14omen s Studle~ lnt Quart,, VoL4, No 3, pp 321-340, 1981 0148A)685/81/030321 2050200/0 Printed m Great Britain. PergamonPress Lid WOMEN AND MICROELECTRONICS: THE CASE OF WORD PROCESSORS ERIK ARNOLD Science Policy Research Unit, The University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, U.K. LYNDA BIRKE Biology Department, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks~ U.K. and WENDY FAULKNER History and Social Studms of Science, The University of Sussex, FalmeL Brighton, U.K. Synopsis--The use of mmroelectronics in production has serious imphcations for working people, but these implications differ between women and men. We look first at tong-wave (Kondratiev) and classical (Marxist) economic theory relate the effects of microetectronics to the economic system. But this tells us nothing about whether the impact of microelectromcs differs between the sexes, because the relevant economic categories are sex-bhnd. The impact on women can only be analysed by introducing the idea of patrmrchy. Thus, the interests of capitalists as an oppressor-class and men as an oppressor-sex can be seen as interwoven but not necessarily always coincident. Socmhsm and femimsm oppose different oppressive dynamics, yet a wctory for one without a wctory for the other would be incomplete. Word processing is an area where socialist and feminist struggles can be joined in a practice which is truly progressive. INTRODUCrlON It is generally agreed that the development of microelectronics has profound implications for people's lives, both in terms of work and of leisure. The implications have, however, only been sketchily explored. The aim of this paper is to discuss ways in which the new microel~tronic technology is likely to affect women, and it focuses on office work because this is an area of predominantly female employment upon which microelectronics is likely to have a significant effect, both in terms of job loss and in terms of the nature of the jobs which remain. In this paper we consider two specific questions. First, we consider briefly what are the general effects of technological innovations upon labour. This is an area which has been the basis of recent debate within the Marxist literature (see, for example, Braverman, 1974; Cooley, 1976). We consider it here in order to provide a framework for the central question : what are the specific effects of technological change on women's employment? As many feminists have recognized, one effect of microtechnology is likely to be considerable job loss, which will particularly affect women in secretarial and clerical work; a second important effect is tikely to be on the division of labour and consequent social relations within the office. Here we are particularly concerned with changes in patriarchal relations as a consequence of the introduction of microtechnology. We have focused on office work as a sphere likely to be affected by microtechnology, although the new technology dearly has profound implications for women's employment in other spheres, including in the manufacture of microelectronic components themselves. 'Patriarchy' is frequently defined in rather vague terms, often implying an ahistorical psychic phenomenon with little material base. As a result, interpretations of the concept vary 321