Publisher's Synopsis
New technologies are transforming the economies of Europe, West and East. New products, new production processes: are they bringing greater equality and similarity to the lives of women and men? Are women sharing in technological design and decision-making or are they, as before, just the disregarded users whose fingers press the buttons and turn the knobs?;This book presents, from eight countries, original empirical studies of the design, production, distribution and use of familiar household technologies. The authors trace the life circuit of everyday artifacts, from the washing machine and the central vacuum cleaning system, to the food processor, the plastic credit card and, that ultimate masculine dream, the totally electronic "smart" house.;The reader meets factory workers in Moscow and Barcelona, design engineers in Paris and Belgrade, shop assistants in England, housewives in Trondheim, Helsinki and Athens. As the innovations progress from the drawing board to the home they reveal masculinity and femininity, power and subordination, in the making.
