"Can I Ask You a Personal Question?"

Re-flections on Language and the Construction of Gender in Software Design from an Interaction with Google Assistant

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52712/issn.1850-0013-392

Keywords:

language, software design, gender, voice assistants

Abstract

This article proposes a critical articulation between some contributions of the technofeminist co-constitution perspective in relation to “gender scripts” and a cut of Donna Haraway’s cyborg feminism. Within this framework, we re-flect on the importance of language as a materiality for the “content” in the design and development of software, based on the analysis of a case of interaction with Google Assistant. In addition, we present the potential of a alternative software that questions the bases of gender stereotypes reproduced by voice assistants.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Virginia Acha, National University of Cordoba

Graduate in modern literature, Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities (FFyH), National University of Córdoba (UNC), Argentina, and doctoral fellow, Secretariat of Science and Technology, Research Center "María Saleme de Burnichon", FFyH, UNC. Attached to the Chair of Argentine Literature III at the School of Literature (FFyH, UNC). She is a member of the research team "Aesthetic Appliances: Contemporary Art, Writing and Thought" (CIFFyH, UNC), led by Cecilia Pacella and Silvio Mattoni; and the reading group "Deuterothought and deuteroreading: subjectivities in Derridean textualities" (CIPeCo, FCC, UNC), directed by Ana Levstein.

References

Akrich, M. (1992). La presse et la technique: pluralité des modèles de journalisme. MédiasPouvoirs, (26), 24-32. Recuperado de: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00119484/.

Akrich, M. (1995). User Representations: Practices, Methods and Sociology. En A. Rip, T. J. Misa & J. Schot (Eds.), Managing Technology in Society. The Approach of Constructive Technology Assessment (167-184). Londres y Nueva York: Pinter Publishers.

Balcarce, G. (2019). El problema de la materia y el suplemento. Un rodeo por la noción de prótesis. Instantes y Azares. Escrituras nietzscheanas, 23, 77-85. Recuperado de: https://ri.conicet.gov.ar/handle/11336/129794.

Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter. Signs, 28(3), 801–831. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/345321.

Berg, A-J. (1999). A Gendered Socio-technical Construction. The Smart House. En J. Wajcman y D. MacKenzie (Eds.), The Social Shaping of Technology (301-313). Buckingham: Open University Press.

Berg, A.-J. & Lie, M. (1995). Feminism and Constructivism: Do Artifacts Have Gender? Science, Technology, & Human Values, 20(3), 332–351. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/016224399502000304.

Danielescu, A. (2020). Eschewing gender stereotypes in voice assistants to promote inclusion. En Proceedings of the 2nd conference on conversational user interfaces (1-3). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3405755.3406151.

Derrida, J. (2003). El «único monumento seguro». De una materialidad sin materia. Papel máquina. La cinta de máquina de escribir y otras respuestas. Madrid: Trotta.

Eyssel, F. & Hegel, F. (2012). (S)he's Got the Look: Gender Stereotyping of Robots. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(9), 2213-2230. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00937.x.

Faulkner, W. (2001). The Technology Question In Feminism: A View From Feminist Technology Studies. Women’s Studies International Forum, 24(1), 79-95.

Genderless Voice (2019). Sitio web. Recuperado de: https://www.genderlessvoice.com/.

González, M. & Fernández Jimeno, N. (2016). Ciencia, tecnología y género. Enfoques y problemas actuales. Revista Iberoamericana de Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad -CTS, 11(31), 51-60. Recuperado de: https://www.redalyc.org/journal/924/92443623003/html/#redalyc_92443623003_ref7.

Haraway, D. (1995). Ciencia, ciborgs y mujeres. Valencia: Universitat de Valéncia.

Harding, S. (1986). The Science Question in Feminism. Nueva York: Cornell University Press.

Hofmann, J. (1999). Writers, Texts and Writing Acts-Constructed Realities in Word Processing Software. En D. MacKenzie & J. Wajcman (Eds.): The Social Shaping of Technology (222–243). Buckingham: Open University Press.

Hwang, G., Lee, J., Oh, C. Y. & Lee, J. (2019). It sounds like a woman: Exploring gender stereotypes in South Korean voice assistants. En Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (1-6). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3312915.

Lagesen, V. A. (2015). Gender and Technology: From Exclusion to Inclusion? International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (723-728). Elsevier.

Lie, M. & Sørensen, K. H. (1996). Making technology our own? Domesticating technology into everyday life. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.

López-Lago Ortiz, L., Muñoz González, B., Rivero Jiménez, B., Conde-Caballero, D. & Mariano Juárez, L. (2021). Sexo, género y humanización de las tecnologías de cuidados para personas mayores. Cultura de los Cuidados, 25(61). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14198/cuid.2021.61.12.

Maffía, D. (2019). Contra las dicotomías: feminismo y epistemología crítica. En C. Korol (Ed.), Feminismos territoriales: hacia una pedagogía feminista. Quimantú. Recuperado de: https://xn--pauelosenrebeldia-gxb.com.ar/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Claudia-Korol-Feminismos-Territoriales.-Hacia-una-pedagog%C3%ADa-feminita-2019.pdf#page=71.

Maass, S. & Rommes, E. (2007). Uncovering the Invisible: Gender-Sensitive Analysis of Call Center Work and Software. En I. Zorn, S. Maas, E. Rommes, C. Schirmer & H. Schelhowe (Eds.), Gender Designs IT. Construction and Deconstruction of Information Society Technology (97-108). VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90295-1_1.

Mortada, D. (2019). Meet Q, The Gender-Neutral Voice Assistant. NPR. Recuperado de: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/21/705395100/meet-q-the-gender-neutral-voice-assistant.

Natale, S. (2020). To believe in Siri: A critical analysis of AI voice assistants. Working Paper, 32. Recuperado de: https://iris.unito.it/handle/2318/1769694.

Nass, C, Moon, Y. & Green, N. (1997). Are Computers Gender-Neutral? Gender Stereotypic Responses to Computers. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 27(10), 864-876. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1997.tb00275.x.

Oudshoorn, N. (1996). A natural order of things? FutureNatural: Nature, Science, Culture, 121.

Oudshoorn, N., Saetnan, A. R. & Lie, M. (2002). On gender and things: Reflections on an exhibition on gendered artifacts. Women’s Studies International Forum, 25(4), 471-483.

Oudshoorn, N. E. & Pinch, T. (2003). Introduction: How users and non-users matter. How users matter. The co-construction of users and technology, 1-25.

Observatorio Permanente de la Cámara de la Industria Argentina del Software (2020). Resultados Informe 2020 – Mujeres en la industria del software. Cámara de la Industria Argentina del Software (CESSI). Recuperado de: https://cessi.org.ar/opssi/.

Phan, T. (2017). The Materiality of the Digital and the Gendered Voice of Siri. Transformations, 29, 23-33. Recuperado de: https://cutt.ly/J3ohbWj.

Preciado, P. (2011). Manifiesto contrasexual. Barcelona: Anagrama.

Rommes, E. (2000). Gendered User-Representations. En E. Balka & R. Smith (Eds), Women, Work and Computerization. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing, 44 (137-145). Boston: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35509-2_17.

Rommes, E. (2002). Creating Places for Women on the Internet: The Design of aWomen's Square' in a Digital City. European Journal of Women's Studies, 9(4), 400-429. DOI: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/13505068020090040301.

Rossi, A. (1965). Women in science. Why so few? Science, 148(3674), 1196-1202. Recuperado de: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.148.3674.1196.

Sanz, V. (2016). Género en el ‘contenido’ de la tecnología: ejemplos en el diseño de software. Revista Iberoamericana de Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad –CTS, 11(31), 93-118. Recuperado de: https://www.redalyc.org/journal/924/92443623005/html/.

Sofoulis, Z. (1988). Through the lumen: "Frankenstein" and the optics of reorigination. Santa Cruz: University of California.

TEDx (2019). How to create a genderless voice. Nis Nørgaard. TEDx University of Nicosia. Recuperado de: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH6KB7MrOPw&lc=UgznewEIgtpJYGzYoZp4AaABAg.

Torrano, A. & Barrionuevo, L. (2016). “Políticas extractivistas sobre el cuerpo: SIBIOS y el Derecho a la identificación y la privacidad”. Crítica y Resistencias. Revista de conflictos sociales latinoamericanos, (2), 127-149.

Tuana, N. (2004). Coming to Understand: Orgasm and the Epistemology of Ignorance. Hypatia, 19(1), 194–232. Recuperado de: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3810938.

West, M., Kraut, R. & Chew, H. (2019). I’d blush if I could. Closing gender divides in digital skills through education (Vol. 306). París: UNESCO.

Downloads

Published

2024-11-04

How to Cite

Acha, V. (2024). "Can I Ask You a Personal Question?": Re-flections on Language and the Construction of Gender in Software Design from an Interaction with Google Assistant. Revista Iberoamericana De Ciencia, Tecnología Y Sociedad - CTS (Ibero-American Science, Technology and Society Journal), 19(57), 57–77. https://doi.org/10.52712/issn.1850-0013-392

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 57 (2024)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 CC Attribution 4.0

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

All CTS's issues and academic articles are under a CC-BY license.

Since 2007, CTS has provided open and free access to all its contents, including the complete archive of its quarterly edition and the different products presented in its electronic platform. This decision is based on the belief that offering free access to published materials helps to build a greater and better exchange of knowledge.

In turn, for the quarterly edition, CTS allows institutional and thematic repositories, as well as personal web pages, to self-archive articles in their post-print or editorial version, immediately after  the publication of the final version of each issue and under the condition that a link to the original source will be incorporated into the self-archive.