Technological Change and Women's Work Experience: Alternative Methodological Perspectives

This book integrates and critically evaluates the diverse literature on the impact of technological change on women's work. It also develops a new conceptual paradigm and presents evidence of the impact of technological change on occupational sex segregation. The analysis is based on the premise that the choice of a particular methodological and epistemological paradigm has important implications for the study of women and technology. This premise leads to a careful consideration of the philosophical foundations of three methodological perspectives that have been used to examine technological change--neoclassical economics, institutional economics, and feminist methodology. Burnell's study assesses the contributions and limitations of each approach.