A theoretical agenda for feminist HCI

HCI has a complex and often ambivalent attitude towards the issue of gender and interactive systems. Here I discuss three dominant paradigms for treating gender in HCI, and discuss their limitations. Next, I will present the theoretical perspectives on gender which are on the fringes of HCI – Technology as Masculine Culture, Gender Positionality, and Lived Body Experience – and discuss their possible contributions. I will show how this supports a reassessment of the use of gender theory in technological settings and its relevance for framing questions of gender in HCI. My goal in doing so is to argue for the importance of a more direct treatment of gender in HCI and move towards a feminist theory for HCI.

► Three theories are discussed: Technology as Masculine Culture, Gender Positionality, and Lived Body Experience.
► These theories allow to overturn assumptions present in Human-Computer Interactions’s current treatment of gender.
► They aim toward the importance of a more direct treatment of gender in HCI and a feminist theory for HCI.