Connecting Gender, Women and ICT in Europe -- Part I: Networks and Empowerment -- Telegraphy and the ‘New Woman’ in late Nineteenth Century Europe -- Airing the Differences -- From Marie-Claire Magazine’s Authoritative Pedagogy to the Hellocoton Blog Platform’s Knowledge Sharing -- Part II: Gendered Representations -- The Sylviac Affair (1904-1910) -- The Representational Intertwinement of Gender, Age and Uses of Information and Communication Technology -- Part III: ICT and professionalization -- From Computing Girls to Data Processors -- The Gendering of the Computing Field in Finland, France and the United Kingdom Between 1960 and 1990 -- Breaking the ‘Glass Slipper’ -- Gender-Technology Relations in the Various Ages of Information Societies.

This important volume examines European perspectives on the historical relations that women have maintained with information and communication technologies (ICTs), since the telegraph. Presenting a dialogue which encompasses a diverse selection of transnational and interdisciplinary studies, the text investigates forms of female empowerment, gendered representations and women’s professionalization, in different spheres of ICT. Topics and features: Describes how gendered networks have formed around ICT since the late 19th Century, focusing on the media of the telegraph, the press and the radio Reviews the gendered issues revealed by the conflict between the actress Ms. Sylviac and the French telephone administration in 1904, or by ‘feminine’ blogs Examines how gender representations, age categories, and uses of ICT interact and are mutually formed in children’s magazines Illuminates the participation of women in the early days of computing, through a case study on the Rothamsted Statistics Department Presents a comparative study of women in computing in France, Finland and the UK, revealing similar gender divisions within the ICT professions of the three countries Discusses diversity interventions and the part that history could (and should) play to ensure women do not take second place in specific occupational sectors Providing a broad analysis on the interconnections between innovation, technology, and women’s history, this collection will be of great interest to all researchers at the intersection of gender studies, media history and the history of computing. Dr. Valérie Schafer is a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS, Institute for Communication Sciences), Paris, France. Dr. Benjamin G. Thierry is an assistant professor at Paris-Sorbonne University.