Abstract
Discussing the gendering of technology, the article concentrates on one specific domestic technology, which is often considered as `male' dominated, the video cassette recorder (VCR). Comparing and elaborating research results from different countries, the article suggests that (1) the picture of the VCR as a masculine technology, purported in recent British studies in particular, is not necessarily valid for countries with less strict gender patterns and (2) gender structures, which existed in the early stages of the VCR diffusion, have been gradually eroded. It supports earlier research in which new information technologies, at least in their initial stage of development, were found to follow the gender structure quite sharply: they are `toys for the boys'. However, technology is considered here as a social process that involves negotiations. Specific technologies find their final shape only in their actual use, and this explains why it is possible for the VCR to be turned towards the service of women's individual and interactional needs.
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