Employment and Health

Computers have had enormous impact on many aspects of women’s work, but particularly on the manufacturing end and on office work. For that reason, this chapter is divided into entries under the general heading of “Employment” as well as headings for “Manufacturing” and “Office Work.” Some studies of the impact of new technologies on the workplace are not listed as they don’t reflect specifically on women’s experiences (though serious researchers would want to track such resources as they often discuss female-dominated occupations such as clerk or secretary). Materials on health consequences of work with computers are grouped into a subcategory on “Health.” Some health-related information on use of VDT screens is included even though women are not specifically discussed, as women are often primary users and health effects seem to be noticed most by women. Some shorter articles on this topic are included as there is not a lot of material available.

Adam, Alison, et al., eds. WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION: BREAKING OLD BOUNDARIES, BUILDING NEW FORMS: PROCEEDINGS OF THE IFIPTC9/WG9.1 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION, MANCHESTER, U.K., 2-5 JULY, 1994. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 1994. 452p. ill. bibl.
Papers/articles included in this compilation are listed individually under title of each paper.

Albin, Peter S., and Eileen Appelbaum. “The Computer Rationalization of Work: Implications for Women Workers.” FEMINIZATION OF THE LABOR FORCE: PARADOXES AND PROMISES, ed. Jane Jenson et al., pp.137-152. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Contrasts an algorithmic organization of computer-based work (prescribed, limiting the need for workers’ skills) with a robust system (flexible, adaptive, encouraging of skilled input and decision-making), noting the particularly negative impact on women clerical workers of an algorithmic job design.

Armistead, Colin G. “The Influence of Information Technology on Women in Service Industries: A European Perspective.” WOMEN AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, ed. Marilyn J. Davidson and Cary L. Cooper, pp.121-149. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.

Arnold, Erik, et al. “Women and Microelectronics: The Case of Word Processors.” WOMEN’S STUDIES INTERNATIONAL QUARTERLY v.4, no.3 (1981): 321-340.
Examines the impact of microelectronics on potential loss of women’s jobs, deskilling, control of work, class divisions and social relations in the office, concluding that new technology may increase women’s unionization, thereby helping change unions’ attitude toward women’s jobs.

Arvanitaki, Katerina and Maria Stratigaki. “Computerization in Greek Banking: The Gendering of Jobs and Payment Practices.” BRINGING TECHNOLOGY HOME: GENDER AND TECHNOLOGY IN A CHANGING EUROPE, ed. Cynthia Cockburn and Ruza Furst Dilic, pp.59-76. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1994.

Banks, Martha E. and Rosalie J. Ackerman. “Ethnic and Gender Computer Employment Status.” SOCIAL SCIENCE COMPUTER REVIEW v.8, no.1 (1990): 75-82.

Barnes, Linda R. “Midwifery in the Information Age.” MIDWIFERY TODAY no.28 (Winter 1993): 12-13.
Urges midwives to overcome aversion to computers and use the technology to help their practices and possibly to develop a national data set. Also in this issue: “PC, IBM, Mac, DOS — Making Sense of the Alphabet Soup” by Daphne Singingtree, who describes her use of computers for bookkeeping, scheduling, statistics, writing, and more.

Barras, R. and J. Swann. THE ADOPTION AND IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE UK INSURANCE INDUSTRY. London: Technical Change Centre, 1983.

Bentson, Margaret Lowe. “A New Technology But the Same Old Story.” CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME v.13, no.2 (Winter): 68-81.
Lowe worries about the impact of increased automation on women’s employment opportunities as capitalism teams up with the new technology for greater profits and control.

Birkenes, Turid and Annita Fjuk. “A Feminist Approach to Design of Computer Systems Supporting Co-operative Work: The Troublesome Issue of Co-operation Seen from a Women’s Perspective.” WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION: BREAKING OLD BOUNDARIES, BUILDING NEW FORMS, ed. Alison Adam et al., pp.75-89. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 1994.

Bjerknes, Gro, and Bratteteig, Tone. “Florence in Wonderland: System Development with Muses.” COMPUTERS & DEMOCRACY: A SCANDINAVIAN CHALLENGE, ed. Gro Bjerknes et al., pp.279-295. Aldershot, UK: Avebury, 1987.

Bradley, Gunilla. “Women, Work and Computers.” WOMEN AND HEALTH v.13, nos.3-4 (1988): 117-132.

Bucar, Maja. “Information Technology and Women’s Employment in Manufacturing in Eastern Europe: The Case of Slovenia.” WOMEN ENCOUNTER TECHNOLOGY: CHANGING PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD, ed. Swasti Mitter and Sheila Rowbotham, pp.111-126. New York: Routledge in association with the United Nations University Press, 1995.

Calabrese, Andrew. “Home-based Telework and the Politics of Private Woman and Public Man: A Critical Appraisal.” WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY, ed. Urs E. Gattiker, pp.161-199. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1994. (Technological innovation and human resources, v.4)

Campbell, Marie. “Systematization of Nursing and the Promise of Computers: A New Phase in Nurses’ Struggle for Control of their Practice?” COMPUTERS IN HOSPITAL CARE, ed. E. Dimitz. Vienna: Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990.

Christensen, Kathleen. “Home-based Clerical Work: No Simple Truth, No Single Reality.” HOMEWORK: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON PAID LABOR AT HOME, ed. Eileen Boris and Cynthia R. Daniels, pp.183-197. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989.
Offers research that challenges the impact of new technology on home-based work and notes that work at home is not a reasonable child care alternative for most working mothers.

Cockburn, Cynthia. BROTHERS: MALE DOMINANCE AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE. London: Pluto Press, 1983. 264p. index.
Cockburn’s study of male compositors from four London newspapers examines the changes wrought by conversion of typesetting to computer technology. She relates class/status issues to sex/gender issues in the trade, exploring how gender relations derive from both patriarchy and capitalism in the business world.

Cockburn, Cynthia. MACHINERY OF DOMINANCE: WOMEN, MEN AND TECHNICAL KNOW-HOW. Dover, NH: Pluto Press, 1985. 282p. index.
Looks at the effects of electronic technology on “the relations between employer and worker and the relative position of female and male workers” (p.1) in such areas as clothing manufacturing, mail order, medical x-ray, and engineering.

Dangler, Jamie Faricellia. HIDDEN IN THE HOME: THE ROLE OF WAGED HOMEWORK IN THE MODERN WORLD-ECONOMY. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. 225p. bibl. index.
Examines industrial homeworking in electronics in New York State, offering background on the origins of homework enterprises and a broader view of contemporary home-based work as it relates to world economic development, labor, and market theory.

Dolan, Darlene J. “The Developing Role of Women in Communications Industries: Can Technology Be the Turning Point?” COMMUNICATIONS AT THE CROSSROADS: THE GENDER GAP CONNECTION, ed. Romona R. Rush and Donna Allen, pp.106-119. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1989.
Using the case of Susan Wagner Leisner who, with a group of other women, successfully sued their employer, the New York Telephone Company, for sex discrimination in areas of employment, placement, promotions, and compensation, the authors emphasize that “the high technology marketplace affords natural opportunities for women to enhance their fulfillment” (p.118) but that women must push to achieve the advancement.

D’Onofrio-Flores, Pamela, and Sheila Pfafflin, eds. SCIENTIFIC-TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, 1982.
Includes in one of its chapters (pp.131-140) a look at off-shore sourcing plants for electronic parts, in addition to other discussion of effects of automation on office work.

Dumas, Lynne S. “Home Work: The Telecommuting Option.” WORKING MOTHER v.17 (July 1994): 22+.
Looks at the growing trend of home-based work via computer; more than half the Fortune 500 companies offer such an option, as part of saving office space and complying with the Clean Air Act by getting employees off the road. More than four million women do telecommuting at least part of the time, according to one study.

DuMont, Paul F. and Rosemary Ruhig DuMont. “The Information Professional and the New Technology: An Investigation of Possible Differential Responses by Gender.” LIBRARY TRENDS v.37, no.4 (Spring 1989): 510-520.
Preliminary/exploratory study of the connection between attitudes toward technology and gender imbalance in academic library management positions.

Dunkle, Debora E., et al. “Women, Men, and Information Technology: A Gender-based Comparison of the Impacts of Computing Experienced by White Collar Workers.” WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY, ed. Urs E. Gattiker, pp.31-63. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1994. (Technological innovation and human resources, v.4)

Duxbury, L.E., et al. “After-hours Telecommuting and Work-Family Conflict: A Comparative Analysis.” INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH v.3 (1992): 173-190.

Eriksson, Inger V., et al., eds. WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION: UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING BIAS IN WORK AND EDUCATION: PROCEEDINGS OF THE IFIP TC9/WG 9.1 CONFERENCE ON WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION, HELSINKI, FINLAND, 30 JUNE-2 JULY 1991. Amsterdam; New York: North-Holland; distr. in U.S. Elsevier Science, 1991. 437p. ill. bibl.
Papers/articles included in this compilation are listed individually under title of each paper.

Evans, Pam. “Women Homeworkers and Information Technology — the F International Experience.” WOMEN AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, ed. Marilyn J. Davidson and Cary L. Cooper, pp.227-242. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.

Fisher, Susan R. “Librarians and Networks: Breaking the Boundaries that Bind Us.” WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION: BREAKING OLD BOUNDARIES, BUILDING NEW FORMS, ed. Alison Adam et al., pp.393-407. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 1994.

FOR BUSINESS ONLY: GENDER AND NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES. Amsterdam: SISWO, 1990. 75p. bibl.

Ford, Bill. “Technology, Women and Employment: The Australian Experience.” MICROPROCESSORS, MANPOWER AND SOCIETY: A COMPARATIVE, CROSS-NATIONAL APPROACH, ed. by Malcolm Warner, pp.339-348. Aldershot, England: Gower, 1984.

Fothergill, Anne. “Telework: Women’s Experiences and Utilisation of Information Technology in the Home.” WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION: BREAKING OLD BOUNDARIES, BUILDING NEW FORMS, ed. Alison Adam et al., pp.333-347. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 1994.
Examines the “social, gender and family aspects of teleworking and their implications for teleworkers and their families” (abstract, p.333).

Goldberg, Joan Rachel. HIGH-TECH CAREER STRATEGIES FOR WOMEN. New York: Collier Books, 1984. 290p. bibl. index.
Includes discussion of overcoming technophobia, finding high-tech jobs, career advancement, and entrepreneurship, plus a list of networks/organizations that may be of help.

Goodman, Sara. “The Implications of Computerization and Microelectronics on Women’s Employment in South-east Asia.” TECHNOLOGY AND GENDER: WOMEN’S WORK IN ASIA, ed. Cecilia Ng, pp.64-83. Selangor, Malaysia: Women’s Studies Unit, Department of Extension Education, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia, 1987.
Goodman examines the similarities and differences in microelectronic influences on women’s work in Western and Southeast Asian countries, noting effects on the electronics industry, sales and service, clerical, and professional employment.

Gutek, Barbara A. and Laurie Larwood. “Information Technology and Working Women in the USA.” WOMEN AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, ed. Marilyn J. Davidson and Cary L. Cooper, pp.71-94. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.

Gutek, Barbara. WOMEN MANAGERS, WOMEN WORKERS, & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. London, Ont.: National Centre for Management Research and Development, University of Western Ontario, 1990. (Working paper series) 24p. bibl.

Hacker, Sally L. “Feminist Perspectives on Computer Based Systems and Democracy at the Workplace.” COMPUTERS AND DEMOCRACY: A SCANDINAVIAN CHALLENGE, ed. Gro Bjerknes et al., pp.177-190. Brookfield, VT: Gower Publishing, 1987.
Hacker looks at liberal, socialist, and radical feminist approaches to emerging computer technology, noting the social structures of both technology and eroticism are based on men’s needs and desires.

Hackett, Edward J., et al. “Women’s and Men’s Expectations About the Effects of New Technology at Work.” GROUP AND ORGANIZATION STUDIES v.16, no.1 (March 1, 1991): 60-85.

Hanson, Jarice. “Women in Telecommunications: The Executive Woman in Informatics.” COMMUNICATIONS AT THE CROSSROADS: THE GENDER GAP CONNECTION, ed. Ramona R. Rush and Donna Allen, pp.120-125. Northwood, NJ: Ablex, 1989.

This research study of 26 women in middle or upper-level management positions concludes that “young informatics industries tend to support the career mobility of women within the organization” (p.123).

Harris, Roma M. “Technology and the Deskilling of Women’s Work.” LIBRARIANSHIP: THE EROSION OF A WOMAN’S PROFESSION, pp.121-143. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1992.
Speculates on the deprofessionalism of work in the library field through automation, which has most impact on women making their way up the hierarchy of the profession.

Harris, Roma. “Information Technology and the De-Skilling of Librarians; or The Erosion of a Woman’s Profession.” COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES v.12, no.1 (January 1992): 8-16.
Harris notes the displacement in areas where women’s work is concentrated, such as clerical library work, the automation of cataloging, and the like. Hope is seen in the move toward more advisory, instructor roles in reference work.

Hartmann, Heidi I. et al., eds. COMPUTER CHIPS AND PAPER CLIPS. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1986. 2 vols. (216p.; 438p.)
Volume I discusses historical changes in such work situations as telephone operator, printing/publishing, information/data processing, retail sales, and nursing. In Volume II are case studies of technology’s impact on women’s work, from bookkeeping in the early 20th century to telecommunications today.

Hemenway, Kathleen. “Human Nature and the Glass Ceiling in Industry.” COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM v.38, no.1 (January 1995): 55-62.

Henwood, F. and S. Wyatt. “Women’s Work, Technological Change and Shifts in the Employment Structure.” THE GEOGRAPHY OF DE-INDUSTRIALISATION, ed. Ron L. Martin and Bob Rowthorn, pp.106-137. London: Macmillan, 1986.

Henwood, Felicity. “Microelectronics and Women’s Employment: An International Perspective.” WOMEN AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, ed. Marilyn J. Davidson and Cary L. Cooper, pp.97-119. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.

Holtgrewe, Ursula. “Everyday Experts? Professionals’ Women Assistants and Information Technology.” WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION: BREAKING OLD BOUNDARIES, BUILDING NEW FORMS, ed. Alison Adam et al., pp.121-128. Amsterdam, New York: Elsevier, 1994.
Discusses how women assistants to professionals (legal secretaries, doctors’ assistants, etc.) become informal computer experts.

“Home-based Clerical Workers: Are They Victims of Exploitation?” Washington, DC: U.S. House of Representatives, 1986. (H.R. Report No. 99-677, 99th Congress, 2nd Session, 1986)

Huws, Ursula. “New Technology Homeworker.” EMPLOYER GAZETTE v.92, no.1 (1984): 13-17.

Huws, Ursula. “Terminal Isolation: The Atomisation of Work and Leisure in a Wired Society.” MAKING WAVES: THE POLITICS OF COMMUNICATIONS, ed. Radical Science Collective, pp.9-25. London: Free Association Books, 1985.
Huws’ discussion touches on the structure of employment, the transfer of work to the home, and the gendered implications of home as workplace.

Huws, Ursula. “The Effect of IT on Women’s Lives.” ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR SOCIETY, ed. Karamjit S. Gill, pp.169-177. West Sussex, England: Wiley, 1986.
Comments primarily on employment-related issues: job loss, skill changes, home-based work, and work transferred to Third World countries.

Huws, Ursula. “The Fading of the Collective Dream? Reflections on Twenty Years’ Research on Information Technology and Women’s Employment.” WOMEN ENCOUNTER TECHNOLOGY: CHANGING PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD, ed. Swasti Mitter and Sheila Rowbotham, pp.314-340. New York: Routledge in association with the United Nations University Press, 1995.

“Information and Communication Technology Homeworking.” HOMEWORKING WOMEN: GENDER, RACE, AND CLASS AT WORK, by Annie Phizacklea and Carol Wolkowitz, pp.101-122. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995.
Surveys the rather slow growth of the “electronic cottage,” noting issues of authority/supervision and child care, particularly, in the differences between high-end and low-end telecommunications employees.

Jules-Rosette, Bennetta. “Women and New Technologies in Comparative Perspective: Case Studies in Ivory Coast and Kenya.” AFRICAN URBAN STUDIES v.21 (1985): 25-37.
New technologies have not improved women’s employment status in Kenya and the Ivory Coast, according to this paper, due to both inadequate training and on-the-job discrimination.

Katsikides, Savvas and Margit Pohl. “Dichotomous Thinking, Women, and Technology.” WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION: BREAKING OLD BOUNDARIES, BUILDING NEW FORMS, ed. Alison Adam et al., pp.35-43. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 1994.
The authors propose a “more dynamic approach” to explain “gender differences in attitudes and performance with regard to computer systems” (abstract, p.35).

Kraemer, Kenneth L. and James N. Danziger. “The Impacts of Computer Technology on the Worklife of Information Workers.” SOCIAL SCIENCE COMPUTER REVIEW v.8, no.4 (1990): 592-613.

Kraft, Joan Federico. WOMEN, COMPUTERS, AND INFORMATION WORK. Washington, DC: Ph.D. dissertation, The American University, 1987. 249p.
Examines how work dealing with information is growing, how microcomputers change that work, and how industry growth and changes in work conditions affect men and women differently.

Kreinberg, Nancy and Elizabeth K. Stage. “EQUALS in Computer Technology.” THE TECHNOLOGICAL WOMAN: INTERFACING WITH TOMORROW, ed. Jan Zimmerman, pp.251-259. New York: Praeger, 1983.

Larwood, Laurie. “Women Workers as Users of Computer Technology.” COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES v.12, no.3 (March 1992): 38-39.
Argues that although deskilling is a problem of computerization, “many of the dire predictions for the computer revolution do not appear to have happened for most people” (p.39) who have been able to alter their work patterns.

Lie, Merete. “Technology and Masculinity: The Case of the Computer.” EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES v.2, no.3 (August 1995): 379-394.

Lloyd, Anne and Liz Newell. “Women and Computers.” SMOTHERED BY INVENTION: TECHNOLOGY IN WOMEN’S LIVES, ed. Wendy Faulkner and Erik Arnold, pp.238-251. London: Pluto Press, 1985.

Mackinnon, Alison G. “Autonomy and Control: Women, Work and Computerization.” WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION: UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING BIAS IN WORK AND EDUCATION, ed. Inger V. Eriksson et al., pp.113-124. New York: Elsevier, 1991.

“Mathematical and Computer Skills and Workplace Literacy in Labor Markets: An Analysis of Their Actual and Potential Effect on the Economic Status of Women. Final Report.” Washington, DC: Joel Popkin & Co., 1993. 167p. Available from ERIC: ED367829.

McConnel, Patricia. THE WOMAN’S WORK-AT-HOME HANDBOOK: INCOME AND INDEPENDENCE WITH A COMPUTER. New York: Bantam Books, 1987.

Menzies, Heather. WOMEN AND THE CHIP: CASE STUDIES OF THE EFFECTS OF INFORMATICS ON EMPLOYMENT IN CANADA. Montreal: The Institute for Research on Public Policy, 1981. (IRPP/L’Institut de Recherches Politiques, 2149 Mackay St., Montreal, Quebec H3G 2J2 Canada)

“Micro-Chip Technology: Its Impact on Women Workers.” International Council for Adult Education, Participatory Research Group (229 College St., Suite 309, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1R4 Canada). VOICES RISING: A BULLETIN ABOUT WOMEN AND POPULAR EDUCATION (May/June 1987): special section.
Report from Philippines Consultation, October 1986.

Miles, Ian. “The Electronic Cottage: Myth or Near Myth?” FUTURES v.20, no.4 (August 1988): 355-366.

Mitter, Swasti. “Beyond the Politics of Difference: An Introduction.” WOMEN ENCOUNTER TECHNOLOGY: CHANGING PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD, ed. Swasti Mitter and Sheila Rowbotham, pp.1-18. New York: Routledge in association with United Nations University Press, 1995.

Mitter Swasti. “Information Technology and Working Women’s Demands.” WOMEN ENCOUNTER TECHNOLOGY: CHANGING PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD, ed. Swasti Mitter and Sheila Rowbotham, pp.19-43. New York: Routledge in association with United Nations University Press, 1995.

Mitter, Swasti and Sheila Rowbotham, eds. WOMEN ENCOUNTER TECHNOLOGY: CHANGING PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD. New York: Routledge in association with United Nations University Press, 1995. 356p. bibl. index.
Focusing on information technology in its broader role as part of “knowledge-intensive” modes of production, including computer-aided manufacturing, this collection examines how such technological “modernization” affects women in developing nations differently than it may in Western nations. Among the articles: “Beyond the Politics of Difference: An Introduction” (Swasti Mitter); “Information Technology and Working Women’s Demands” (Swasti Mitter); “Feminist Approaches to Technology: Women’s Values or a Gender Lens?” (Sheila Rowbotham); “Information Technology and Women’s Employment in Manufacturing in Eastern Europe: The Case of Slovenia” (Maja Bucar); “Computerization and Women’s Employment in India’s Banking Sector” (Sujata Gothoskar); “Information Technology, Gender and Employment: A Case Study of the Telecommunications Industry in Malaysia” (Cecilia Ng Choon Sim and Carol Yong); “Women in Software Programming: The Experience of Brazil” (Fatima Janine Gaio); “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed… The Electronics Industry in Calcutta” (Nirmala Banerjee); “Women and Information Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Topic for Discussion?” (Mayuri Odedra-Straub); “Gender Perspectives on Health and Safety in Information Processing: Learning from International Experience” (Ruth Pearson); “Using Information Technology as a Mobilizing Force: The Case of The Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA): (Fatma Alloo); and “The Fading of the Collective Dream? Reflections on Twenty Years’ Research on Information Technology and Women’s Employment” (Ursula Huws).

Mohseni, Navid. “The Labor Process and Control of Labor in the U.S. Computer Industry.” THE LABOR PROCESS AND CONTROL OF LABOR: THE CHANGING NATURE OF WORK RELATIONS IN THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY, ed. Berch Berberoglu, pp.59-77. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993.
An interesting overview of the history of computers in the U.S. Though only briefly focusing on exploitation of women’s labor, the author surveys the “commodification of creativity” (as in programming) and its relation to the prod uction process (using women workers).

Morris, Judith. WOMEN IN COMPUTING. Sutton, Surrey, UK: Computer Weekly Publications, 1989. 124p. bibl. index. ill.

Nystuen, John D., et al. “Computer-aided Management Advice for Loan Programs Run by Indonesian Village Women.” WORLD DEVELOPMENT v.19, no.12 (December 1991): pp.1753-1766.

Oldfield, Margaret A. “The Electronic Cottage: Boon or Bane for Mothers?” RESOURCES FOR FEMINIST RESEARCH/DOCUMENTATION SUR LA RECHERCHE FEMINISTE v.16, no.4 (December 1987): 42-44.
The author’s study questions why women feel a need to work at home in order to handle the “double day” of paid work and domestic duties and maintain the flexibility for child care that most can’t find in employment outside the home.

Olerup, Agneta, et al., eds. WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND DISADVANTAGES: PROCEEDINGS OF THE IFIP WG 9.1 FIRST WORKING CONFERENCE ON WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION, RIVA DEL SOLE, TUSCANY, ITALY, 17-21 SEPTEMBER, 1984. Amsterdam; New York: North-Holland; distr. in U.S. Elsevier Science, 1985. 372p. bibl. index.

Olson, Margrethe H. and Sophia B. Primps. “Working at Home with Computers: Work and Nonwork Issues.” JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES v.40, no.3 (1984): 97-112.

Parasuraman, Saroj and Magid Igbaria. “An Examination of Gender Differences in the Determinants of Computer Anxiety and Attitudes Toward Microcomputers Among Managers.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MAN-MACHINE STUDIES v.32, no.3 (March 1990): 327-340.

Peitchinis, Stephen G. “Computer Effects on Employment and Occupations.” WOMEN AT WORK: DISCRIMINATION AND RESPONSE, by Stephen G. Peitchinis, pp. 78-100. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1989.
This chapter focuses most intently on the relationship of the computer to women’s work, but sections of other chapters (“Occupational Distribution of Women” and “Perceptions of Threat to Employment”) also comment on information technology’s impact on women’s employment.

Rees, Teresa; Commission of the European Communities. SKILL SHORTAGES, WOMEN AND THE NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1992. 38p.
This report examines barriers to women’s recruitment and employment in information technology-related jobs in Europe and suggests how training geared t o women (from school onward) may help address some of the skill shortages keeping women out of careers in the field.

Roos, Patricia. “Hot-Metal to Electronic Composition: Gender, Technology, and Social Change.” JOB QUEUES, GENDER QUEUES: EXPLAINING WOMEN’S INROADS INTO MALE OCCUPATIONS, ed. Barbara F. Reskin and Patricia A. Roos, pp.275-298. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990.
Roos analyzes the transition of printing from a male-dominated occupation to female-dominated following the introduction of electronic composition and a new perception of print production as more akin to “women’s work.”

Rowbotham, Sheila. “Feminist Approaches to Technology: Women’s Values or a Gender Lens?” WOMEN ENCOUNTER TECHNOLOGY: CHANGING PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD, ed. Swasti Mitter and Sheila Rowbotham, pp.44-69. New York: Routledge in association with United Nations University Press, 1995.

Sanders, Jo Shuchat and Mary McGinnis. WHAT IS COMPUTER EQUITY? A TRAINER’S WORKSHOP GUIDE. New York: Women’s Action Alliance; Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1991. 159p. bibl. ill.

Shiga, Hiroko. “Microelectronics and Women in Japan.” TECHNOLOGY AND GENDER: WOMEN’S WORK IN ASIA ed. Cecilia Ng, pp.84-91. Selangor, Malaysia: Women’s Studies Unit, Department of Extension Education, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia, 1987.
Shiga discusses the influence of microelectronics on the overall employment structure, on quality and form of work, health hazards, and changes in the household and effects on children.

Shuttleworth, Teresa. “Women and Computer Technology: Have the Promises of Equal Opportunities Been Fulfilled?” WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT REVIEW v.7, no.7 (1992): 24-30.

Simons, G. L. WOMEN IN COMPUTING. Manchester, England: The National Computing Centre Limited, 1981. 210p. bibl. index.
Looks at women’s position in the computer industry, from manufacturing to management, the office, and freelance/home-based work, with some attention to relevant history.

Soriyan, Bimbo and Bisi Aina. “Women’s Work and Challenges of Computerisation: The Nigerian Case.” WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION: UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING BIAS IN WORK AND EDUCATION, ed. Inger V. Eriksson et al., pp.199-212. New York: Elsevier, 1991.

SPRU Women and Technology Studies. “Microelectronics and the Jobs Women Do.” SMOTHERED BY INVENTION: TECHNOLOGY IN WOMEN’S LIVES, ed. Wendy Faulkner and Erik Arnold, 200-221. London: Pluto Press, 1985.

Sundin, Elisabeth. “The Social Construction of Gender and Technology: A Process With No Definitive Answer.” EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES v.2, no.3 (August 1995): 335-353.

Swarbrick, Ailsa. “Information Technology and New Training Initiatives for Women.” WOMEN AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, ed. Marilyn J. Davidson and Cary L. Cooper, pp. 255-280. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.

Swords-Isherwood, N., et al. “Technical Change and Its Effects on Employment Opportunities for Women.” NEW TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF WORK AND SKILLS, ed. Pauline Marstrand, pp.191-213. Dover, NH: Frances Pinter, 1984. “Proceedings of a Symposium organised by Section X at the Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, August 1993.”
Offers a broader analysis of the impact of information technology on women in various jobs, including sales, manufacturing, and other jobs in addition to clerical work.

Tijdens, Kea, et al., eds. WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION: FORMING NEW ALLIANCES: PROCEEDINGS OF THE IFIP TC 9/WG 9.1 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATIO N, AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, 27-29 APRIL, 1988. Amsterdam; New York: North-Holland; distr. in U.S., Elsevier Science, 1989. 333p. ill. bibl.

Wagner, Ina. “Hard Times: The Politics of Women’s Work in Computerised Environments.” WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION: BREAKING OLD BOUNDARIES, BUILDING NEW FORMS, ed. Alison Adam et al., pp.23-34. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 1994.
Uses nursing as an example for looking at “the tensions between the images and practice of women’s work and the pressure for ‘modernisation’ as it becomes visible in current computer applications” (abstract, p.23). Also included in EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES v.2, no.3 (August 1995), pp.295-314.

Wagner, Ina. “Networking Actors and Organisations.” COMPUTER SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE WORK v.2, nos.1-2 (1994): 5-20.

Wagner, Ina. “Women’s Voice: The Case of Nursing Information Systems.” AI & SOCIETY v.7, no.4 (1993): 295-310.

Wajcman, Judy and Belinda Probert. “New Technology Outwork.” TECHNOLOGY AND THE LABOUR PROCESS: AUSTRALASIAN CASE STUDIES, ed. Evan Willis, pp.51-67. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1988.

Wajcman, Judy. “Patriarchy, Technology, and Conceptions of Skill.” WORK AND OCCUPATIONS v.18, no.1 (February 1991): 29-45.
Critiques the “deskilling” view of the introduction of information technology, positing that men’s control and shaping of technology and definitions of skill are what position most women in inferior status in the workplace.

Wajcman, Judy. “The Technology of Production: Making a Job of Gender.” FEMINISM CONFRONTS TECHNOLOGY, pp.27-53. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania University Press, 1991.
Though not focused wholly on the impact of computerization, topics such as office automation, homework, and deskilling of women’s work are key parts of the chapter.

Webster, Juliet. “Gender and Technology at Work: 15 Years On.” WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION: BREAKING OLD BOUNDARIES, BUILDING NEW FORMS, ed. Alison Adam et al., pp.311-324. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 1994.
Reviews research on gender and workplace technologies since the late 1970’s.

Webster, Juliet. “What Do We Know About Gender and Information Technology at Work? A Discussion of Selected Feminist Research.” EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES v.2, no.3 (August 1995): 315-334.

Weggelaar, Margaret. “Women, Employment, and Information Technology: A View from the Netherlands.” THE INFORMATION SOCIETY: EVOLVING LANDSCAPES, ed. Jacques Berleur et al., pp.356-363. New York: Spring-Verlag, 1990.

Westlander, Gunnela and Bjorn Magnusson. “Swedish Women and New Technology.” WOMEN & HEALTH v.13, nos.3-4 (1988): 95-116.
Based on a survey of computer use in Sweden, June 1984, by Statistics Sweden. See also “Women, Work and Computers” by Gunilla Bradley in the same issue.

Winker, Gabriele. “Female Interests in the Design of Technology Supported Work Systems as Exemplified in the Bremen Administration.” WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION:UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING BIAS IN WORK AND EDUCATION, ed. Inger V. Eriksson et al., pp.159-170. New York: Elsevier, 1991.

Wright, Barbara Drygulski. “Women, Work, and the University-Affiliated Technology Park.” WOMEN, WORK, AND TECHNOLOGY: TRANSFORMATIONS, ed. Barbara Drygulski Wright et al., pp.353-370. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987.

Zimmerman, Jan. “Don’t Bother Your Pretty Little Head.” ONCE UPON THE FUTURE: A WOMAN’S GUIDE TO TOMORROW’S TECHNOLOGY, pp.54-64. New York: Pandora, 1986.
Zimmerman examines the division of the world of new technology along gender lines, particularly information technology and its impact on women’s work. Other chapters touch on computers as well.

Zimmerman, Jan. “Some Effects of the New Technology on Women.” COMPUTERS, ETHICS, & SOCIETY, ed. M. David Ermann et al., pp.201-213. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

EMPLOYMENT: Manufacturing

In this section and the one on health issues, Third World Women appear much more prominent, due to their part in the production of components for the computers that have created the information revolution. Women’s role in this less-than-glamorous end of information technology is clearly a part of the overall picture.

Banerjee, Nirmala. “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed… The Electronics Industry in Calcutta.” WOMEN ENCOUNTER TECHNOLOGY: CHANGING PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD, ed. Swasti Mitter and Sheila Rowbotham, pp.233-255. New York: Routledge in association with the United Nations University Press, 1995.

Catanzarite, Lisa M. and Myra H. Strober. “The Gender Recomposition of the Maquiladora Workforce in Ciudad Juarez.” INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS v.32, no.1 (Winter 1993): 133-147.

Charoenloet, Voravidh, et al. FACTORY MANAGEMENT, SKILL FORMATION AND ATTITUDES OF WOMEN WORKERS IN THAILAND: A COMPARISON BETWEEN AN AMERICAN OWNED ELECTRICAL FACTORY AND A JAPANESE OWNED ELECTRICAL FACTORY. Bangkok, Thailand: Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, 1991.
One company surveyed is an American-owned factory producing integrated circuits, located in Bangkok.

Dangler, Jamie Faricellia. “Electronics Subassemblers in Central New York: Nontraditional Homeworkers in a Traditional Homework Industry.” HOMEWORK: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON PAID LABOR AT HOME, ed. Eileen Boris and Cynthia R. Daniels, pp.147-164. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989.

Elson, Diane and Ruth Pearson. “Nimble Fingers Make Cheap Workers: An Analysis of Women’s Employment in Third World Manufacturing.” FEMINIST REVIEW no.7 (Spring 1981): 87-107.

Eskenazi, Brenda, et al. “A Preliminary Study of Reproductive Outcomes of Female Maquiladora Workers in Tijuana, Mexico.” AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE v.24, no.6 (1993): 667-676.
The authors found significantly lower birthweights among infants of maquiladora (border factory) workers than among infants of women doing service work. In another study, Sylvia Guendelman and Monica Jasis discovered that the overall health of maquiladora workers was no worse — and perhaps better — than a sample of service workers, although no longterm monitoring was possible. See also: “Health Consequences of Maquiladora Work: Women on the U.S.-Mexico Border” in AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH v.83 (1993): 37-44.

Fernandez-Kelly, Maria Patricia. “Gender and Industry on Mexico’s New Frontier.” THE TECHNOLOGICAL WOMAN: INTERFACING WITH TOMORROW, ed. Jan Zimmerman, pp.18-29. New York: Praeger, 1983.
“Examines the proliferation of electronics assembly plants under the Mexican Border Industrialization and **Maquiladora* Programs” (p.18).

Fernandez-Kelly, Maria Patricia. A COLLABORATIVE STUDY OF HISPANIC WOMEN IN THE GARMENT AND ELECTRONICS INDUSTRIES: FINAL REPORT. New York: Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, New York University, 1991. 163p.

Fernandez-Kelly, Maria Patricia. FOR WE ARE SOLD, I AND MY PEOPLE: WOMEN AND INDUSTRY IN MEXICO’S FRONTIER. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983.
For this study, Fernandez-Kelly worked in a border manufacturing plant, also gathering information and doing extensive interviewing. Examines the history of border industrialization; demographic characteristics of women workers; how offshore production centers affect local economies and culture; the work situation inside the “maquiladoras”; and how the work affects family organization. Substantial bibliography.

Fuentes, Annette and Barbara Ehrenreich. WOMEN IN THE GLOBAL FACTORY. Boston: South End Press, 1983. 64p. bibl.
A classic early introduction to the exploitation of women workers outside the U.S. Information on the conditions of work for electronics assemblers appears throughout.

Gemoets, Leopoldo A. “An Information Systems Technology Profile of the Maquiladora Industry.” SOUTHWEST JOURNAL OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS v.6, no.4 (Fall 1989): 7-13.
Highly business-oriented, without specific discussion of women workers, but includes some potentially useful information.

Global Electronics. “Bombay Women Organize.” GLOBAL ELECTRONICS No.111 (1991).
Describes how the attempts of electronics manufacturing workers, mostly women, to organize a union at the Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone, Bombay, have been suppressed by employers.
Goldstein, Nance. “Silicon Glen: Women and Semiconductor Multinationals.” WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT AND MULTINATIONALS IN EUROPE, ed. Diane Elson and Ruth Pearson, pp.111-128. London: Macmillan, 1989.

Grossman, Rachael. “Women’s Place in the Integrated Circuit.” SOUTHEAST ASIA CHRONICLE no.66 (Jan./Feb. 1979); PACIFIC RESEARCH v.9, no.5/6 (July-Oct. 1978): 2-17.
An early but relevant study of microelectronics manufacturing, based on a “ten-week factfinding trip to Southeast Asia as well as previous research on the electronics industry in northern California’s ‘Silicon Valley.'” Offers a revealing look at the production process, the culture of the global assembly line, and worker resistance.

Hayes, Dennis. “Making Chips with Dust-free Poison.” SCIENCE AS CULTURE No.1 (1987): 89-104.
Details the conditions in Silicon Valley’s “clean rooms,” where integrated circuits are etched onto silicon wafers. Workers, who are mostly women, are gowned to protect the chips, not the people, and are regularly exposed to such toxic gases as chlorine and arsine (gaseous arsenic).

Hirata, Helena. “Production Relocation: An Electronics Multinational in France and Brazil.” WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT AND MULTINATIONALS IN EUROPE, ed. Diane Elson and Ruth Pearson, pp.129-143. London: Macmillan, 1989.

Hossfeld, Karen J. “‘Their Logic Against Them’: Contradictions in Sex, Race, and Class in Silicon Valley.” WOMEN WORKERS AND GLOBAL RESTRUCTURING, ed. Kathryn Ward, pp. 149-178. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 1990.
Hossfeld studied how gender, race, and class divisions are used by predominantly white, male managers to control workers on shop floors in Silicon Valley, but also by the predominantly immigrant women laborers in their informal resistance strategies.

Huel, G., et al. “Evidence for Adverse Reproductive Outcomes Among Women Microelectronic Assembly Workers.” BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE v.47 (1990): 400-404. See also: “Pregnancy Outcomes in Women Potentially Exposed to Occupational Solvents and Women Working in the Electronic Industry” by J.A. Lipscomb, et al., JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE v.35 (1991): 597-604.

Kean, Tan Boon. “Women Workers in the Electronics Industry.” WOMEN & EMPLOYMENT IN MALAYSIA, ed. Ai Yun Hing and Rokiah Talib, pp.17-32. Kuala Lumpur: Dept. of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Malaya, 1986.

Kopinak, Kathryn. “Gender As a Vehicle for the Subordination of Women Maquiladora Workers in Mexico.” LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES v.22, no.1 (Winter 1995): 30-48.

Lee, Ching Kwan. “Familial Hegemony: Gender and Production Politics on Hong Kong’s Electronics Shopfloor.” GENDER & SOCIETY v.7, no.4 (December 1993): 529-547.
Lee discusses “the social construction of women workers’ paid labor as defined and confined by their gender role in the family, and the pervasive use of familial relations as metaphor for shopfloor relations” (p.530) in a Hong Kong computer factory.

Levidow, Les. “Women Who Make the Chips.” SCIENCE AS CULTURE v.2, part 1 (No.10, 1991): 103-124.
Describes the lives and work of Malaysian women employed in microelectronics firms, noting how cultural values of obedience are exploited in pressuring workers for more production, with labor organization and protest largely prohibited.

Lim, Linda Y.C. “Women’s Work in Multinational Electronics Factories.” WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, ed. Roslyn Dauber and Melinda L. Cain, pp.181-190. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1981. (AAAS selected symposium, 53)
This older work focuses on Malaysia and Singapore, but draws parallels to similar conditions in Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador, and other countries.

Morales, Rebecca. “Cold Solder on a Hot Stove.” THE TECHNOLOGICAL WOMAN: INTERFACING WITH TOMORROW, ed. Jan Zimmerman, pp.169-180. New York: Praeger, 1983.
Examines employment in “high tech” industries, primarily in the Silicon Valley area of California, and the practice of homework, or sending microcomputer assembly work home with workers.

Moure-Eraso, Rafael, et al. “Back to the Future: Sweatshop Conditions on the Mexico-U.S. Border. I. Community Health Impact of Maquiladora Industrial Activity.” AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE v.25, no.3 (1994): 311-324.

Pena, Devon. “Tortuosidad: Shop Floor Struggles of Female Maquiladora Workers.” WOMEN ON THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER: RESPONSES TO CHANGE, ed. Vicki Ruiz and Susan Tiano, pp.129-154. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987.
Examines the demographics and tactics of women maquiladora workers along the U.S.-Mexico border (most in electronics manufacturing) in resisting Fordist-type work speedups. “Tortuosidad” refers to working at a turtle’s pace. See also “Gender Identification and Working-Class Solidarity among Maquila Workers in Ciudad Juarez: Stereotypes and Realities” by Gay Young in the same volume, pp.105-127.

Pineda-Ofreneo, Rosalinda. “Women in the Electronics Industry in the Philippines.” TECHNOLOGY AND GENDER: WOMEN’S WORK IN ASIA, ed. Cecilia Ng, pp.92-106. Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia: Women’s Studi Education, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia, 1987.
Summarizes the work process in transnational semiconductor manufacturing, offering U.S.-Asian wage comparisons, and discusses the limited employment options, health hazards, and job insecurity faced by the predominantly women workers.

Sen, G. and L. Gulati. WOMEN WORKERS IN KERALA’S ELECTRONIC INDUSTRY. Geneva: International Labour Office, Rural Employment Policy Research Programme, 1987. (Rural employment policy research program, working paper no.45) 53p.

Seung-Kyung, Kim. “Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Autonomy: Women Factory Workers in the Korean Economic Miracle.” New York: Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, 1990.

Tiano, Susan. “Maquiladora Women: A New Category of Workers?” WOMEN WORKERS AND GLOBAL RESTRUCTURING, ed. Kathryn Ward, pp.193-223. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 1990.
Looks at various “push-pull” factors in explaining the number of women employed in maquiladora work along the U.S.-Mexico border, concluding that women take such jobs largely because men’s wages aren’t enough to cover family expenses.

Women Working Worldwide, ed. COMMON INTERESTS: WOMEN ORGANISING IN GLOBAL ELECTRONICS. London: Women Working Worldwide, 1991. (Box 92, 190 Upper St., London N1 1RQ, England) 237p. bibl.
An anthology of the experiences of women in thirteen countries working on the assembly line for the microelectronics industry. Covers South Korea, the U.S., Scotland, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Italy, Malaysia, Japan, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

Wong, Aline K. and Yiu-Chung Ko. WOMEN’S WORK AND FAMILY LIFE: THE CASE OF ELECTRONICS WORKERS IN SINGAPORE. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1984. (Working paper no.64) 37p.
The findings of “intensive interviews with a small sample of single and married women workers in the electronics industry in Singapore” (p.1).

EMPLOYMENT: Office

Andolsen, Barbara Hilkert. GOOD WORK AT THE VIDEO DISPLAY TERMINAL: A FEMINIST ETHICAL ANALYSIS OF CHANGES IN CLERICAL WORK. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989. 213p. bibl. index.
Offers a Christian ethical analysis of changes in clerical work brought about by the computer, focusing on displacement of workers, restrictions on worker automony, and health risks.

Applebaum, Eileen. “Technology and the Redesign of Work in the Insurance Industry.” WOMEN, WORK, AND TECHNOLOGY: TRANSFORMATIONS, ed. Barbara Drygulski Wright et al., pp.182-201. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987.

Avner, Eva. “Trade Unions, IT and Equal Opportunities in Sweden.” GENDERED BY DESIGN? INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND OFFICE SYSTEMS, ed. Eileen Green et al., pp.194-206. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1993.

Baran, Barbara. “Office Automation and Women’s Work: The Technological Transformation of the Insurance Industry.” HIGH TECHNOLOGY, SPACE AND SOCIETY, ed. Manuel Castells, pp.143-171. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1985.

Barker, Jane and Hazel Downing. “Word Processing and the Transformation of Patriarchal Relations of Control in the Office.” THE SOCIAL SHAPING OF TECHNOLOGY: HOW THE REFRIGERATOR GOT ITS HUM, ed. Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman, pp.147-164. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1985.

Bentson, Margaret Lowe. “Feminism and System Design: Questions of Control.” THE EFFECTS OF FEMINIST APPROACHES ON RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES, ed. Winnie Tomm, pp.205-223. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1989.
The author proposes a model of “technology and science ‘with the people'” in empowering everyone, particularly women, in dealing with new computer systems in a more collaborative way.

Bevan, Stephen M. “New Office Technology and the Changing Role of Secretaries.” WOMEN AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, ed. Marilyn J. Davidson and Cary L. Cooper, pp.179-191. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.

Board on Telecommunications and Computer Applications, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, National Research Council. OFFICE WORKSTATIONS IN THE HOME. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1985. 160p. index.
Papers from this 1983 national forum are grouped into “Case Studies,” “Issues and Problems,” and “The Future.” Among the articles: “American Express Company: Project Homebound” (James G. Raney, Jr.); “Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina: Program for Clerical Workers” (Greg Geisler); “U.S. Army: Prototype Program for Professionals” (Mary McDavid); “Mountain Bell: Program for Managers” (Nelson Phelps); “Control Data Corporation: Alternate Work Site Programs” (Ronald A. Manning); “F International: Twenty Years’ Experience in Homeworking” (V.S. Shirley); “Legalities” (Donald Elisburg); “Effects of Work Location on Motivation” (Arthur P. Brief); “Use and Misuses of Workstations at Home” (Dennis Chamot and John L. Zalusky); “Technology Forecast” (Frederic G. Withington); “Clerical Workers and New Office Technologies” (Judith Gregory); “The Potential of Remote Work for Professionals” (Margrethe H. Olson); and “Commentary” (Jack M. Nilles).

Bodker, Susanne and Joan Greenbaum. “Design of Information Systems: Things versus People.” GENDERED BY DESIGN? INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND OFFICE SYSTEMS, ed. Eileen Green et al., pp.53-63. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1993.

Carter, Valerie J. “Office Technology and Relations of Control in Clerical Work Organization.” WOMEN, WORK, AND TECHNOLOGY: TRANSFORMATIONS, ed. Barbara Drygulski Wright et al., pp.202-219. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987.
Challenges the model of office automation as inherently deskilling, noting that clerical workers develop office cultures of their own and many express enthusiasm about VDT work. Theorizes that the consequences of office automation “vary according to structural differences in office settings.”

Cassell, Catherine. “A Woman’s Place is at the Word Processor: Technology and Change in the Office.” WOMEN AT WORK: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVES, ed. Jenny Firth-Cozens and Michael A. West, pp.172-184. Bristol, PA: Open University Press, 1991.

Chalude, Monique; scientific direction, Marcel Bolle de Bal. OFFICE AUTOMATION AND WORK FOR WOMEN. Luxembourg: Commission of the European Communities; distr., Washington, DC: European Community Information Service, 1984. 135p. bibl.
Explores the “technical evolution” and the “employment and social issues associated with its growth,” using case studies such as a personnel department, a legal service, a purchasing center, and a banking firm. Researchers found office automation to be reaffirming the existing office culture in most cases.

Clement, Andrew. “Designing Without Designers: More Hidden Skill in Office Computerization?” WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION: UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING BIAS IN WORK AND EDUCATION, ed. Inger V. Eriksson et al., pp.15-32. New York: Elsevier, 1991.

Cohen, Marcy and Margaret White. TAKING CONTROL OF OUR FUTURE: CLERICAL WORKERS & NEW TECHNOLOGY. Burnaby, BC: Women’s Skill Development Society, 1987. 4340 Carson St., Burnaby, BC V5J 2X9 Canada

“Computer Monitoring and Other Dirty Tricks.” Cleveland, OH: 9 to 5, 1986. 9p.

Crompton, Rosemary and Gareth Jones. WHITE-COLLAR PROLETARIAT: DESKILLING AND GENDER IN CLERICAL WORK. London: Macmillan Press, 1984. 277p. bibl. index.
Based on research from 1979-1981 in three large bureaucracies, the authors found that clerical work has been deskilled, men being promoted out of that rank. They also explore class-related issues around clerical work and upward mobility, suggesting that men as well as women will increasingly become part of the “office proletariat.”

Crompton, Rosemary and Stuart Reid. “The Deskilling of Clerical Work.” THE DEGRADATION OF WORK? SKILL, DESKILLING AND THE LABOUR PROCESS, ed. Stephen Wood, pp.163-178. London: Hutchinson, 1982.

de Cindio, Fiorella and Carla Simone. “The Universes of Discourse for Education and Action/Research.” GENDERED BY DESIGN? INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND OFFICE SYSTEMS, ed. Eileen Green et al., pp.173-193. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1993.
Describes an analytical tool called “The Universes of Discourse” used by the authors in examining computerization of work situations.

Downing, Hazel. “Word Processors and the Oppression of Women.” THE MICROELECTRONICS REVOLUTION, ed. Tom Forester, pp.275-287. Oxford: Blackwell, 1980.

Feldberg, Roslyn and Evelyn Nakano Glenn. “Technology and Work Degradation: Effects of Office Automation on Women Clerical Workers.” TEACHING TECHNOLOGY FROM A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE: A PRACTICAL GUIDE, ed. Joan Rothschild, pp.59-78. New York: Pergamon, 1988.
Previously published as part of MACHINA EX DEA: FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON TECHNOLOGY, ed. Joan Rothschild (New York: Pergamon, 1983), pp.59-78.

Garson, Barbara. “The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers are Transforming the Office of the Future into the Factory of the Past.” New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. 288p. bibl. index.
Based on interviews with workers and managers, and noting abuses of electronic monitoring, Garson worries about the negative, dehumanizing impact of computers in the workplace.

Gothoskar, Sujata. “Computerization and Women’s Employment in India’s Banking Sector.” WOMEN ENCOUNTER TECHNOLOGY: CHANGING PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD, ed. Swasti Mitter and Sheila Rowbotham, pp.150-176. New York: Routledge in association with United Nations University Press, 1995.

Green, Eileen and Den Pain. “Integrated Gender Perspectives on Human-Centred Approached to Developing Computerised Office Systems.” NET WORKING: CONNECTING WORKERS IN AND BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONS, ed. Andrew Clement et al. New York: North-Holland, 1994.
Part of proceedings of the IFIP WG9.1 Working Conference on NetWORKing, Vienna, Austria, June 16-18, 1993.

Green, Eileen, et al. “`City Libraries’: Human-Centred Opportunities for Women?” GENDERED BY DESIGN? INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND OFFICE SYSTEMS, ed. Eileen Green et al., pp.127-152. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1993.
Case study of the use of “Human-Centred Systems” design in library automation, with attention to gender differences within the workforce.

Green, Eileen, et al. “Developing Computerised Office Systems: A Gender Perspective in UK Approaches.” WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION: UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING BIAS IN WORK AND EDUCATION, ed. Inger V. Eriksson et al., pp.217-232. New York: Elsevier, 1991.

Green, Eileen, et al. “Human-Centred Systems… Women-Centred Systems? Gender Divisions and Office Computer Systems Design.” GENDER, POWER, & SEXUALITY, ed. Pamela Abbott and Claire Wallace, pp.77-96. London: Macmillan, 1991.

Green, Eileen, Jenny Owen, and Den Pain, eds. GENDERED BY DESIGN: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND OFFICE SYSTEMS. Bristol, PA: Falmer Press, 1993. 218p. bibl. index.

Green, Eileen. “Gender Perspectives, Office Systems and Organizational Change.” WOMEN, WORK, AND COMPUTERIZATION: BREAKING OLD BOUNDARIES, BUILDING NEW FORMS, ed. Alison Adam et al., pp.365-377. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 1994.

Greenbaum, Joan. “Toward Participatory Design: The Head and the Heart Revisited.” WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION: UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING BIAS IN WORK AND EDUCATION, ed. Inger V. Eriksson et al., pp.33-39. New York: Elsevier, 1991.

Gutek, Barbara A. “Clerical Work and Information Technology: Implications of Managerial Assumptions.” WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY, ed. Urs E. Gattiker, pp.205-226. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1994. (Technological innovation and human resources, v.4)

Gutek, Barbara A. “Women’s Work in the Office of the Future.” THE TECHNOLOGICAL WOMAN: INTERFACING WITH TOMORROW, ed. Jan Zimmerman, pp.159-168. New York: Praeger, 1983. See also in the same book: “The Next Move: Organizing Women in the Office ” by Judith Gregory (pp.159-168).

Gutek, Barbara A. and Tora K. Bikson. “Differential Experiences of Men and Women in Computerised Offices.” SEX ROLES v.13, no.1 (1985): 123-136. Also listed in COMPUTERISED OFFICES by the same authors (New York: Plenum, 1986).

Hales, Mike and Peter O’Hara. “Strengths and Weaknesses of Participation: Learning by Doing in Local Government.” GENDERED BY DESIGN? INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND OFFICE SYSTEMS, ed. Eileen Green et al., pp.153-172. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1993.
Use of a participatory design approach in automation of a government social services office.

Hartman, Karen. “Secretaries and Computers.” COMPUTING AND CHANGE ON CAMPUS, ed. Sara Kiesler and Lee Sproull, pp.114-130. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Hedstrom, Margaret L. AUTOMATING THE OFFICE: TECHNOLOGY AND SKILL IN WOMEN’S CLERICAL WORK, 1940-1970. Madison, WI: Ph.D. dissertation, UW-Madison, 1988. 454 leaves, bibl.
The detail of this study offers a wealth of information on office automation before the advent of microcomputers. The chapter on “Installing Computers: From Brute Force to Blue Sky, 1955-1965,” is worth particular attention, including such factors as the unexpected difficulties of early computer automation efforts, workers’ resistance tactics, and women’s exclusion from higher-paying programming jobs.

Holvikivi, Jaana. “Working With Microcomputer Users in Developing Countries: Cases from Tanzania, Micronesia and the Maldives.” WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION: UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING BIAS IN WORK AND EDUCATION, ed. Inger V. Eriksson et al., pp.175-184. New York: Elsevier, 1991.

Johansson, Gunn and Gunnar Aronsson. “Stress Reactions in Computerized Administrative Work.” JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL BEHAVIOUR, v.5, no.3 (1984):159-181.
A study of 95 clerical workers in a Swedish insurance company, locating stress in such computer-related problems as delayed computer response time and routine and long periods of data entry.

Knights, David and Andrew Sturdy. “Women’s Work in Insurance-Information Technology and the Reproduction of Gendered Segregation.” WOMEN AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, ed. Marilyn J. Davidson and Cary L. Cooper, pp.151-175. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.

Liff, Sonia. “Information Technology and Occupational Restructuring in the Office.” GENDERED BY DESIGN? INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND OFFICE SYSTEMS, ed. Eileen Green et al., pp.95-110. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1993.

Maching, Anne. “Word Processing: Forward for Business, Backward for Women.” MY TROUBLES ARE GOING TO HAVE TROUBLE WITH ME, ed. Karen Sacks and Dorothy Remy, pp.124-139. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1984.

Machung, Anne. “`Who Needs a Personality to Talk to a Machine?’: Communication in the Automated Office.” TECHNOLOGY AND WOMEN’S VOICES: KEEPING IN TOUCH, ed. Cheris Kramarae, pp.62-81. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988.

Morgall, Janine Marie. “The Clerical Sector.” TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT: A FEMINIST ASSESSMENT, pp.155-176. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.
Examines how the introduction of computers has affected the female-dominated clerical sector, looking particularly at the difficulties and importance of including gender analysis in technological assessment.

Morgall, Janine. “Typing our Way to Freedom: Is It True that New Office Technology can Liberate Women?” BEHAVIOUR AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY v.2, no.3 (1983): 215-226.

Mumford, Enid. DESIGNING SECRETARIES: A PARTICIPATIVE DESIGN OF A WORD PROCESSING SYSTEM. Manchester, UK: Manchester Business School, 1983. 114p. ill.

Ng, Cecilia Choon Sim. “Office Automation in Malaysia: The Case of the Telecommunications Industry.” The Hague, The Netherlands: Publications Office, Institute of Social Studies, 1992. (P.O. Box 90733, 2509 LS The Hague, The Netherlands) (Working paper series no.132) 41p. bibl.
Examines the recently privatized TELMAL telecommunications company, finding no major changes in employment, but some increased stress and loss of control of work at lowest levels, limited headway of women into professional/managerial positions. “Women’s position in the labour force is still secondary and ideologically constructed” (p.32), the author concludes.

NOT OVER OUR HEADS: WOMEN AND COMPUTERS IN THE OFFICE: CONFERENCE REPORT. London: Microsyster, 1988. 79p. ill.

Otos, Sally and Ellen Levy. “Word Processing: ‘This Is Not a Final Draft.'” THE TECHNOLOGICAL WOMAN: INTERFACING WITH TOMORROW, ed. Jan Zimmerman, pp.149-158. New York: Praeger, 1983.
Two office workers describe their experience with word processing work, including expectations, supervision, health concerns, stress, etc.

Piotrkowski, Chaya S., et al. “Working Conditions and Well-Being Among Women Office Workers.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION v.4, no.3 (July-Sept., 1992): 263+. See also: “Working Conditions and Health Complaints of Women Office Workers,” by B.G.F. Cohen et al., in G. Salvendy et al., eds., SOCIAL, ERGONOMIC AND STRESS ASPECTS OF WORK WITH COMPUTERS (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1987).

Probert, Belinda and Bruce Wilson, eds. PINK COLLAR BLUES: WORK, GENDER AND TECHNOLOGY. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1993. 173p. bibl. index.
Among articles of interest: “The Masculine Mystique: A Feminist Analysis of Science and Technology” (Judy Wajcman); “Women’s Skills and Word Processors: Gender Issues in the Development of the Automated Office” (Juliet Webster); “New Technology and Work Organisation: The Role of Gender Relations” (Eileen Appelbaum); and “Human-centred Systems, Gender and Computer Supported Co-operative Work” (Mike Hales).

Roessner, J. David, et al. THE IMPACT OF OFFICE AUTOMATION ON CLERICAL EMPLOYMENT, 1985-2000: FORECASTING TECHNIQUES AND PLAUSIBLE FUTURES IN BANKING AND INSURANCE. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1985. 297p. bibl. index.

Salomon, Ilan and Meira Salomon. “Telecommuting: The Employee’s Perspective.” TECHNOLOGY FORECASTING AND SOCIAL CHANGE v.25 (1984): 15-28.
Surveys previous research on telecommuting, noting especially social interaction needs and separation of home-work sites and roles.

Samper, Maria-Luz Daza. “A Comparative Survey of Responses to Office Technology in the United States and Western Europe.” WOMEN, WORK, AND TECHNOLOGY: TRANSFORMATIONS, ed. Barbara Drygulski Wright et al., pp.332-351. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987.
Surveys effects of new technologies on clerical workers (largely female) in Western Europe and the U.S.; suggests more humanistic ways to cope with new technologies.

Sim, Cecilia Ng Choon and Carol Yong. “Information Technology, Gender and Employment: A Case Study of the Telecommunications Industry in Malaysia.” WOMEN ENCOUNTER TECHNOLOGY: CHANGING PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD, ed. Swasti Mitter and Sheila Rowbotham, pp.177-204. New York: Routledge in association with United Nations University Press, 1995.

Softley, Elena. “Word Processing: New Opportunities for Women Office Workers?” SMOTHERED BY INVENTION: TECHNOLOGY IN WOMEN’S LIVES, ed. Wendy Faulkner and Erik Arnold, 222-237. London: Pluto Press, 1985.

Stellman, Jeanne and Mary Sue Henifin; ill. Lyda Pola. “Video Display Terminals: The Computer Connection.” OFFICE WORK CAN BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH: A HANDBOOK OF OFFICE HEALTH AND SAFETY HAZARDS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT THEM, pp.41-70. New York: Pantheon, 1983. 240p. bibl. index.
Stellman and Henifin look at the visual (lighting, glare), workstation design, radiation, and job stress aspects of office work with computers. While some specific information is now dated, basic information is still relevant to office environments.

Tremblay, Diane-Gabrielle. “Computerization, Human Resources Management and Redirection of Women’s Skills.” WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION: UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING BIAS IN WORK AND EDUCATION, ed. Inger V. Eriksson et al., pp.129-143. New York: Elsevier, 1991.

U.S. Dept. of Labor. WOMEN AND OFFICE AUTOMATION: ISSUES FOR THE DECADE AHEAD. Washington, DC: Women’s Bureau, 1985. 48p.

Vehvilainen, Marja Leena. “Women Defining their Information Technology — Struggles for Textual Subjectivity in an Office Workers’ Study Circle.” EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES v.1, no.1 (Spring 1994): 73-93.
A group of Finnish office workers defined information technology for themselves, analyzed their own work in relation to new technologies over a period of 7 months, and “defined their subjectivities: their practices and their thinking” (p.89), bridging “the personal and the public, like cyborgs” (p.90).

Vehvilainen, Marja. “Gender in Information Systems Development — A Women Office Workers’ Standpoint.” WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION: UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING BIAS IN WORK AND EDUCATION, ed. Inger V. Eriksson et al., pp.247-262. New York: Elsevier, 1991.

Webster, Juliet. “From the Word Processor to the Micro: Gender Issues in the Development of Information Technology in the Office.” GENDERED BY DESIGN? INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND OFFICE SYSTEMS, ed. Eileen Green et al., pp.111-123. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1993.

Webster, Juliet. “The Social Office: Secretaries, Bosses and New Technology.” WOMEN, WORK AND COMPUTERIZATION: UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING BIAS IN WORK AND EDUCATION, ed. Inger V. Eriksson et al., pp.145-158. New York: Elsevier, 1991.

Webster, Juliet. OFFICE AUTOMATION: THE LABOUR PROCESS AND WOMEN’S WORK IN BRITAIN. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990. 141p. bibl. index.
Based on review of the literature as well as on interviews with supervisory and clerical staff at several companies, Webster concludes that this major change in office technology was “accompanied by remarkably little in the way of organisational change” (p.129).

Werneke, Diane. MICROELECTRONICS AND OFFICE JOBS: THE IMPACT OF THE CHIP ON WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1983. 102p.

West, Jackie. “New Technology and Women’s Office Work.” WORK, WOMEN AND THE LABOUR MARKET, ed. Jackie West, pp.61-79. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982.

Wilson, Fiona. “Women, Office Technology and Equal Opportunities — The Role of Trade Unions.” WOMEN AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, ed. Marilyn J. Davidson and Cary L. Cooper, pp.243-254. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.

Women’s Bureau in cooperation with the Panel on Technology and Women’s Employment, National Research Council. WOMEN, CLERICAL WORK, AND OFFICE AUTOMATION: ISSUES FOR RESEARCH: REPORT OF A CONFERENCE. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Labor, Women’s Bureau, 1986. 64p.

Wood, Stephen. “The Deskilling Debate, New Technology and Work Organization.” ACTA SOCIOLOGICA 30 (1987): 1, 3-24.

Zuboff, Shoshana. “Office Technology as Exile and Integration.” IN THE AGE OF THE SMART MACHINE: THE FUTURE OF WORK AND POWER, pp.124-173. New York: Basic Books, 1988.
Observation and interaction with two large institutions in the midst of technological transformation led the author to explore how computerization can cause a feeling of “exile” among clerical workers, and how the change to an “informated” office environment changes the basis of knowledge handling within the institution.

HEALTH ISSUES

Citations primarily refer to works examining health effects of computer use and manufacture, including toxic chemical exposure, radiation from video display terminals, pregnancy outcomes, mental and physical stress, and the like. Some works are included here, although they don’t specifically focus on women or gender differences, because of the large number of women employed in manufacturing or clerical occupations.

Baker, Robin and Sharon Woodrow. “The Clean, Light Image of the Electronics Industry: Miracle or Mirage?” DOUBLE EXPOSURE: WOMEN’S HEALTH ON THE JOB AND AT HOME, ed. Wendy Chavkin, M.D., pp.21-36. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1984.

Bazzell, Sally. DIFFUSION OF AN INNOVATION: NETWORKING FOR COMPUTER SAFETY LEGISLATION (WORKPLACE HAZARDS, VDT SYNDROME). Milwaukee, WI: Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, 1991. 245p.
Describes the diffusion of guidelines for reducing health problems related to VDT work via women’s organizations and unions.

BEHIND THE CHIP: PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE ON SAFETY AND HEALTH IN ELECTRONICS, PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA, DECEMBER 1992. Selangor, Malaysia: Women’s Development Collective and Persatuan Sahabat Wanita, 1994. (W.D.C. Sdn. Bhd., 16 Jalan SS4/16, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia). RM10.00 (Malaysia); US$10 (outside Malaysia). (Checks/money orders payable to W.D.C. Sdn. Bhd.) Contents: “Facing the Challenge: Trends and Implications of the Electronics Industry in Malaysia” (Rajah Rasiah); “Clean But Not Safe: Working Conditions of Electronics Workers in Malaysia” (Irene Xavier); “From Chips to Devices: A Brief Overview of Work Processes in the Electronics Industry” (Steve Cheong); “Chipping Away at Health: Two Research Studies on the Reproductive Health of Women Electronics Workers” (Brenda Eskenazi); “Research for Change: Health and Safety in Two West German Electronics Factories” (Henning Wriedt); “Speaking Out: Women Workers Talk About Safety and Health in Electronics” (Chee Heng Leng and Mano Subramaniam); “Pioneering Health and Safety: Fighting for Protection for Electronics Workers in the Santa Clara Valley” (Robin Baker); “Action for Health: The Struggle for Safety and Health of Electronics Workers in Korea” (Yang Gil-Seong); and “Laws are Not Enough: The Role of Health and Safety Legislation in the UK” (Pat Stuart).

Binashi, S., et al. “Study on Subjective Symptomatology of Fatigue in VDU Operators.” ERGONOMIC ASPECTS OF VISUAL DISPLAY TERMINALS, ed. E. Grandjean and E. Vigliani, pp.219-225. London: Taylor & Francis, 1982.

Bowler, Rosemarie M., et al. “Affective and Personality Disturbance of Women Former Microelectronics Workers.” JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY v.47 (1991): 41-52. See also: “Neuropsychological Impairment of Former Microelectronics Workers” by the author and others in NEURO TOXICOLOGY [?] v.12 (1991): 87-104.

Bowler, Rosemarie M., et al. “Stability of Psychological Impairment: Two-Year Follow-up of Former Microelectronics Workers’ Affective and Personality Disturbance.” WOMEN & HEALTH v.18, no.3 (Fall 1992): 27-48.
This study of 63 former microelectronics workers (56 of them women) using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) found that the workers “manifested affective and personality disturbances, consistent with organic solvent toxicity, which persisted over a two year period, indicating that they were not reactive, transient hysterical neurosis” (authors’ abstract).

Bramwell, Rosalind S. and Marilyn J. Davidson. “Reproductive Hazards at Work.” WOMEN AT WORK: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVES, ed. Jenny Firth-Cozens and Michael A. West, pp.84-97. Bristol, PA: Open University Press, 1991.
Not exclusively, but predominantly, on the suggested connection between work with video display terminals and rate of miscarriage. Discusses methodological issues of epidemiological studies, statistical clustering, and possible psychosocial causes.

Briggs, Linda L. “VDTs: Back in the Hot Seat.” WOMEN COMPUTING (September/October 1988): 5-8.
Notes both the New York county of Suffolk’s 1988 law regulating the use of VDT’s in private companies and a Kaiser Permanente study that found a connection between miscarriages and women with high VDT use.

Bromet, Evelyn J., et al. “Effects of Occupational Stress on the Physical and Psychological Health of Women in a Microelectronics Plant.” SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE v.34, no.12 (June 15, 1992): 1377+(7p.)

Cardinali, Richard. “Computer Hazards: Real or Imaginary?” HEALTH CARE FOR WOMEN INTERNATIONAL v.12, no.3 (July-September, 1991): 351-358.
Cardinali presents summary data on pregnancy outcomes in studies of workers using VDTs and suggests basic safety considerations.

“Chemical Caution.” TIME v.140 (October 26, 1992): 27.
A study by Johns Hopkins suggests a possible link between chemicals used in manufacturing silicon chips and rate of miscarriage in women semiconductor workers handling the chemicals.

Cohen, Marcy and Margaret White. PLAYING WITH OUR HEALTH: HAZARDS IN THE AUTOMATED OFFICE. Burnaby, BC: Women’s Skill Development Society, 1986. (4340 Carson St., Burnaby BC V5J 2X9 Canada) 106p. bibl.
A booklet dealing with office stress and radiation hazards, with suggestions for actions clerical workers can take to improve health and safety in the workplace.

DeMatteo, Bob. TERMINAL SHOCK: THE HEALTH HAZARDS OF VIDEO DISPLAY TERMINALS. Toronto: NC Press, Ltd., 2nd ed., 1985. 239p. ill. index. bibl.

Dow, Caroline and Douglas C. Covert. “Monitor Tone Generates Stress in Computer and VDT Operators: A Preliminary Study.” July 1988. Available from ERIC: ED 298551. 24p.

Elias, R., et al. “Investigations in Operators Working with CRT Display Terminals: Relationships Between Task Content and Psychophysiological Alterations.” ERGONOMIC ASPECTS OF VISUAL DISPLAY TERMINALS, ed. E. Grandjean and E. Vigliani, pp.211-217. London: Taylor & Francis, 1982.

Ericson, Anders and Bengt Kallen. “An Epidemiological Study of Work with Video Screens and Pregnancy Outcome: I – A Registry Study; II – A Case-Control Study.” AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE v.9, no.5 (1986): 447-457 (I); 459-475 (II).

Goldhaber, Marilyn K., et al. “The Risk of Miscarriage and Birth Defects Among Women Who Use Visual Display Terminals During Pregnancy.” AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE v.13, no.6 (June 1988): 695-706.

Guendelman, Sylvia and Monica Silberg. “Health Consequences of Maquiladora Work: Women on the US-Mexican Border.” AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH v.83, no.1 (January 1993): 37-44.

Harwin, Ronald, M.D. and Colin Haynes. HEALTHY COMPUTING: RISKS AND REMEDIES EVERY COMPUTER-USER NEEDS TO KNOW. New York: Amacom, 1992.
Clear presentation of causes of health problems such as repetitive stress injuries as well as ways to overcome them. Also discusses unknowns of radiation hazards.

“Health Effects of Video Display Terminals.” JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION v.257 (March 20, 1987): 1508-1512.

Henifin, Mary Sue. “The Particular Problems of Video Display Terminals.” DOUBLE EXPOSURE: WOMEN’S HEALTH ON THE JOB AND AT HOME, ed. Wendy Chavkin, M.D., pp.69-80. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1984.

Ilinitch, Ron C. AN EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF A PROGRAM TO PROMOTE HEALTH RISK REDUCTION AT VIDEO DISPLAY TERMINALS. Raleigh, NC: Ph.D. dissertation, North Carolina State University, 1993. 220p.
“This study provides significant evidence to support employee education and training as a means to initial behavior change and likely health risk reduction” (abstract).

Kalimo, Raija and Anneli Leppanen. “Visual Display Units — Psychosocial Factors in Health.” WOMEN AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, ed. Marilyn J. Davidson and Cary L. Cooper, pp.193-224. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.

Kurppa, K., et al. “Birth Defects and Exposure to Video Display Terminals During Pregnancy.” SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF WORK AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH v.11 (1985): 353-356.

LaRue, James. “Terminal Illnesses.” WILSON LIBRARY BULLETIN v.66 (September 1991): 85-88.

Makower, Joel. OFFICE HAZARDS: HOW YOUR JOB CAN MAKE YOU SICK. Washington, DC: Tilden Press, 1981. (1737 DeSales St., NW, Washington, DC 20036)
A chapter on VDT’s (“Terminal Illnesses”) focuses mostly on stress of machine-centered work and related eye problems. Radiation and pace-induced stress are discussed in additional chapters.

Marriott, Ian A., M.D., and Maria A. Stuchly. “Health Aspects of Work with Visual Display Terminals.” JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE v.28, no.9 (September 1986): 833-847.

McDonald, Alison D., M.D., et al. “Visual Display Units and Pregnancy: Evidence from the Montreal Survey.” JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE v.28, no.12 (December 1986): 1226-1231.

Mogensen, Vernon Lee. OFFICE POLITICS: VIDEO DISPLAY TERMINALS AND THE FIGHT FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH IN THE POSTINDUSTRIAL AGE. New York: Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, 1994. 575p.
“This is a study about power and the fight by office workers using video display terminals (VDTs) to secure occupational safety and health protection in the face of opposition from capital and the state” (abstract).

Morris, Anne. “Working with Display Screen Equipment: Do You Know Your Rights?” THE ELECTRONIC LIBRARY v.10 (August 1992): 209-218.
Information systems/VDT’s and working conditions in Great Britain and the European Community.

Pearce, Brian, ed. HEALTH HAZARDS OF VDTs? New York: Wiley, 1984. 244p. index.
Based on an early (1980-81) series of public meetings in Great Britain, covering rashes, radiation emissions, ergonomics, eye problems, lighting, postural problems, humanizing computers, and more.

Pearson, Ruth. “Gender Perspectives on Health and Safety in Information Processing: Learning from International Experience.” WOMEN ENCOUNTER TECHNOLOGY: CHANGING PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD, ed. Swasti Mitter and Sheila Rowbotham, pp.278-302. New York: Routledge in association with United Nations University Press, 1995.

Rebeck, George. “Computer Danger Zone.” UTNE READER (January/February 1991): 18-19.
Gathers information from articles in such publications as NATION, MACWORLD, DOLLARS & SENSE, and COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW on possible health effects of working with video display terminals.

Sabol, Laurie, et al. “Health Hazards of Video Display Terminals: A Representative, Annotated Bibliography.” SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY LIBRARIES v.12 (Winter 1991): 85-129.

Schnorr, Teresa M., et al. “Video Display Terminals and the Risk of Spontaneous Abortion.” NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE v.324 (March 14, 1991): 727-733. A related discussion appears in v.325 (September 12, 1991): 811-813.

Statham, Anne and Ellen Bravo. “The Introduction of New Technology: Health Implications for Workers.” WOMEN & HEALTH v.16, no.2 (1990):105-129.
Examines “the relationship between the introduction of technology into the workplace and resulting symptoms of stress” (p.105) among secretarial staffs in three settings, concluding that involvement in decision-making is a factor in stress-related illnesses.

Tsubota, Kazuo and Katsu Nakamori. “Dry Eyes and Video Display Terminals.” THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE v.328, (February 25, 1993): 584.

VDT SYNDROME: THE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TRAUMA OF COMPUTER WORK. Cleveland, OH: 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women; Service Employees International Union, 1987? 58p. bibl.

“VDT Update: New Data on Miscarriages.” WOMEN’S OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH RESOURCE CENTER (August/September 1988): 3.
Part of a special section on potential hazards in VDT work, concluding that the Kaiser Permanente 1988 study “does not provide clear evidence that VDTs alone are hazardous to reproductive health,” and calling for further research.

“VDTs on Trial: Do Video Display Terminals Pose a Health Hazard?” SCIENCE NEWS v.134 (September 10, 1988): 174-175.

Windham-Poitras, Gayle Claire. INVESTIGATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND OCCUPATIONAL RISK FACTORS IN A CASE-CONTROL STUDY OF SPONTANEOUS ABORTION. Berkeley, CA: Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1989. 186p.
One of the three parts of the study focuses on use of video display terminals during pregnancy.