Teknikvetenskap, jämställdhet & genus

a pilot study made at CERES, 2007by Johan Rydstedt

Theoretical background

• Research on gender and technology states that technology has by tradition been a male domain

• Through the progress of Internet this is however now changing - slowly

• Still Sweden has a strongly gender segregated working life

”Jämställdhet” or ”Genus”- two different perspectives

• JÄMSTÄLLDHET in technology acts for more women in technology by promoting, supporting and trying to make women interested in technology. JÄMSTÄLLDHET argues equal opportunities and conditions for men and women (=policy)

• GENUS in technology goes beyond this and argues which type of science and which type of knowledge is produced and by whom. GENUS in technology acts for a radical vision of a new agenda for a changed technology (=critical research)

Jämställdhet AND Genus

• We mean that the two perspectives JÄMSTÄLLDHET and GENUS are necessary if we both want to understand and to change the present conditions

• We try to work for JÄMSTÄLLDHET based on GENUS theory

The empirical study - interviews with two doctoral students (a man and a woman) in

the VAS projectConclusions:• Gender balanced research group, in comparison

to technological research projects in other environments

• Most partner representatives from industry are men

• Concrete application, which the interviewed found interesting and which may open up for more social analysis

• The doctoral students couldn’t see any gender perspective in the VAS project, neither had they heared of any demands on gender perspective from the KK-foundation

• The male dominance within technology was explained as a social question where different demands on girls and boys, both from school and home, reproduce gender stereotypes. Another explanation was that men choose men when they recruit

• The interviewed were positive towards more discussions about scientific theory and definition of knowledge, for example in which context the research is produced and what the motives behind the research are

• The view of the engineer as a ”nörd” has to be changed in order to attract young people, especially women, to the technological field