Women Speak. Gendering the Mobile Phone

This book seeks to provide a better understanding of the relationship between women and technology through an inquiry into the significance of mobile phones in the lives of Portuguese women. Recent theoretical developments suggest too little emphasis has been placed on differences between women themselves. The initial impetus for carrying out this research stemmed from contributing towards meeting this gap by investigating the scope of mobile phones as the basis for the increased technological intimacy of women whilst without reinstating the old binary oppositions between men and women. The study focuses on the mobile phone as a site where the nuances of women’s experiences with technology become visible and on adult women as a meaningful yet underrepresented group. In choosing to conduct a case study of Portugal, I wished to contribute to the development of future cross-cultural analysis on the gendering of the mobile phone.