Traditional gender definitions are breaking down, professional groups are reflecting on their self-image - diversity and inclusion are increasingly moving into our consciousness. In any case, gender roles and identities play a significant role in determining our social behavior: How we talk, how we assert ourselves, who we feel we belong to.
How are these social changes reflected in the development of new technologies? "Taking diversity into account in participatory processes - that is, processes involving different actors - around technology development is challenging," emphasizes Ulrike Bechtold, a technology researcher at the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. "We have to ask ourselves: how do we achieve a balance of social identities? This cannot be achieved through quota regulations alone. Also because in the STEM research field, central values and predispositions are mostly still based on a traditional gender concept."
The EU project GoNano, in which Bechtold was involved along with human biologist Daniela Fuchs and philosopher Vera Borrmann, tried to find answers to these questions. Bechtold has summarized the results in the new ITA dossier
Click here for the dossier "Co-creation - a challenging process".