DATA TECHNOLOGY AND WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT

Abstract

According to a prevalent thesis, women's employment will be affected by the introduction of new technology because lowly qualified, repetitive “women's jobs” are becoming automatized. Others argue that — at least during a long transition period — there will be a need for a large number of data‐input jobs compensating for places of employment lost to women during automatization. Such arguments reveal a number of biases regarding women's work: work carried out by women is per definition less qualified than that done by men, women being best qualified for repetitive work, etc. The paper challenges these assumptions and outlines some of the more subtle social processes influencing the quantity and quality of work available to women: forms of “natural wast‐age”, union policies, views of women as being provided for. New technology is frequently used to strengthen previous tendencies towards segmented labour markets, intensified work, and abstract relationships to reality. Technical determinism can become a self‐fulfilling prophecy unless the development of new technology is informed by emphasis on qualifications necessary for our reproduction as human beings.

Citation

Bermann, T. (1987), "DATA TECHNOLOGY AND WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT", Office Technology and People, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 39-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb022641