The workshop began with a brief historical overview of new technology and its effect over the last 300 years of changing unpaid domestic work (done by women) into paid employment as services and then transforming these services into commodities. This shifts the boundaries between unpaid and paid work and creates new forms of consumption in the home.
It may be possible to predict the future of capitalist development by analysing what domestic labor now consists of, which in turn determines what the new commodities will be and thus the direction of world production.
There was a description of certain developments already underway in the United States, for example, CUBE, which is an interactive telecommunications device in the home. It is used presently for home shopping and home banking with direct billing of purchase, and either factory pick-up or direct delivery of services. It is a paid service, experimental in certain US cities and is marketed as an upper-income amusement - a game and not a threat.
CUBE is also used for such political activities as voting and referendums. The main threat it poses is isolation. It also has an impact on jobs, replacing primarily women from the shops, banks, etc. where women's work in concentrated. Furthermore, it facilitates the monitoring of individuals, producing a complete consumer profile and a record of the time and place of transactions.
This raises the question of who controls technology. It also accentuate s the trend towards the erosion of public meeting spaces and the reconstruction of t he home as a public place - ISOLATED RATHER THAN COLLECTIVE. It is also possible that home-based paid labor will bring a lengthened working day as time need no longer be allowed for travelling. This would be especially true for women as new technology does not fulfil its promise of reducing the time spent on housework.
The information distributed by these systems is not neutral. It imposes the values of the First World on the Third World, and those of men upon women. Third World women pay the cost of the high standard of living in the First World, and First World women are not informed of this. We need to develop awareness of these issues. We should also try to develop collective ways of living and a collective technology which serves to break down - rather than increase - isolation.
We should also remember that new technology is a class issue - not all women can afford these services.
Finally, we should consider whether we should develop strategies appealing to women to act individually as consumers - e.g. boycott campaigns.
