#1 The superfluous hair problem
„Trimming the bush to make the tree look taller“
Gillette, Groin-Shaving tips
Watch this and
notice the
references to
technology!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TiJNewpCnY

35. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
#2 Home sweet home

36. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
#2 Home sweet home
Gadgets!

37. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
#2 Home sweet home
Gadgets!
And a lot of assumptions!

38. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
General household tools
Associated with women

39. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
But of course: the washing machine is
repaired by a man...

40. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Household tools in a broader sense
Associated with men

41. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Leisure items
Associated with men and women

42. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Programming

43. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Programming
A brief history lesson

44. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
During World War II the U.S. Army
started to use machines to figure out
ballistic trajectories and to solve
complex mathematical equations of
wartime research

45. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
These Machines
filled entire
houses and took
several people to
operate.

46. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Nearly two hundred mathematically
trained women were recruited.

47. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Nearly two hundred mathematically
trained women were recruited
They were called „computers“.

48. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Ironically the machines would take over
their name and replace them later in
history.

49. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
So while men engineered the machines
women did the programming

50. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Since the real bottleneck was
engineering the machines, the women's
work was regarded as subprofessional.

51. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
These women never received any credit
for their innovations and inventions

52. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Once the bottleneck of engineering had
been mastered the new major task had
become programming the machine.

53. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Once the bottleneck of engineering had
been mastered the new major task had
become programming the machine.
That's the point where men took over.

54. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Emancipation
Closing the gap

55. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
● Freedom of choice

56. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
● Freedom of choice
● Equality :
● Opportunities (education, jobs)
● Genuine encouragement
● Credits and rewards
(salary, Promotions)

57. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
● Freedom of choice
● Equality :
● Opportunities (education, jobs)
● Genuine encouragement
● Credits and rewards
(salary, Promotions)
● Dropping the assumptions on what
men/women want, like and need

58. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Embrace Difference!
Overcome dualities
and assumptions!

59. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Thank you!

60. Liip Techday 2009
Memi Beltrame: Mind the Gap - On Gender and Technology
Bibliography:
Lerman, Nina E. Et al. Gender & Technology. A Reader. 2003. The John Hopkins
University Press, Baltimore.
Froidevaux, Yves and Volker G. Täube Internetnutzung in den Haushalten der
Schweiz. 2006. Bundesamt für Statistik, Neuchâtel
Statistics on slides 24/25:
Verband Deutsche Ingenieure e.V.:Arbeitsmarktdaten Ingenieurwissenschaften
http://liip.to/engineerStatsGermany