This extended essay explores a historical investigation into the connections between women and machines, particularly focusing on the traditionally gendered processes of sewing, weaving and other processes deemed ‘handicrafts’ and how they parallel techniques in the evolution of the technologies we recognise today. Within this relationship, the nature of these acts to provide comfort is investigated and related to the practice of art making. This historical lineage is examined in the present day where digital and electronic technologies impact everyday life and cause new a brand of anxieties that require a fresh approach to healing and soothing. Through the analysis of this research my practical input and output are informed and result in the development of an installation of objects that examine the electronic object and how it can be imbued with or reflect these realities.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-124).

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Rhode Island, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-113).

Research into mainstream (AAA) video games reveals a popularized form of militarized masculine entertainment that is synonymous with violence toward other men and sexualized violence toward women. The means of successful AAA game production are limited to those who have access to sophisticated game engines, advanced programming skills, and substantial financial backing. Consequently, a robust independent “indie” game industry has emerged to promote a greater range of game creation excluded from the AAA model. Drawing on political economic, feminist, and cultural studies approaches, this study seeks to trace the emergent trends and dynamics in the indie industry and analyzes common practices, strategies, and discursive themes of the Independent Games Festival (IGF), their hosting event, GDC, and their parent company UBM. This thesis contributes to media industry studies, game studies, and critical theory and highlights how economic logics shape social relations and influences processes of cultural change.

This work is a feminist study that aims to address a gap in knowledge about the working lives and learning of those employed in electronic, globalising industries, such as localisation. While much is known generally about the under-representation of women in SET (Science, Engineering and Technology), there has been less detailed study that explores the gendering of working lives in electronic knowledge industries which are a crucial part of the technological globalising process. Taking the localisation industry as a case, the present work addresses this lack. Localisation involves making an electronic product or website linguistically and culturally appropriate for people to use in another country/region and language. Workers in the industry adapt printed and electronic texts (and products) for distribution in overseas markets. The study is based on interviews with 10 workers and company owners from the UK, continental Europe, Ireland and South America. A critical feminist approach supports the analysis of interview data using CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis), and participant observation at a conference to reveal power relations which are seemingly hidden in the virtual sphere. Remote forms of working, mediated through the use of ICTs (Information and Communications Technologies) predominate in the industry. The findings are presented in three areas of analysis. Firstly, in relation to workers’ identities the study revealed that technology was a discursive resource used symbolically. While technology represented quality, domestication was used antithetically to indicate its lack. In the analysis this constituted a technologisation of identities. Secondly, workers’ learning trajectories revealed tensions in between knowledge work and accreditation. In relation to technology per se, image creation was central to localisation and the separation of the image from work practices concealed workers’ contributions. In this way the emotional labour invested in the production of the localised image was hidden. Thirdly, the study revealed ways in which global structures interacted with industry boundaries and intersected gendered cultures with implications for professional learning.

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop the Response Inventory to Stereotype-threatening Environments Questionnaire (RISE-Q), a multidimensional measure of the intentional cognitive and behavioral strategies women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations engage to contend with systemic stereotype threat. Hundreds of studies demonstrate negative effects of stereotype threat relevant to women’s workplace experiences (for a review see Walton, Murphy, & Ryan, 2015). However, most focus on acute processes and effects, those that are immediate and temporary in response to a single cue. Less is known about how individuals respond to the experience of chronic stereotype threat (Block, Koch, Liberman, Merriweather, & Roberson, 2011). This has implications for organizations because it is unlikely stereotype threat is only experienced as an acute state in the workplace (Kalokerinos, von Hippel, & Zacher, 2014), and it is the accumulation of stereotype threat-activating cues that may lead to permanent outcomes (Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002). In order to address this gap and contribute to research on women’s career experiences in STEM (Makarem & Wang, 2019), this dissertation develops the RISE-Q, an inventory of three separate, but related, response pattern scales based on three response patterns previously identified by Block, Cruz, Bairley, Harel-Marian, & Roberson (2019): (1) Fending Off the Threat, (2) Confronting the Threat, and (3) Sustaining Self in the Presence of Threat. Seventy-two items across three response pattern scales were developed and tested in a sample of 726 women who currently work in STEM occupations. Results from Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFAs) of data collected from a Qualtrics Panel sample (n = 378) demonstrated each response pattern scale consisted of four factors reflecting four specific strategies. A series of Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFAs) using data collected from online “women in STEM” networks (n = 348) provided evidence for moderate model fit for the Fending Off response pattern scale, and good model fit for the Confronting Threat and Sustaining Self scales. Assessments of internal consistency reliabilities for all three response pattern scales and associated subscales demonstrated strong internal consistency. Further analyses provided strong evidence of convergent validity and criterion-related validity for all three scales. Initial results for the RISE-Q are promising. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Women are still strongly underrepresented in the ICT field. It is worrying that even children can hold stereotypes about gender and technology, which discourage girls from engaging with technology early in their development. Previous research has found that encouraging collaboration and the integration of storytelling in programming are successful approaches for introducing girls to coding. In practice, children often collaborate with friends since they tend to engage in the same activities. This study explores how existing friendship influences collaboration between preadolescent girls participating together in a storytelling-motivated programming experience. Results reveal that when girls collaborate with a friend, they feel comfortable and confident to express their ideas and to reject or elaborate on their friend’s suggestions. The openness of friends towards each other and the social setting of friendship may impact collaboration. Role assignment in the form of task allocation supported productive collaboration, while dominance impeded it. The project indicates that the design of solutions that aim to motivate programming through storytelling has to provide enough support in adding narration elements through code. Additionally, it proposes suggestions for the design of inclusive workshops and hackathons. / Kvinnor är fortfarande starkt underrepresenterade inom IT-området. Det är oroande att även barn kan ha stereotyper om kön och teknik, vilket avskräcker flickor från att engagera sig i teknik tidigt i sin utveckling. Tidigare forskning har visat att uppmuntrande av samarbete och att integrering av berättande i programmering är framgångsrika metoder för att introducera flickor till programmering. I praktiken samarbetar barn ofta med vänner eftersom de tenderar att delta i samma aktiviteter. Den här studien undersöker hur befintlig vänskap påverkar samarbetet mellan unga flickor som deltar tillsammans i en historieberättande-motiverad programmeringsupplevelse. Resultaten visar att när flickor samarbetar med en vän känner de sig bekväma och självsäkra i att uttrycka sina idéer och att avvisa eller utveckla sin väns förslag. Vänners öppenhet gentemot varandra och det sociala kontextet av vänskap kan påverka samarbetet. Rolltilldelning i form av uppgiftsallokering stödde produktivt samarbete, medan dominans hindrade det. Projektet indikerar att utformningen av lösningar som syftar till att motivera programmering genom berättande måste ge tillräckligt med stöd i att lägga till berättande element genom kod. Dessutom föreslås förslag för utformning av inkluderande workshops och hackathons.

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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Current literature reveals that men and women do not participate in the science, engineering and technology (SET) sector on equal grounds – not qualitatively (access) or qualitatively (ease of participation). It is important that women have access to and actively participate in science; they make up more than half of the world’s population and gender equality enhances a country’s economic growth and competitiveness. Furthermore, the focus should extend further than advocating for equal access to SET to actively promoting increased participation by women. Women bring a distinctive quality to SET precisely because of their gender. They are able to increase overall SET participation numbers and positively contribute to the quality and agenda of science. This study used the pipeline theory and lifecycle approach as theoretical bases to investigate the causes for unequal participation and reviewed initiatives aimed at increasing and facilitating the participation of women in SET. Identified causes include unequal access, male-dominated nature of science, tensions of reconciling professional and private life, differences in recognition and reward, and lack of female representation in leadership. The primary methodology used was a documentary analysis study design, consisting primarily of desktop literature searches and categorization. An initiative summary framework was used to summarise and code 123 identified initiatives into an initiatives summary database. Findings were both positive and negative. The study found that women in many cases are on equal footage with their male counterparts and can manage a healthy work-life balance if provided with the necessary support but many women still describe a male-dominated work environment that is exclusionary. Findings indicate that, although decreasing, there is still gender bias in recognition and reward and that female scientists underutilise financial rewards. Women in SET do not receive equal pay for equal work and there is a distinct lack of female representation in SET leadership bodies such as academies of sciences, scientific boards and publication boards of academic journals. The most common modes of intervention are policy interventions, gender mainstreaming, advocacy and interest groups, and provision of training and support. The majority of initiatives are aimed at bringing about change at a national/policy level and are driven primarily by government and academia with academia playing an important middleman role - assisting and guiding government in the design and roll-out of policies on the one hand and meeting the human resource needs of industry on the other. Although government and academia have done well in driving initiatives that increase the participation of women in SET at both school and tertiary level, more needs to be done by industry to drive the facilitation of participation. There are very few initiatives addressing the retention of women in SET; this is linked to the lack of attention to returners as a specific target group. The study concludes that the majority of countries are succeeding in closing the participation gap in terms of access or horizontal gender equality, but that vertical segregation (focusing on recognition, reward and advancement), although acknowledged, remains a mostly unaddressed challenge. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Huidige literatuur dui daarop dat vroue en mans nie gelyke deelname geniet in die Wetenskap, Ingenieurswese en Tegnologie nie – nie kwantitatief (toegang) of kwalitatief (gemak van deelname) nie. Die belangrikheid van deelname word gesket teen die kennis dat vroue die helfte van die wêreld se bevolking verteenwoordig en dat lande wat geslagsgelykheid nastreef oor die algemeen hoër ekonomiese groei en mededingenheid toon. Die fokus in die debat gaan dus nie meer net oor die reg tot toegang nie maar ook oor aktiewe en gemaklike deelname wat vroue toelaat om juis hul unieke eienskappe na die wetenskap te bring. Die studie het die pyplynteorie en ‘n lewenssiklusbenadering as die teoretiese grondslag gebruik om die deelname van vroue in die terrein te bestudeer. Die navorsing het gepoog om die hoofoorsake vir die relatiewe ongelyke deelname van vroue in die Wetenskap, Ingenieurswese en Tegnologie te bepaal. Die hoofoorsake is geidentifiseer as ongelyke toegang, die manlik-gedomineerde aard van wetenskap, die spanning om professionele en persoonlike lewe te versoen, verskille in erkenning en beloning; en die gebrek aan vroulike verteenwoordiging in leierskap. Verder wou die studie bepaal watter inisiatiewe in gebruik is vir die uitbreiding en vergemakliking van vroue se deelname in die veld. Die hoof metodologie was ‘n dokumentêre analise studie ontwerp. ‘n Inisiatief opsommingsraamwerk is gebruik om die 123 geïdentifiseerde inisiatiewe op te som en te kodeer en is saamgevat in 'n inisiatiewe opsommingdatabasis. Bevindinge was beide positief en negatief. Die studie het bevind dat vroue in baie gevalle gelyke toegang geniet en 'n gesonde balans tussen hul persoonlike en professionele lewe kan bestuur indien die nodige ondersteuning gebied word. Baie vroue beskryf egter nog steeds 'n manlik-gedomineerde werksomgewing. Hoewel die neiging dalend is, is daar nog steeds geslagsvooroordele in erkenning en beloning en vroulike wetenskaplikes maak nie genoegsaam gebruik van finansiële belonings wat wel tot hul beskikking is nie. Vroue ontvang ook nie gelyke betaling vir gelyke werk nie. Daar is 'n duidelike gebrek aan vroulike verteenwoordiging in leierskap soos aangedui in die samestelling van akademies van die wetenskap en die bestuursrade van wetenskaplike rade en publikasie rade van wetenskaplike vaktydskrifte. Die mees algemene vorme van intervensies is beleidsintervensies, geslagshoofstroming, voorspraak en belangegroepe, en die verskaffing van opleiding en ondersteuning. Die meerherheid van inisiatiewe is daarop gemik om verandering teweeg te bring op nationale en beleidsvlak en word hoofsaaklik gedryf deur die staat en die akademie. Die akademie speel dan ook ‘n belangrike middelman rol deurdat hul aan die een kant die regering bystaan in die implementering van beleid en aan die anderkant ook die menslike hulpbron behoeftes van industrie moet voed. Daar is ‘n leemte by die meerderheid van inisiatiewe in die aanspreek van die behoeftes van vroue wat wil terugkeer na die veld na ‘n periode van afwesigheid en aan die retensie van vroulike wetenskaplikes. Die studie kom dus tot die gevolgtrekking dat die meerderheid van lande en inisiatiewe daarin slaag om meer gelyke deelname in terme van toegang of horisontale geslaggelykheid te bewerk, maar dat vertikale segregasie (met ‘n fokus op erkenning, belong en bevordering), nog heelwat aandag moet geniet.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy