Connecting Women / History of Computing (PDF)

This important volume examines European perspectives on the historical relations that women have maintained with information and communication technologies (ICTs), since the telegraph.

Presenting a dialogue which encompasses a diverse selection of transnational and interdisciplinary studies, the text investigates forms of female empowerment, gendered representations and women's professionalization, in different spheres of ICT.

Topics and features:

• Describes how gendered networks have formed around ICT since the late 19th Century, focusing on the media of the telegraph, the press and the radio
• Reviews the gendered issues revealed by the conflict between the actress Ms. Sylviac and the French telephone administration in 1904, or by 'feminine' blogs
• Examines how gender representations, age categories, and uses of ICT interact and are mutually formed in children's magazines
• Illuminates the participation of women in the early days of computing, through a case study on the Rothamsted Statistics Department
• Presents a comparative study of women in computing in France, Finland and the UK, revealing similar gender divisions within the ICT professions of the three countries
• Discusses diversity interventions and the part that history could (and should) play to ensure women do not take second place in specific occupational sectors

Providing a broad analysis on the interconnections between innovation, technology, and women's history, this collection will be of great interest to all researchers at the intersection of gender studies, media history and the historyof computing.

Dr. Valérie Schafer is a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS, Institute for Communication Sciences), Paris, France. Dr. Benjamin G. Thierry is an assistant professor at Paris-Sorbonne University.