Technofeminist Storiographies: Women, Information Technology, and Cultural Representation(Communicating Gender)

Technofeminist Storiographies: Women, Information Technology, and Cultural Representation analyzes both historical and contemporary accounts of women’s lived experiences of technology, from Ada Lovelace and Hedy Lamarr to women working across the tech industry today, and juxtaposes them with larger cultural representations of women and technology. The book explores both the relationship between gender and technology and the cultural contexts that enable and constrain that relationship, questions that call for opportunities for women to share their lived experiences and to have such experiences represented across media genres. Despite the rich, complex stories and histories women have with technology—as programmers, inventors, and workers—media throughout history, including film, television, games, toys, children’s books, and biographies, often inadequately and inaccurately represent them. Throughout the book, Kristine Blair chronicles the portrayal of the relationship between women and information technology across these media genres. Inevitably, the societal conditions that surround technology use—including portrayal through popular media—impact the extent to which women and girls gain and maintain access within those cultural contexts. This book calls for a more visible history of women’s technological achievements in which their stories are heard for generations to come, rather than be forgotten and unknown.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Parallel Lives and the Recovery of Women in the (His)Story of Computing Chapter 2: Distinguishing Rhetoric from Reality in Early Computing Culture Chapter 3: Bridging the Technological Gender Gap On and Off the Screen Chapter 4: Gender Play and the Marketing of Misogyny Chapter 5: Sustaining a Technofeminist Future for Women and Girls

About the Author :
Kristine L. Blair is professor of English and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Youngstown State University.

Review :
Having worked with Kristine Blair on the publication in 1999 of her first feminist-informed book, I couldn’t be prouder than to see her newest 2019 book, Technofeminist Storiographies: Women, Information Technology, and Cultural Representation, make its timely appearance. Thoroughly researched, eloquently argued, and historically grounded, Blair’s work here deserves our closest attention. We live in a time when the cultural moments she highlights must inform and shape our everyday work in and out of the university. There is no time for hesitation: we must act now. Blair’s Technofeminist Storiographies urges us forward with her every word. In this book, Kristine Blair, a feminist and humanist working in the field of digital technologies, gathers complexly related cultural material—films, graphic novels and books, websites, and the storied lives of iconic women—to weave a powerful new material history of women in the context of technological culture. The result is an immensely valuable, startling, and illuminating bridge between academic feminism and popular culture that represents and honors women’s voices, spaces, and contributions in new and exciting ways