This important volume examines European perspectives on the historical relations that women have maintained with information and communication technologies (ICTs), since the telegraph. Features: describes how gendered networks have formed around ICT since the late 19th Century; reviews the gendered issues revealed by the conflict between the actress Ms Sylviac and the French telephone administration in 1904, or by 'feminine' blogs; examines how gender representations, age categories, and uses of ICT interact and are mutually formed in children's magazines; illuminates the participation of women in the early days of computing, through a case study on the Rothamsted Statistics Department; presents a comparative study of women in computing in France, Finland and the UK, revealing similar gender divisions within the ICT professions of these countries; discusses diversity interventions and the part that history could (and should) play to ensure women do not take second place in specific occupational sectors.

Provides a unique European perspective Describes important past research, as well as the current state of the art Presents a long-term vision from an international and interdisciplinary selection of experts

Inhalt

Connecting Gender, Women and ICT in Europe.- Part I: Networks and Empowerment.- Telegraphy and the 'New Woman' in late Nineteenth Century Europe.- Airing the Differences.- From Marie-Claire Magazine's Authoritative Pedagogy to the Hellocoton Blog Platform's Knowledge Sharing.- Part II: Gendered Representations.- The Sylviac Affair (1904-1910).- The Representational Intertwinement of Gender, Age and Uses of Information and Communication Technology.- Part III: ICT and professionalization.- From Computing Girls to Data Processors.- The Gendering of the Computing Field in Finland, France and the United Kingdom Between 1960 and 1990.- Breaking the 'Glass Slipper'.- Gender-Technology Relations in the Various Ages of Information Societies.