April/May 1983 RAIN Page 27 SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT READING ABOUT TECHNOLOGY I have never been very enamored of the technical side of technology. I can explain roughly how a wind generator or a photovoltaic cell works to a real novice, but have never b^n moved to keep up with the finer points of their development. I have comforted myself that there are at least a few other women involved in that arena and so far I have stuck to the organizing and communicating side of the A.T. movement, finding this human aspect more interesting and at least as important. I am one of those who will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to a computer terminal. Yet, inevitably in this age I am constantly confronted by the hardware, whether it’s living with our own solar collector (the fiddlings with I mostly avoid) or trying to answer my four year old son’s increasingly sophisticated questions about things mechanical (I’ve never even thought before about how a typewriter works). Thus it was with a sense of irony that I greeted the pile of material I was asked to review for this issue. I’m rather tired of the hand-wringing articles about how women are going to lose their jobs when the computers take over and "How are we going to get more women involved in technology?’’ These are important issues but they’ve been covered a lot, even in the popular press. I know it’s not simple, but it seems to me that creative involvement will follow as our daughters begin to take advantage of the opportunities this generation of feminists of both sexes is forging at home and in the workplace. by Lane deMoll Still, I guiltily recognize myself in this quote from Women, Technology and Innovation and find I must think it all through once again; To return home to build a solar oven, to grow a garden and to bake bread, to retreat to self-sufficiency and labor- intensive survival in a beautiful, but small and unrealistic world — is to leave those who already hold the chips playing the game. It is to leave the weapons offemale destruction in the hands of men whom history has shown willing to pull the trigger. (Jan Zimmerman, p. 366) I trust that the work I am doing now raising my sons and being involved in a rather ordinary way in a small town community is contributing in the long run to a healthy, balanced society. As women and feminists, we need to be taking part in the technological decisions affecting our future, but we also need to remember that magic and people-centered peacekeeping remain vital parts of our world. In our rush to take hold of the men’s realm of technology and science we must not forget the somewhat mysterious, but ever-so-practical skills of the herbal healers, midwives, witches and mothers that were so mercilessly put dq^m by men who quickly lost touch with the natural rhythms of the earth. Nor must we lose sight of the fact that we must humanize those hands on the trigger so that to pull it — or even develop fancier triggers — becomes unthinkable. It is on all these frontiers that we must be visionaries.no ACCESS: TECHNOLOGY Women, Technology and Innovation Joan Rothschild, Editor Pergamon Press Maxwell House, Rairview Park Elmsford, NY 10523 $14.50,1982, 88 pp. This anthology of articles printed as a special issue of the Women’s Studies International Quarterly has a bit of the hand-wringing I described above, but it also contains some gems which provide exciting visions for the future. It’s encouraging to read about women’s inventions, both prehistoric and in modem times. If you’re starting a women and technology course work program, this book also contains a useful synopsis of severad such programs, so you won’t have to reinvent the wheel. (Was the wheel invented by a woman? Why not?!) Most inspiring is an article about the Shakers and their practical, comfortable approach to technology. They often devised machines to help them in their work (a Shaker sister invented the circular saw), yet they maintained a sense of craft and meaningful work (what the Buddhists call "right livelihood”) that many of us are searching for today. They understood that even repetitive or heavy work can be Joyfully rewarding if done in good company and pleasant, healthful surroundings, while rotated with more creative tasks. Cooperatives and small capitalists should take note: factories don’t have to be grim, dehumanizing enterprises. Never Done Susan Strasser Pantheon Books Random House, Inc. 201 E. 50th St. New York, NY 10022 $11.95, 1982, 384 pp. I leame^ an incredible amount from this examination of the history of American housework from the 18th century to the present — technology assessment in an area close to our hearts! What was the impact of the invention of the wood cook stove over the often dangerous practice of open hearth cooking? How were women’s spring cleaning chores affected by clean electricity and gas in stoves and lights? What were the capitalist decisions regarding mass production of automatic washers that did in first the home laundress trade and then the small family commercial laundries? How did servants fit into the picture in various eras? How have women increased their isolation in the home when they no longer met at the community well or gabbed over the fence as they hung out the laundry? So many positives and negatives to questions I never even thought to ask, yet which affect us daily. Through this discussion of familiar technologies I gained insight into the development of "grander” inventions, as well as increased cont.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz