A gendered view on computer supported work in the office

Unqualified work for women and new, qualified jobs for men - this is the predominant reality in many offices in respect of information technology. This applies to public administration in Germany too where over six years, I researched and actively participated in the introduction and the use of information technology. Although the administration had chosen a human-centered approach for work and technology design, the introduction and use of computers led to a polarisation, which again resulted in women beiing disadvantaged and in this way contributed to the continued existence of gender segregation and male domination. In order to break through the discrimination of women I was primarily looking for new ways to activate women and support them in their efforts to participate in the development of working conditions which are adapted to their skills and their different lives. For this reason I call in this paper for: 1. an activating work and technology design including all those measures which support women leaving the state of object of technological change in order to develop own perspectives for action; 2. person-related work design, which overcomes gender stereotyping and which perceives the inter- and intra-individual differences of women, and 3. an explorative technology design, which is nevertheless adequate for the task, allowing women using computers to try them out and to use them largely independently