> What role has technology played in the advance of women's rights? While many
> deplore the "working mum", others applaud and encourage women to enter the
> workforce and compete with men on a level playing field. In large measure no
> one planned the technological changes which to some degree have made possible
> the release of women from age-old roles.
>
I don't think technology had a lot effect in women's emancipation,
which is still in it's infancy, specially globally.
In the West, women still spend inordinately more time with housework
than men whether they work fulltime or not, and the responsibility of
keeping a family together is still assumed to be their role and "new
man" at best is supportive, but not yet an equal sharer of this
responsibility.
Most of the lowest paid and less prestigious jobs are still
filled by women. Women even in the US still earn a third less than
men. Whatever change their was, it happened due to
political pressure on the establishment.
As soon as there is an economic crisis and rising unemployment,
suddenly the arguments about family morality and the need of a full
time mother is on the agenda.
Where does technology come into it?
Eva
> Never mind just the poor: How will anyone qualify to partake of the fruits of
> automation? That is one of my favourite areas of speculation. Take it to the
> reductio ad absurdum - everyone is put out of work! I find it hard to believe
> that the automated factories will simply continue to churn out stuff when no
> one can buy it. What kind of allocative system may emerge?
>
What may emerge is cut-throat competition for the limited
market of the employed, and wars against the rest of humanity,
who happened to be born at the wrong place and at the wrong time.
Unless ofcourse there is a popular realisation that capitalism
is not the only alternative and this grassroot, democratic
informed revolution takes place realising the system
in which not only the production is integrated and collective
but the distribution is, too. With this obvious syncronisation
we maybe survive without wars and with an ability even
to concentrate on the urgent global hazards.
Eva
> Just as, in the industrial age, there is a stigma associated with lack of paid
> employment, so in the information age may appear a new stigma associated with
> ignorance. It may be perceived that, in a world awash in readily accessible
> information, there is no excuse for ignorance. (Not too long ago in Sweden a
> referendum on nuclear energy was held - one had to pass an exam to qualify for
> the right to vote!) Does that suggest some criterion for access to the world's
> largesse?
>
> But strangely, while automation (which was much feared in the 1950s) has
> continued to make strides, employment has not declined proportionately. It
> seems that people are nothing if not ingenious in finding ways to adapt the
> tools of automation to their own purposes. Of course, all bets may be off if we
> can incorporate human intelligence into some future biochip.
>
> Many can earn a decent income by publishing their concerns and serving as
> speakers at conventions. Others who are retired find a useful outlet for
> pent-up energies and frustrations by exploiting the internet. In that process
> valuable skills are being acquired, but who thinks of that? Suddenly one may
> awaken and realize: Hey, I'm a webmaster!
>
> --
> http://publish.uwo.ca/~mcdaniel/
>
>
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