ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide a broader picture of the relationship between women and technology through an inquiry into the role of the mobile phone in the lives of Portuguese women. Although the mobile phone is currently one of the most pervasive communication technologies, only a few studies have approached it from a gender perspective and even fewer from a feminist viewpoint. Studies about gender and mobile phones can be divided into two categories: studies centred on the differences between men and women, and those that offer a more nuanced account of gender practices. The stories of women presented in the chapter illustrate the multiplicity of the facets of their emerging relationship with mobile phones, and how their life stories intersect with different uses of technology and the mobile phone in particular. The chapter reveals that in Portugal, the mobile phone has different roles and affordances throughout women's life courses.
