Women, Work and Computerization

Ellen Balka is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia.Richard Smith is an Assistant Professor of Communication, and Director of the Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology (CPROST), at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia.

ELLENBALKA Simon Fraser University ebalka@Sfu. ca 1. INTRODUCTION In developing the call for papers for the 7th International Federation of Information Processors (IFIP) Women, Work and Computerization Conference, we sought to cast our net widely. We wanted to encourage presenters to think broadly about women, work and computerization. Towards this end, the programme committee developed a call for papers that, in its final form, requested paper submissions around four related themes. These are (1) Setting the Course: Taking Stock of Where We Are and Where We're Going; (2) Charting Undiscovered Terrain: Creating Models, Tools and Theories; (3) Navigating the Unknown: Sex, Time, Space and Place, and (4) Taking the Helm: Education and Pedagogy. Our overall conference theme, 'Charting a Course to the Future' was inspired in part by Vancouver's geography, which is both coastal and mountainous. As such, navigation plays an important part in the lives of many as we seek to enjoy our environs. In addition, as the first Women, Work and Computerization conference of the new millennium, we hoped to encourage the broad community of scholars that has made past Women, Work and Computerization conferences a success to actively engage in imagining--and working towards-- a better future for women in relation to computers. The contributions to this volume are both a reflection of the hard work undertaken by many to improve the situation of women in relation to computerization, and a testament to how much work is yet to be done.

Making the Computer Masculine.- Do Computers Transform People Into Women and Men?.- Net Gains.- Women And Computing.- The Globalization Of Gender in IT.- Women in Computer Science.- Gender Differences in Vancouver Secondary Students.- Why I.T. Doesn't Appeal to Young Women.- Computer Self Efficacy and Gender.- Where Are They At With IT?.- ARC.- Information Systems.- Constructing Common Sense.- Masculine World Disguised as Gender Neutral.- Doubting the OBJECT World.- Gendered User-Representations.- Information System Development Methodologies.- Will ETs Understand Us If They Make Contact?.- Considering the Gender of Your Web Audience.- Gender Differences in Web Navigation.- Women in Computer-Mediated Discussions.- Electronic Democracy.- Discourses and Cracks.- Local Interpretations of Information Technology.- Courting Women @ E-Com.- Negotiating Time and Space for Every-Day Pleasure.- Young Girls On the Internet.- New Technology Increasing Old Inequality?.- Squeezing Librarians Out Of The Middle.- Sleep in a Sleepless Age.- "My Home Workplace is My Castle".- The Cottage or the Sweatshop?.- Small Business Use of Electronic Networks.- Feminist Pedagogy and the Lap Top Computer.- Education On-Line: What's In It For Women?.