Notes on "Technofeminism" by Judy Wajcman

Preface

"Feminism Confronts Technology" -> Feminist perspective on social science debates about technology. Different technological change impact on women and men: how does their social experience affect technology? Technological artifacts are shaped by gender - which is a social construction. How do the hierarchies of sexual difference affect the design and reproduction of technologies?

Introduction: Feminist Utopia or Dystopia

Contemporary inability to live outside technology - our life is mediated by it. ICT acquired centrality, which makes for a global information society characterized by the compression of space and time.
However this raises concerns of a "digital divide", both between countries and within them, as a new source of inequality.
Our idea of self, of what means to be human, is changing thanks to the new biomedical technologies and new forms of commodifying nature. It is time to rethink technology impact in culture.
Nowadays, society's advancement index is partially determined by scientific and technological development. There's a reverence for "rational" as opposed to "emotional"
In the West, the feminization of the paid labour force has allowed for a new-found economic independence for women, generating a shift in public discourse about gender equality. In Western societies, aspects of gender equality are enshrined in law, although true equality is far from conquered. Besides, gender identities began to be questioned.
Social changes brought about by technological advances. Feminism is torn between utopian and dystopian visions of the impact of technology on women. Both scenarios crowd the future with automata, androids and robots.
Cyberspace age brought about new possibilites of emancipation from the flesh. "What might these imaginings about the future reveal about gender relations? How does the social and political revolution in women's lives relate to the digital revolution?"
Utopian visions -> Virtual reality can be seen as a new political space defying conventional gender roles and old social relations. Cyberfeminists imagine a gender free future in cyberspace. Digital networks are perceived as offering women new possibilities for global information exchange and thus participating democracy. Besides, the Internet is a powerful tool for political activist mobilization. It doesn't belong to anyone, making it an open space for women's political and social purposes, thus subverting the traditional definition of woman as biologically determined and confined to the private sphere. The idea of bodily transcendence and possibility of engagement in international politics is seen as highly seductive.
Dystopian visions -> The Internet is marked by its military origins and the image of the white male hacker that spawned it. So it is also a means of evading social regulation, strenghten political control and concentrate economical power. These groups are mainly dominated by men, not to mention the huge gender gap regarding access and control of electronic networks. The massive growth of pornographic websites as the most visited, sex trade activities, pedophile networks and sexual harrassement contribute for the view of the Internet as far from gender neutral, fully democratic and utopian.