ABSTRACT
The computing/gender link is related to change in the South Yorkshire labor market, such as the strain in family life related to the growth of service employment and the increased proportion of female and part-time workers. New technology and new gendering are connected in the perceptions of both men and women, both seeing higher gender "stakes" in computing. A strong compputropian theme is identifiable in 1980s British academic and political writing on women and computing. By constructing alternatives to older myths of gender, ones no longer taken for granted, the efforts of feminists changed gendering as much as they were changed by it. New technology and new gendering are connected in the perceptions of both men and women, both seeing higher gender "stakes" in computing. In the 1970s a distinct women's movement with explicitly feminist goals reemerged in Sheffield. By the mid-1980s, women's politics in Sheffield had changed substantially.
