Technological Innovation: Female Emancipation or Limitation?
By Amalia Bard Bringéus and Alexandra Dimitrova
“The train of progress is again pulling out of the station. (…) Those who miss [it] will never get a second chance. (…) [T]o get a seat on it, you need to understand 21st century technology,” Yuval Noah Harari, our generation’s Nostradamus, has spoken. One can criticise his overconfidence, but here he is right. The UN certainly agrees and proclaims its intention to ensure both sexes do take a seat on that train. So what role did women play in past technological revolutions?
During the Industrial Revolution women operated many of the cotton spinning mills in Great Britain and the United States because these technologies could neither rely on children, as they were too short, nor could they on men, as they lacked the “swift fingers” to operate the mills. These new job opportunities made women leave the less profitable agricultural sector, bringing them out of their homes. Women remained a substantial part of the textile industry during the Age of Steam Railways.
Female workers’ unprecedented entry into the labour market during WWI can mostly be explained by men’s presence in the armed forces. Nevertheless, the jobs that women occupied, such as being riveting-machine operators and working within electrical goods would not have existed had it not been for the Age of Steel, Electricity and Heavy Engineering. Finally, automation at the beginning of the 20th century eventually let women reap the benefits of the Age of Oil, Automobiles and Mass Production.
What about the Information Age? Today, the gap between women and men in Stem fields seems to be narrowing. From 2006 to 2011, the number of women possessing Stem skills rose by 23%, compared with 14% for men. Furthermore, according to Intel, the Internet boosts women’s earnings and about 50% of the surveyed women used the Internet for job searches and applications in 2012. E-commerce has also enabled women to start online businesses with little initial investment.
From the UN to the IMF, from Intel to IBM, international organisations and corporations claim that despite not being part of the traditional labour market, women can achieve financial independence in the digital economy. Contrary to the physical world, gender matters less online; thus, giving women a sense of empowerment and equity. The Internet is crammed with success stories of businesswomen boosting their confidence and income by working remotely, be it in Palestine, Argentina, Bulgaria or Kazakhstan.
Throughout history, women have been disadvantaged in society and the labour market. Nevertheless, innovations have often benefitted and emancipated them. So, if we are to draw conclusions from the past, the prospects for working women are seemingly bright, are they not?
However, there is an ugly truth beyond these utopian reports. Internet technologies will potentially not only limit women worldwide, but also deepen the gender gap, replicate existing dogmas and reinforce the patriarchal order. Jobless women in developing countries are often the ones bearing the economic brunt due to motherhood, cultural biases and security. Computer access and literacy could allow them to combat oppression and unemployment. Yet, as research in Uganda shows, despite the monetary benefits, remote work was not perceived as per se empowering by Ugandan female entrepreneurs. In fact, they think that the newly acquired income caused more marriage quarrels and pressure to conform to established roles. This points to the idea that the homo economicus excludes women’s needs. Although the transformation of work could bring financial gains to women, that barely is enough to make them equal to men.
What about the already existing digital divide, putting females at an inherently disadvantageous situation? Nearly 45% fewer women than men in sub-Saharan Africa can access the Internet. In parts of Europe, the connectivity difference can be as high as 30%. How can women be empowered through the Internet when they cannot even go online? Similarly, because of the digital revolution, the number of freelancers is currently on the rise, but a significant pay difference already exists in developed societies. For instance, self-employed men in the UK made 40% more than women in 2012. Left unaddressed, these disparities could prevent women from boarding Harari’s train of progress.
Finally, female professionals might be those suffering the most when automation and machine learning cause major job destruction. In Australia for instance, although 40% of medics are women, they are more likely to be made redundant as few break the glass ceiling. Or, as long as predominantly men hold senior positions, women will continue to be more replaceable by machines in all industries, such as food production, advertising, law or accountancy.
Digital innovation has immense potential to reduce existing gender inequality. Yet, if the gender gap continues to be ignored socially and institutionally, and the new tech world fails to be evenly inclusive of both women and men, the workplace could become more divisive than ever.
