gender and technology

The code, although open, is not neutral with respect to who contributes and for what. What happens to our contributions when we reveal our gender or sexuality? How can a project in which a significant portion of the work is invisible and not counted really be “free” and open source?

Recent reports reveal that hundreds of people experience sexual harassment and abuse on Tinder and damningly, that Tinder largely ignored survivors. What is the legal and ethical obligation that dating platforms have when their platform is repeatedly used by sexual assaulters to prey on women and others? 

As part of the Feminist Internet Research Network, we are including a series of short pieces on reflections by researchers on the ground, and in this piece a researcher talks about the experience of doing research with workers, unions and companies and of trying to determine the extent of sexual harassment or caste prejudice in the platform economy around domestic labour

As part of the Feminist Internet Research Network, we are including a series of short pieces on reflections by researchers on the ground, and in this piece, the researcher speaks of the difficulties of setting up interviews with domestic workers, often torn between home and work obligations.

As part of the Feminist Internet Research Network, we are including a series of short pieces on reflections by researchers on the ground, and in this piece, the writer explores how it is possible but also difficult for her to do social work and awareness building, and shift to doing research.

Women who do domestic work are able to now find employers through online platforms, but does this new avenue and promise of the digital economy ensure that their labour rights are upheld? In this short series, we read about four researchers who directly interviewed with workers as part of a project in the Feminist Internet Research Network. Here are the reflections of the researchers on ethics…

Through two stories from Kenyan women, this article shows how women get harassed online, especially when they express themselves in ways that do not conform to the patriarchal order in the society which they live in.

How do we measure the difference between access to the internet for men and women? It is without a doubt that such gender internet access gap indicators contribute to defining goals for international and country-level policies. But it is important for us to interrogate the role of indicators and measures in access related work and research. Nic Bidwell analyses the use of tools proposed to…

Digital technologies, with their diversity of tools and devices, their opportunities and risks, represent key spaces for feminist, queer, LGBT* and anti-racist political action. Contrary to the decentralisation and democratisation promised by the internet, it is now largely owned by large social media corporations, technology and service companies. In view of the struggles for power and narrative…

From the cataclysmic and profoundly loud speaking out that took place spontaneously across varied contexts with #metoo to understanding, owning and building feminist infrastructure, there is a lot that we can do as feminist activists. In this edition we take a peek at the Making a Feminist Internet meeting in Malaysia that took place early October, 2017.