From Telegraphs to AI
The Gendered History of Feminized, Affective Labour in Communication Technologies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55016/ojs/muj.v3i1.80543Keywords:
Political economy of communications, Feminist political economy, Political economy, Political economy of labour, Affective labourAbstract
Women’s underrepresentation in high-tech roles derives from the historical, political and economic forces embedded in communication technologies. The advancement of Artificial Intelligence risks deepening this gender gap by replicating and displacing feminized labour. This paper employs a feminist, Marxist, political economy framework to examine the historical and contemporary marginalization of women’s labour in communication technologies. Henceforth, this paper asks, ‘How has the historical feminization of women’s labour in communication technologies shaped the structural gender gap in today’s digital economy?”. Tracing the feminization of women’s labour from the telegraph, typewriter and telephone to modern technologies like the computer, social media and AI, this study exposes the patriarchal social dimensions of communication commodities that maximize profit through feminized labour while isolating women to subordinate, ‘soft’ roles. Findings emphasize that historically, women’s affective labour was deemed economically suitable to operate communication technologies due to traits stereotypically associated with femininity, through attentive, emotional and submissive behaviour. Although female labour was foundational to technological advancement, this work was precarious. Simultaneously, the female gender became naturally attached to the identity associated with communication technologies. In today’s digital economy, women retain soft roles as social media labourers. Artificial Intelligence, exemplified by female digital voice assistants, mechanizes this feminized labour. Traditional gender norms have been embedded in digital systems, where AI automates the affective labour historically performed by women, intensifying their displacement to precarious gig work and reinforcing historical inequities. By illuminating the social forces shaping communication technologies, this paper argues that the persistent gender gap in the digital economy is rooted in the historical feminization of labour. As AI automates affective labour, it is apparent that communication technologies are primed to continue excluding women from an industry ripe with power and profit.
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