ABSTRACT

As yet there has been relatively little published on women's activities in relation to new digital technologies. Virtual Gender brings together theoretical perspectives from feminist theory, the sociology of technology and gender studies with well designed empirical studies to throw new light on the impact of ICTs on contemporary social life.
A line-up of authors from around the world looks at the gender and technology issues related to leisure, pleasure and consumption, identity and self. Their research is set against a backcloth of renewed interest in citizenship and ethics and how these concepts are recreated in an on-line situation, particularly in local settings.
With chapters on subjects ranging from gender-switching on-line, computer games, and cyberstalking to the use of the domestic telephone, this stimulating collection challenges the stereotype of woman as a passive victim of technology. It offers new ways of looking at the many dimensions in which ICTs can be said to be gendered and will be a rich resource for students and teachers in this expanding field of study.

part 1|99 pages

Gendered access and experience of ICTs and the Internet

chapter 1|25 pages

Women and the Internet

The natural history of a research project

chapter 4|21 pages

Becoming a technologist

Days in a girl's life

chapter 5|16 pages

Theoretical reflections on networking in practice

The case of women on the Net

part 2|105 pages

Leisure, pleasure and consumption

chapter 6|21 pages

Understanding computer game cultures

A situated approach

chapter 7|26 pages

Visual pleasure in textual places

Gazing in multi-user object-oriented worlds

chapter 8|23 pages

Strange yet stylish headgear

Virtual reality consumption and the construction of gender

chapter 10|17 pages

Men, masculinities and ‘mundane' technologies

The domestic telephone

part 3|55 pages

Citizens at work and in the community

chapter 11|16 pages

Cyberstalking

Gender and computer ethics

chapter 12|16 pages

Gender and citizenship in the information society

Women's information technology groups in North Karelia

part 4|60 pages

Identity and self

chapter 15|16 pages

A camera with a view

JenniCAM, visual representation and cyborg subjectivity

chapter 16|21 pages

Cyborgs or goddesses?

Becoming divine in a cyberfeminist age