Technicians, Tacticians and Tattlers:
Women as Innovators and Change Agents in Community Technology Projects
Helen McQuillan
Dublin Institute of Technology
Abstract
Dominant theoretical and policy perspectives on women and ICT portray women as passive, excluded, disinterested or disconnected from technology. This paper reports on a five year ethnographic study which explored women’s roles, experiences and contribution to a large-scale community technology project in Ireland. It discusses how feminist archetypes were used to develop an interpretive model which examines women’s engagement and agency in ICT, illustrates women’s diverse and active roles and offers a new paradigm for women’s ICT knowledge and expertise. In conclusion it discusses how this model could be applied to other settings to better understand digital inclusion and empowerment processes.
Debate about women and ICT is framed within feminist theories of gender and technology, a research field which offers a rich theoretical diversity and framework for understanding gender technology relations and exploring women’s visibility, representation and status in ICT. The research has spanned over two decades and the technologies under review have changed considerably in that period but six main themes remain pertinent today:
The visibility and historical contribution of women in science and technology (Cawley and Trench, 2004; Stanley, 1993)
Women’s status and under representation in ICT (Trauth, 2006; McQuillan and Bradley, 1999; Webster, 1996; Henwood, 1993)
The gender politics of ICT (Webster, 2005; Greenfield et. al. 2003; Millar and Jagger, 2002; Spender,1993)
The discourse of expertise (Menzies, 1996; Morris-Suzuki, 1988; Cockburn, 1987)
Social shaping, gender and ICT as cultural processes (MacKenzie and Wajcman, 1999; Turkle, 1997)
Cyber feminism (Kirkup et al, 2000; Plant, 1997; Haraway, 1991)
Different perspectives present both utopian and dystopian views on women’s experiences and relationships with ICT but each makes a valuable contribution to understanding women’s experiences of ICT and the social, cultural, and political context of technological development and use. Harding (1991) stresses the importance of epistemological pluralism, arguing that diversity in discursive strategies and plurality of theoretical perspectives can contribute to our understanding of dominant discourses and offer different ways of shaping knowledge. Spender (1993) argues for contributions from alternative, critical and controversial voices which emphasise women as active subjects, actively shaping ICT culture. Wajcman (2004) helps us to make sense of different interpretations of the same phenomena, steering a path between technophobia and technophilia by exploring the complex ways in which technological change and women’s lives are interrelated. The strength of her argument for ‘Technofeminism’ is in the synthesis of the many diverse voices engaged in gender-technology research and analyses and the interrelationship between technology, gender and power and changes in these relationships. Exploring gender-technology relationships as fluid and flexible rather than fixed avoids assumptions of technological determinism and gender essentialism, and allows the processes of change to be explored and agency to be acknowledged.
Although the theoretical deficits in community informatics are recognised (Stoecker, 2005), and the benefits of incorporating feminist perspectives have started to be discussed (Peddle et al, 2008) little of the theoretical richness of gender-technology critique has been applied to community informatics. Likewise, the insights gained from community informatics research into the social, cultural and political contexts of ICT could benefit what has become a one-sided policy discourse on women and ICT, with women being seen as targets for positive action and mainstreaming programmes, or up until recently a homogenous group of ‘late adopters’ of ICT (McQuillan, 2008). In what is viewed as a ‘supply’ problem women are seen as an untapped talent pool and either a potential or wasted economic resource, rather than active agents (Herman and Webster, 2007). This neo-liberal paradigm, imbued with patriarchal and technologically deterministic values, dominates economic and social policy, ignoring the complexities of social, cultural and technological change, rendering women’s status in the information or knowledge society as problematic or marginal.
Policy perspectives
Because of ICT’s key contribution to economic productivity and competitiveness, policy perspectives on women and ICT focus mainly on women’s exclusion and under-representation in ICT related employment and higher education. Efforts to encourage women into technology courses and professions presume that women are excluded, passive, disinterested or disconnected from technology. Solutions therefore are designed to encourage women into technology disciplines, based on an equal opportunities approach concerned with access, participation and retention. This is seen by many feminist commentators as an ‘add women and stir’ approach (Harding, 2001) incorporating a determinist model of technology and a deficit model of women (Henwood et al, 2000). Despite its nomination as a key policy area for the EU and OECD countries and the proliferation of positive action programmes, only minor changes in trends are evident. Although many of these policy initiatives and programme have been branded ‘abject failures’ in the past (Grint and Woolgar, 1995) evidence from Trauth’s (2006) Encyclopaedia of Gender and Technology and Vehvilainen and Brunila’s (2007) critique of positive action programmes in Finland suggests that this approach remains popular in Europe, the US and developing countries. Indeed the ‘shortage’ of women in ICT has prompted government investigations in the UK (Millar and Jagger, 2002), Sweden (Elovaara and Mortberg, 2007), by the European Commission (2008) and by the OECD (2007), all presenting women as a uniform, problematic group.
While economic discourse and policy on women and ICT remains primarily based on binary notions and discussions of women’s under-representation compared with men, other policy areas have adopted more comprehensive understandings of exclusion and inclusion. The critique of the digital divide concept has led to debate about how best to move away from dichotomous and monochromatic discussions and measurements of digital exclusion, to a more systematic understanding of people’s use and non-use of ICT and the social, cultural and economic realities that influence people’s engagement with and use of ICT (Selwyn, 2004; Layder, 1997).
Building on the substantial digital divide debates of the 1990s (Kling, 1998; Norris, 2001; Keniston, 2003; van Dijk, 2005) which demonstrate that digital exclusion is not just a technological issue, but also social, cultural, economic and political. Gender and ICT is also considered within e-inclusion policy.
e-Inclusion became an explicit focus of the European Commission in 2001, with the formation of ESDIS (Experts on the Employment and Social Dimension of the Information Society). The publication of e-Inclusion Revisited: the Local Dimension of the Information Society (European Commission,2005) represented a paradigm shift from gathering data on trends in ICT penetration in European countries to the processes of ICT appropriation in the everyday life of European citizens - to “catch the relevant socio-technical phenomena of the current stage of ICT diffusion” (SEC 2005:5). A specific research goal has been to capture the e-Inclusion dynamics at the local and community level “with a focus on their potential for enhancing social integration, political participation, cultural identity, as well as interactions between local and global levels” (ibid). In common with community informatics, e-Inclusion policy makes specific reference to the need to understand what is happening at the local and community level.
The eEurope Advisory Group report on e-inclusion (2005) recommended that by 2010, ICT should have provided a measurable contribution to equalising and promoting participation in society at all levels, with e-inclusion policy measures focused more on local and community levels, where the diversity of real needs can best be expressed, assessed and addressed. In a review of e-inclusion policy in 2009 by an EU e-inclusion expert subgroup, recommendations were made to ‘embed community ICT centres deeply into local level contexts to become the virtual and physical space for social innovation’, with little reference as to how this might be achieved, or who might be responsible.
Bringing feminist perspectives into community informatics
Feminist research is a process which attempts to incorporate female perspectives and feminist principles into social reality, using women’s concerns, experiences and knowledge to ground the research process. It encourages us to examine the status of women, by exploring women’s experiences and knowledge and assess how their contribution to society is valued. Feminist research claims to be overtly political in its principles, objectives and methods. It takes women’s experience and standpoints as the basis for research, with the larger social, political and cultural context determining the research framework. Feminist research principles include:
Analysing power relations and changes processes (Harstock, 1988)
Acknowledging women as active subjects (Acker, Barry and Esseveld, 1991)
Grounding research in women’s everyday lives (Smith, 1987)
Validating diverse women’s experiences, voices and knowledge (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 1997)
Encouraging reflexivity on the research process (Fonow and Cook, 1991)
A strength of feminist research is that it points to deficits in information society theories and analyses and the need to reassess theories to reflect people’s experiences of the social and cultural context of ICT diffusion, use and refusal. Feminist research has yielded invaluable insights into the discourse, social construction and politics of ICT knowledge and expertise at a macro level (Damarin, 1993; Menzies, 1996; Vehvilainen, 1999). Focusing on the meaning people give to their world and experiences and why and how they learn, examining participation and practice within broad theoretical frameworks allows us to develop different models of the social contexts of ICT. The feminist project, which links rigorous social analysis with political practice, enables more subtle, subversive social transformations to be observed.
Peddle, Powell and Regan-Shade (2008) argue that gender is an important under-theorised element of community informatics research. They suggest that a feminist lens yields important insights into community technology projects, not singularly focused on technical expertise but providing multiple perspectives and legitimating different ways of participating and contributing. They argue that because capacity building in ICT projects is commonly equated with feminine leadership styles, it remains an undervalued and often invisible form of expertise. Similarly, the softer, more social and communicative elements of ICT programmes have less status as forms of expertise. Examining the different values placed on different types of expertise is central to exploring the politics and power hierarchies of ICT projects.
Building Community Capacity and Local Expertise
A strength of community informatics research is in its’ attributing equal importance to technical and social infrastructures and expertise. Simpson describes the integral part that community capacity plays in developing these social infrastructures: “building the networks, organisations, attitudes, leadership and skills that allow communities to manage change and sustain community-led development” (Simpson, 2005:109). Clement and Shade’s (2000) ‘access rainbow’ also notes the need for integrated technical, economic and social infrastructures. They emphasise the role of local neighbourhood and workplace experts in facilitating learning and skills acquisition.
Stewart (2007) also examines the role of local experts in the appropriation processes of embedding ICT in local contexts, highlighting their roles in technology diffusion and support. He outlines the various supports they offer including mediating information; providing technical support and helping to interpret the significance new technologies might have for people’s lives. The local experts in this case, with the exception of one woman described as a ‘whiz’ on work-based computer applications were all male, reinforcing the notion of male expertise critiqued by feminist theorists. Stewart’s analysis is useful, however for distinguishing between different types of accessible expertise, based on experts’ different sources of knowledge: experimental early adopters; IT professionals; and ‘relative’ experts – people who are a little further ahead of others in terms of ICT adoption and use.
Local experts, according to Stewart assist in various ways but have three main roles. They support the adoption process by offering advice about sourcing, purchasing and installing hardware, software and connectivity. They complement formal skills acquisition through technical trouble-shooting and demonstration. Technical maintenance and upgrades are also supported. In addition, local experts provide services for people; for example, sending emails or building web pages for them, a process which Stewart describes as people “passing on the responsibility for developing skills and knowledge, abrogating the need to do it themselves” (2007; 562). Despite their ICT knowledge, the local experts discussed in Stewart’s study demonstrate a common difficulty in empowering new technology users – the ability to communicate and explain in non-technical language. More and more, communication skills are an essential element of mediating ICT and often the overlooked or undervalued skills, compared with technical skills.
Developing an interpretive model to map women’s ICT knowledge and expertise
Community informatics provides a community-centred view of information society, where citizens and civil society have central roles in community engagement, encouragement and mobilisation (Gurstein, 2000). Community members’ perspectives allow a discourse of ICT based on its social and cultural contexts, and people’s lived experiences and reflections to emerge. This allows us to understand the processes of social and digital inclusion and envisage the transformative potential of ICT more realistically. The biggest conceptual gap and critical deficit is in appreciating the human processes and different mediating styles and knowledge sharing activities integral to the processes of social and digital inclusion. By applying feminist theoretical and research lenses we can investigate how knowledge and expertise are developed and shared and illuminate the roles played by the people who mediate and innovate, and encourage participation, networking, learning and knowledge sharing.
To discuss the development of an interpretive framework to explore women’s ICT knowledge and expertise in community settings, findings from a five year ethnographic study (1999-2004) of a large-scale community technology programme based in Ennis, mid west Ireland were drawn upon. The aim of the study was to investigate women’s contributions to the Ennis project - their roles, knowledge and expertise, and their vision, visibility and representation. Based on the author’s observations and participation in the project, women’s experiences of ICT were explored, the different motivations for participating in the project were interpreted, the changing relationships with ICT was examined and some of the outcomes in terms of engagement, inclusion, expertise and cultural change was assessed.
The author wanted to challenge stereotypes about women and ICT, and specifically, develop a better understanding of the status of women in a community by exploring their roles and influence as change agents. Vehvilainen (2002) suggests that empirical studies should examine ICT through various interpretations, various perspectives and localities and various voices. Although community informatics recognises human agency as an essential element of the adoption and diffusion of ICT (Loader and Keeble, 2004) the roles that people play tend not to be well defined, and distinctive voices muffled. The author’s goal was to investigate women’s contribution to the Ennis project – their diverse roles, knowledge and expertise - and somehow validate their collective knowledge. This was an ambitious aim, given that Irish women were continuously labelled in ICT surveys as a homogeneous group of “late adopters”, the public face and power base of the ICT industry in Ireland was predominantly male, and women’s status in authoritative and expert spheres was negligible. In challenging stereotypes about women and ICT the author was conscious of the need to adopt an epistemological approach that recognised how women’s relationships with ICT and the validity of their knowledge and expertise are influenced by the social, cultural and political contexts of ICT.
As part of the study over fifty women in diverse, formal and non formal learning settings within Ennis were observed and interviewed; and as the project progressed women’s personal learning journeys, their roles in mentoring and encouraging reluctant learners, their different approaches to gaining and sharing knowledge and expertise, and their key roles as mediators and change agents were charted. The author met with school teachers thrust into the role of school ICT coordinators, without any prior experience of using computers and the internet, nor of of using these as teaching and learning tools who were expected to manage the school ICT network, and instigate major changes in teaching practice.
Directors of community training centres were observed establishing networks to support each other develop and implement strategic ICT plans for each centre and their staff. As well, the author volunteered as a tutor in a community centre offering free computer access, training and advice where trainers through their good humour, endless patience and jargon-free communication kept two steps ahead of their students in their learning journeys, yet developed an empathy with their learners and built self confidence in people who described themselves initially as ‘hopeless with technology’. The author observed and evaluated business innovation programmes mentored by women’ and watched and listened to senior citizens who a year previously had been taught basic computer skills by students sixty years their junior encourage other seniors to contribute to an online newspaper they published monthly.
A range of activities, diverse learning environments, varied teaching styles, different learning pathways, and advice from neighbours, friends and work colleagues, as well as a very high saturation of PCs and peripherals in homes, schools and community centres in Ennis presented challenges in representing women’s contribution to the project and to the community’s ICT skills, knowledge and expertise. Using a reflexive ethnographic methodology to consider women’s individual engagement and collective contributions to the Ennis project, their relationships with ICT, and their breadth of expertise, the author developed an interpretive model based on an archetypal triad of Technicians, Tacticians and Tattlers. Each archetype is based on women who are recognised as having been extremely influential in challenging the dominant perception of women as excluded, disinterested or alienated from ICT: shaping ICT development from the earliest stages of computing; understanding the social, institutional and structural constraints on women’s more active contribution to ICT and developing strategies to combat these; and arguing for the validity of diverse voices, interpretations and communication styles.
Admiral Grace Hopper (1902-1996), a pioneer computer scientist represents the archetype of the “technician”. She was one of the first software engineers and one of the most incisive futurists in the world of computing, encouraging people to see computers as intellectual technologies. In her 40 years in computing, Grace Hopper made important contributions to the field that developed what she described “the machine that assisted the power of the brain rather than muscle”. As well as her technical knowledge her attitude to change and innovation, her emphasis on people as well as systems and her constant questioning made her a positive role model and archetypical technician.
In Ennis, Deirdre Moynihan, a teacher in a community training centre for marginalised adults with poor literacy, also exemplifies the archetypical technician. Starting with no ICT infrastructure and little guidance on using ICT as learning tools for adults she embarked on a professional learning journey, developing her technical knowledge and expertise formally through postgraduate study, and informally through the installation, upgrade and maintenance of the centre’s ICT infrastructure and integrated learning system. Over a period of three years ICT became a core, cultural component of the centre, and confidence in ICT use became an integral element of the adult learners’ cultural identity, as the centre became a model for community training centres across the country. Using technology creatively, applying it to learning and personal development needs, allied with strategic planning, flexibility and change management Deirdre ensured that the technical infrastructure remained a support to the human endeavour and a work ethic and organisational culture which promotes an empowerment ethos.
Anita Borg (1949-2003) was undoubtedly an influential political strategist – the archetype of the “tactician” striving for the advancement of women in technology in academia and industry. To honour her, the Institute for Women and Technology which she founded has been renamed the ‘Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology’. It remains one of the most influential advocacy organisations in the field, with the dual goals of increasing the impact of women on all aspects of technology and increasing the positive impact of technology on the world’s women.
In Ennis, Ann Knox exemplifies the “tactician”. A primary school teacher in a girls’ school, she had previously avoided using computers. Thrust into the role of school ICT co-ordinator, and simultaneously a teacher and learner, she embarked with her students on a journey of empowering young women through their use of ICT and involving them in the design and development of learning resources and media for other students. As a “tactician” she was influential in a number of ways--she was a mentor to students and other teachers; she championed pedagogical change – creating a teaching and learning environment that allowed students to articulate their computing confidence and expertise. Over all, she guided a complex change management process, helping to transform the way knowledge is developed and transferred, emphasising students’ active choices and agency, empowering the girls by allowing them to take risks, rise to new challenges, and become decision makers and ambassadors for Ennis Information Age Town.
Dale Spender represents the archetype of the “tattler”. A researcher and author of over thirty books on language, gender and communication, including ‘Nattering on the Net’ in which she notes that it is not technological information that women need to engage with computers and the internet, it is confidence. Spender’s emphasis on language and communication skills as prerequisites for electronic citizenship, or what she describes as the ability to ‘natter’ on the net and about the net, make it easier to demonstrate women’s positive relationships with ICT and highlight what was described earlier as one of the essential, but oft ignored skills in ICT engagement and diffusion.
Rosemary O’Mahony exemplifies the archetypical “tattler”. In her late sixties, she had never used a computer. When Ennis Information Age Town was launched Rosemary was one of the first senior citizens to sign up for classes. A year later she was a regular contributor and member of the editorial team of ‘Sunset’ an online magazine which was published monthly by a group of older Ennis residents. In her poems and articles Rosemary regularly reflected on change - on changing lifestyles and expectations, the changing roles of women and technological change, which she had embraced wholeheartedly over seven decades to suit her changing life patterns. For Rosemary, computers, the internet and new media applications were not mystical tools. They were merely tools and techniques for developing new skills, exploring new life experiences and making everyday experiences and lives in the real world more enjoyable and expressive. As a “tattler”, she was a positive and enthusiastic role model for others, encouraging older people to help shape cyberspace, rather than just consume.
The archetypal triad is proposed to describe women’s engagement and agency in ICT and their significant contribution to the Ennis project The women who participated in the Ennis study became visible and accessible experts: as ‘technicians’: contributing knowledge, expertise and skills; as ‘tacticians’: functioning as mediators and influencers of policy and practice; and as ‘tattlers’: increasing understanding, visibility, and presence. They developed a broad skills and knowledge base, not only technical knowledge, but strategic, project and programme management experience and equally importantly a fluency in describing their experiences and relationships with ICT.
Although as a project, Ennis Information age Town was unique in terms of its scale, large funding and the success of its engagement with households, schools, businesses and the community sector, this interpretive models is applicable to many other settings, representing the dynamism of communities and their responsiveness to change. It demonstrates the importance of having a rich knowledge nexus and networks where technical expertise is not given primary importance over communication, strategic or leadership skills. Community capacity is enhanced when diverse skills, knowledge and expertise are equally valued and shared, allowing rich discursive spaces and environments to flourish.
Applying the model – discursive spaces and richness
Technological determinism and the economic imperatives of knowledge economies place an overemphasis on the technological aspects of ICT programmes, ignoring the processes of inclusion and engagement, accessible expertise, champions and mediators, and the social, cultural, civic and political elements which are central to programme success. These more nuanced elements of ICT programmes are the core of successful knowledge societies. Diverse knowledge, expertise and voices need to be harvested to ensure that communities’ social capital and capacity is maximised. Feminist analyses are useful in validating the contribution of both women and men whose efforts are often unseen and unsung, raising the visibility of skills and knowledge which can often be less valued, or considered ‘softer’. Innovation and change are central to ICT programmes – social as well as technical. By shifting our lens slightly away from the technical glare, we can look for innovators and change agents in less obvious places and spaces and seek out the nexus and discursive spaces, and enrich our programmes and learning in the process.
There are few optimistic studies which portray women’s positive experiences with ICT - their enthusiasm, strategic and technical skills and their contributions as innovators and change champions. This archetype model demonstrates women’s roles as producers of knowledge, setting aside the stereotype of women as consumers or major rejecters of ICT. One of the strengths of feminist analysis is its challenge to traditional knowledge validity. In Ennis, women were visible as contributors, developers and shapers. They developed authoritative voices in the community, business and education sectors and played a central, rather than subsidiary role in shaping ICT. Women’s roles as experts - as technicians, tacticians and tattlers - sideline the myths and stereotypes of women and technology, challenging patriarchal norms. By applying a feminist lenses to community informatics we can start to develop positive action programmes, which support women’s roles as innovators and active change agents and challenge existing knowledge paradigms and power hierarchies.
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