Making the invisible become visible: Recognizing women's relationship with technology

Abstract

This discussion paper explores a new rhetoric that might help to increase our understanding of women’s relationships with information and communication technology. We have often heard the claim that women have to give up part of their femininity in technological contexts. However, it is not always femininity women have to "give up", the author argues, but rather their close bond with technology – a "something else" that has no precise name, and which for that reason can slip away in an almost invisible way. This paper claims that we need to make this "something else" become visible, suggesting the concept of "technicity" as a place to start the discussion.