Women and microelectronics: The case of word processors

Abstract

The use of microelectronics in production has serious implications for working people, but these implications differ between women and men.

We look first at long-wave (Kondratiev) and classical (Marxist) economic theory relate the effects of microelectronics to the economic system. But this tells us nothing about whether the impact of microelectronics differs between the sexes, because the relevant economic categories are sex-blind. The impact on women can only be analysed by introducing the idea of patriarchy. Thus, the interests of capitalists as an oppressor-class and men as an oppressor-sex can be seen as interwoven but not necessarily always coincident.

Socialism and feminism oppose different oppressive dynamics, yet a victory for one without a victory for the other would be incomplete. Word processing is an area where socialist and feminist struggles can be joined in a practice which is truly progressive.