ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the literacy narratives of two women who grew up before the entrance of computers as writing technologies but who nevertheless persisted as adults in their efforts to acquire what we are calling the literacies of technology. It examines the cultural ecology for women's digital literacy in Egypt during this same general period and consider the life history narrative of Safia El-Wakil, a different story emerges, but one that today, nonetheless, is intimately tied to literacy and the new information technologies. The chapter highlights a few tentative themes that have emerged from their case studies. Although universities and workplaces have provided women important physical access to computers, these particular technology gateways do not always provide the specific conditions under which this access becomes most useful.
