Rust, A. "FEMINIZM4ALL: A Framework for Feminist Technology Intervention"

Abstract

This thesis describes a feminist framework for technological interventions. I first define the problem by contrasting studies from psychology with research from other social sciences to determine that the primary reason for the gender imbalance in technological spaces is based in hostile work environments and not in the fact that women are disinterested as recent psychological research claims. This lack of diversity affects how technology products are shaped and how consumers interact with these artefacts. I outline a techno-feminist approach to intervention by looking at legislative and technological interventions into tech workspaces. Because this thesis is concerned with creating a framework for interventions rather than an individual technology, I describe different collaboration and production models typical to contemporary technology. These models are Web 2.0, open source software production, and collaborative platforms for distributing physical technology objects. In order to find out how to build a technological framework for making technology spaces more equitable for women, I created two projects. The first one is a Web 2.0 platform that provides data about gender and the technology workspace as well as instructions for visualizing it. The second one is a collaboration on a feminist technology for the workplace. The conclusion of the thesis is a description of future work based on these two projects