Gitta Victoria Brüschke
gvb500@york.ac.uk
Women and technology. Just these three words are frequently interpreted and commented on in the public discourse as provocative. Are women really so distant or passionless regarding technology? If so, worrying future trends can be predicted, because new technologies will constantly be developed for use in everyday life.Only those with the know-how will be able to utilize these technologies.
My thesis project centres around these questions: How and from where do people acquire knowledge about new technologies, such as the computer or the mobile phone? Are there differences in the strategies of knowledge-gathering between women and men? Which problems do they face in the process of searching for special information? What do they think about themselves, how much knowledge about certain artefacts should they have and why? Do they have a special person whom they use as information supplier? My intention is to discover the various strategies people use to find the knowledge they need in the best, fastest, and easiest way. How do they deal with frustrating barriers or dead ends? It has been argued that 'the quality of the access to digital media is crucial for future gender relationships, because the status quo suggests an increasing dependence on mostly male experts and a lagging behind of women in the information and knowledge society'. (Donna Haraway in Schäfer-Bossert 2005, S. 69-81)
With my background as a mechanical engineer and my PhD-project in sociology I bridge the gap between hard and soft sciences as well as being a woman in a 'man's world'. I ran my own consulting company for more than 15 years, and my interest in how to acquire knowledge was a major issue for the success of my business.