Globalization Theory, Technological Discourses and Gendered Work – The Case of New Information Technology in Indian Banking

This article is based on a research in the project "The Employment Effects of Computer- Based Technologies in the Office-Service Sector of Developing Countries: a Comparative Study of Banking in India, Malaysia and Singapore", supported by SAREC (Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries). At the time of this study (1987 to 1990) , Indian bank management was in the process of introducing computerization at the branch level at larger branches with a substantial amount of business. Discussions of the information society during the 1990s generally neglect the implications of the new technology in gendering work and in the shaping of women’s work. Yet the work of women in many parts of the globe is the basis of computer production and information work is often women’s work . This paper analyzes discourses about technology and gender in the context of globalization and north/south relations and problematizes discourses around the promise of information technology that are spread in both the north and the south. Discourses constructed on technological promises often build upon making complex and contradictory experiences of technology invisible. This paper builds upon a study of computerization and banking in India in which both women’s and men’s work is changing. The study concentrated on the introduction of a so-called high technology into the office sector of developing countries and the article reflects upon the relationship of debates on gender and technology in the north and south