Constructive Tensions in Feminist Technology Studies

Abstract

Gender must be taken into account in a full understanding of technologies. Equally, technologies must be taken into account in a full understanding of gender. This poses a challenge for the individual scholarships of feminist studies and science and technology studies (S&TS), which, for the most part, can competently theorize either gender relations or technological relations, but neither school has the theoretical wherewithal to tackle the co-construction of genders and technologies. This paper elaborates the developing theory coalition between feminist studies and S&TS in feminist technology studies. The discussion centres on four main points of tension between the disciplines that I have found particularly challenging in my study of the co-construction of masculinities and (domestic) technology. These points of tension relate to: research sites, analytic lenses, power relations and reflexivity. The objective of working through the points of tension is to elaborate the mutual learning process between the two traditions when conducting empirical research on gender and technology.