Vision and visibility of women in technoscience : On the participation of women in the social imaginary of technoscience and popular media

After situating my interest in issues of women’s participation in technoscience, starting withmy experiences in the 1970s, this thesis turns to consider women’s visibility in more recenttechnoscience, in the light of European Commission figures indicating a slower progressionfor women into the more prestigious positions in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineeringand Mathematics) than the Commission had hoped.Two media case studies are presented focusing on the visibility of women in the EuropeanUnion (including the United Kingdom). One case study considers the media campaign whichinitiated the public promotion of a European Commission campaign to encourage women intoscience. The campaign-launch taster video was “Science it’s a girl thing! The other casestudy involved an analysis of media from a ‘Day in the technology news’ drawn from theBBC TechNews website on the 7th January 2018.The analysis of the social imaginary draws upon still images clipped from the short videoclips. The discussion is set within the context of the ‘woman question’ in science and ‘thescience question in feminism’ and both the notion of the gaze, and also Deleuzian notions offaceicity and affect. This analysis then reflects upon the research question: “Dorepresentation and visual modelling, visual encounters, or some less tangibleaffective factors, play a role in continuing an androcentric focus in science andtechnology, and how might this impact on the on-going exclusion or disincentivisingof technology and research careers for women, even if narratives havechanged and initiatives have tried to entice more women into STEM and research inthe UK and European Union?” Ultimately the underlying interest is “What can bedone about the woman question in science and technology in these areas if we are to try and redress the imbalance in women’s participation?