From the basement to the kitchen: constructing the gendered personal computer user

Users are now appearing in accounts of research in the fields of science and technology studies, and the history and sociology of technology. These accounts move beyond 'the user' to multiple, heterogeneous groups of 'users' who shape technology through their interactions with and transformations of it. In doing this, the gendered nature of users' relationships to the technology can be made evident. In looking at the introduction of early personal computers into the home, this paper discusses another kind of user: the 'constructed user'. These are virtual, somewhat ideal, and probably mythical people for whom a technology is designed and to whom it is promoted. Constructed throughout the life history of a technology by all the various groups in relation to the technology, these constructed users do not reside in physical bodies, yet these virtual identities have a significant role in the design and use of a technology.