Internet in the feminine: Using feminine strategies in hacker culture (DOI: 10.2436/20.3000.02.15)

Autors/ores

  • Aina Fernàndez i Aragonès Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

Paraules clau:

Internet, technology, hackers, gender, digital divide, free culture

Resum

A number of feminist movements have historically accused technology of being part of the patriarchal structure. Indeed, different studies demonstrate that access to the design and development of technology has an uneven gender distribution. However, Internet is a cultural production and, according to Castells, hacker culture is an essential component of the cultural underpinning of the Internet. This new culture comprises several characteristics that are closely tied to the values which are historically considered to be "typically feminine", such as creativity, cooperation and informality. Castells argues that technology is a fundamental dimension of social change and that the type of technology a society develops and disseminates is, to a great extent, a model of its material structure. Therefore, cyberfeminists see this new technology as the possibility for women to access the technology itself, to use it and be part of its design. Is the Internet an opportunity to eradicate the gender digital divide?

Key words: Internet, technology, hackers, gender, digital divide, free culture

Original source: Comunicació. Revista de Recerca i d'Anàlisi, 29(1): 45-66 (2012)

Descàrregues

Les dades de descàrrega encara no estan disponibles.

Descàrregues

Número

Núm. 3 (2013)

Secció

Comunicació

Llicència

The intellectual property of articles belongs to the respective authors.
On publishing articles to the journal Catalan Social Sciences Review (CSSR), authors accept the following terms:
  1. Authors assign to Philosophy and Social Sciences Section (a subsidiary of Institut d’Estudis Catalans) the rights of reproduction, communication to the public and distribution of the articles published in Catalan Social Sciences Review (CSSR).
  2. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for the reproduction of all graphic material included in articles.
  3. Philosophy and Social Sciences Section declines all liability for the possible infringement of intellectual property rights by authors.
  4. The contents published in the journal, unless otherwise stated in the text or in the graphic material, are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (by-nc-nd) 3.0 Spain licence, the complete text of which may be found at  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/deed.en. Consequently, the general public is authorised to reproduce, distribute and communicate the work, provided that its authorship and the body publishing it are acknowledged, and that no commercial use and no derivative works are made of it.
  5. Catalan Social Sciences Review (CSSR)  is not responsible for the ideas and opinions expressed by the  authors of the published articles.