Behind the Screens: The Foreseen and Unforeseen Impact of Computerization on Female Office Worker's Jobs

Abstract

This article analyses the forecasts made at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s regarding male dominance in the field of electronic data processing (EDP), the computer illiteracy of female workers, the exclusion of women from decision‐making processes, and polarization among female workers. Based on statistical sources, analyses of computer weeklies, case studies in eight manufacturing firms and a survey among female office workers in manufacturing, arguments are put forward to support the view (a) that the EDP field is not as male‐dominated as it was, (b) that women have not remained computer‐illiterate, (c) that some progress can be seen as far as inclusion in decision‐making processes is concerned, and (d) that polarization does still exist, but in the opposite form to two decades ago. Two factors explain why these forecasts have not become reality. At the end of the 1970s it was impossible for researchers to predict the complexity of computerization and the new uses to which computers would be put. Furthermore, the forecasts were dominated by a static view of gender relations, which in fact were to undergo substantial changes.