Once Upon the Future: A Woman's Guide to Tomorrow's Technology

In this study that covers technologyranging from computers to ""daily-use'' items such as garbage disposals and vacuum cleanersZimmerman, author of The Technological Women and head of a software development company, argues that ``women get the short end of the technological stick'' because new technology ``merely sustains the traditional gender division of labor.'' She asserts that there is sexism in product design and language, media distortions of pertinent issues, invasions of privacy via telecommunications; she also considers such factors as obsolescence in the job market, computer shopping, data security, home robotics and genetic engineering. Women, she concludes, must take part in technological design and decision-making and, moreover, should change ``the very shape and form of material reality'' to be free from what she considers the old values of inferiority and subordination inherent in current technology. (March)