Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-52)

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1997. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (PhD)--AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print ([15], 222 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 303.4833082 HAM)

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2004. / Bibliography: leaves 101-104.

Not available / text

In this dissertation, I analyze the 20th century text, A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf (2005), and I engage with Woolf's concept of a woman's need for a room of her own in which she can be free to think for herself, study, write, or pursue other interests away from the oppression of patriarchal societal expectations and demands. Through library-based research, I identify four screens in Woolf's work through which she viewed and critiqued culture, and I use these screens to reconceptualize "a room of one's own" in 21st Century terms. I determine that the new "room" is intimately and intricately technological and textual and it is reformulated in the digital spaces of blogs, social media, and Web sites. Further, I introduce the new concept of the technologized politically embodied cyborg, or TPEC, and examine the ways 21st Century TPECs are shaping U.S. culture in progressive ways.

Women are currently underrepresented in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how this underrepresentation translates to a gender gap in the field of technical communication and how this gap causes women to challenge the predominant objectivist paradigm in the field. Through an investigation of peer-reviewed journal articles, periodicals, critical theory, and articles published in online magazines such as Slate, I identify the gendered nature of modern technology and discuss to what extent a shift in the predominant paradigm has occurred in the professional arena. In looking at several theoretical approaches and contemporary examples, I conclude that a significant paradigm shift has not in fact occurred due to an underlying, culturally promoted sexism. Additionally, I conclude that neither new approaches in the technical communication classroom, nor attempts to increasingly include women in the technological fields will result in a significant paradigm change by themselves. I also point to a need for further meaningful research in how sexism influences the professional world as well as a more thorough conversation regarding a fundamental shift in workplace relations between the genders.