In the last few years, new multimedia products have been designed in order to attract female users. Some of these products even reflect some kind of feminist programme to make girls and young women more interested and better qualified to exploit new information and communication technologies. The article analyses two Norwegian examples of such initiatives, a CD-ROM called JenteROM and a webservice called HjemmeNett, based on interviews with the most prominent actors of the respective design constituencies. The analysis focuses on the ways gender is constructed in multimedia form and content, in order to explicate gender as a process of social learning. What is observed is a set of ongoing transformations of gender as well as computers, related to controversies about proper definitions of gender and femininity as well as about how new media content and form should be designed in order to cater to women's interests.
Akrich, Madelaine (1992) `The De-Scription of Technical Objects', in Bijker, E. Wiebe and John Law (eds) Shaping Technology/Building Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
2.
Aune, Margrethe (1996) `The Computer in Everyday Life: Patterns of Domestication of a New Technology', in Merete Lie and Knut H. Sørensen (eds) Making Technology Your Own? Domesticating Technology into Everyday Life, pp. 91-120. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.
3.
Aune, Margrethe and Knut H. Sørensen (1998) `Teaching Transformed: The Appropriation of Multimedia in Education: The Case of Norway', STS Working Papers 10/98. Trondheim: Centre for Technology and Society.
4.
Balsamo, Anne (1996) Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
5.
Berg, Anne-Jorunn (1996) `Digital Feminism', STS Report No. 28. Centre for Technology and Society, Trondheim.
6.
Bijker, Wiebe E. (1995) Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change. London: MIT Press.
7.
Bijker, Wiebe E. and John Law (eds) (1992) Shaping Technology/Building Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
8.
Boczkowski, Pablo J. and Trevor Pinch (1998) `Back to the Future? Methodological Differences in the Study of Technologies “Ready made” and “in the Making” ', paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Halifax, Canada, 26 October - 1 November.
9.
Cassell, Justine and Henry Jenkins (1998) From Barbie to Mortal Kombat. Gender and Computer Games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
10.
Cockburn, Cynthia (1985) Machinery of Dominance: Women, Men, and Technical Know-how. London: Pluto Press.
11.
Davis-Floyd, Robbie and Joseph Dumit (1998) Cyborg Babies: from Techno-sex to Technotots. New York: Routledge.
Hacker, Sally (1990) `Doing It the Hard Way': Investigations of Gender and Technology, ed. D.E. Smith and S.M. Turner. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.
14.
Haraway, Donna (1991) Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association Books.
15.
Haraway, Donna (1995) `Foreword. Cyborgs and Symbionts: Living Together in the New World Order', in Chris Hables Gray (ed.) The Cyborg Handbook, pp. xi-xx. New York: Routledge.
16.
Latour, Bruno (1987) Science in Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
17.
Latour, Bruno (1992) `Where are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts', in Wiebe E. Bijker and John Law (eds) Shaping Technology Building Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
18.
Lie, Merete (1998) Computer Dialogues: Technology, Gender and Change. Report 2/ 98, Centre for Women's Studies, Trondheim.
19.
Lie, Merete and Bente Rasmussen (1983) Kan kontordamene automatiseres?Trondheim: Institute for Social Research in Industry.
20.
Lie, Merete and Knut Holtan Sørensen (eds) (1996) Making Technology Our Own? Domesticating Technology into Everyday Life. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.
21.
Nordli, Hege (1998) `From Spice Girls to Cyber Girls? En Kvalitativ studie av Datafacinerte Jenter i Ungdomsskolen', Report No. 35. Centre for Technology and Society, Trondheim.
22.
Preston, Paschal (1998) `Framework for Analysis: “Cultural Content” Case Study Research', paper presented at SLIM Workshop, Namur, Belgium, June.
23.
Probert, Belinda and Bruce W. Wilson (1993) Pink Collar Blues. Work, Gender and Technology. Carlton: Melbourne University Press.
24.
Rasmussen, Bente and Tove Håpnes (1991) `Excluding Women from the Technology of the Future? A Case-study of the Culture of Computer Science', Futures23(10): 1107-1119.
25.
Sørensen, Knut H. (1992) `Towards a Feminized Technology? Gendered Values in the Construction of Technology', Social Studies of Science22 (1): 5-31.
26.
Sørensen, Knut H. (1996) `Learning Technology, Constructing Culture. Socio-technical Change as Social Learning', STS Working Paper No 18/96. Centre for Technology and Society, Trondheim.
27.
Sørenssen, Bjørn (1997) `Let your Finger Do the Walking: The Space/ Place Metaphor in On-line Computer Communication', Mediekultur27: 46-52.
28.
Springer, Claudia (1996) Electronic Eros: Bodies and Desire in the Postindustrial Age. Austin: University of Texas Press.
29.
Stone, Allucquère Rosanne (1995) The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
30.
Strauss, Anselm and Juliet Corbin (1990) Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
31.
Turkle, Sherry (1984) The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. London: Granada.
32.
Turkle, Sherry (1988) `Computational Reticence: Why Women Fear the Intimate Machines', in Cheris Kramarae (ed.) Technology and Women's Voices. Keeping in Touch, pp. 41-61. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
33.
Turkle, Sherry (1996) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.
