Artist

In the early phases of industrialization, women were denied access to ownership of capital and access to education. Shifting the focus, [socialist feminist] authors show that the rigid pattern of gender divisions which developed within the working-class in the context of the new industries laid the foundation for the male dominance of technology. It was during this period that manufacturing moved into factories, and home became separated from paid work. The advent of powered machinery fundamentally challenged traditional craft skills because tools were literally taken out of the hands of workers and combined into machines. But as it had been men who on the whole had technical skills in the period before the industrial revolution, they were in a unique position to maintain a monopoly over the new skills created by the introduction of machines. Male craft workers could not prevent employers from drawing women into the new spheres of production. So instead they organized to retain certain rights over technology by actively resisting the entry of women to their trades. Women who became industrial labourers found themselves working in in what were considered to be unskilled jobs for the lowest pay. … This gender division of labour within the factory meant the machinery was designed by men with men in mind, either by the capitalist inventor or by skilled craftsmen. Industrial technology from its origin thus reflects male power as well as capitalist domination. The masculine culture of technology is fundamental to the way in which the gender division of labour is still being reproduced today. By securing control of key technologies, men are denying women the practical experience upon which inventiveness depends.