Hicks introduction

"How and why this change happened holds important lessons for contemporary economies and high-tech labor markets, yet the change is still poorly understood." (p. 1)

Computers in Britain after WWII were a government modernization program

• did the government discriminate more than industry?
• they were more explicit about it
• social class in Britain is easier to see than in the US

What do we mean by social class?

• upper class--wealthy people
• opportunity to travel, kids to do more summer activities
• associate with other rich & powerful people, get more opportunities through networking
• it matters more how wealthy you are than how you grew up
• wealthy can give their children advantages to get ahead (have priviledge)
• in Britain it matters much more who your ancestors were and what kind of school you went to (elite private schools used to be called public schools--watch out for that confusing terminology)
• middle class
• in the US people like to think of themselves as middle class so we use it as a very large category
• not doing dirty labor
• on salary, not hourly wages (on commission is generally thought of as middle class--you have more control over your work)
  
• own you own business and/or home
  
• working class
• in England anyone who works on a factory floor
• not having control over your work or choice of when to work
• unskilled work
  
• poverty
  

"A powerful example of how cutting-edge technologies often run counter to social progress and economic justice." (p. 5)

women's work associated with machines?

• the idea of women staying home and being primarily consumers arose in the 19th century
• in colonial times in the US women produced things their family needed; soap, vegetable garden, managed milk cows for the family...
• 19th century, mass production means families buy things instead of women producing them
• the idea that middle class women stay home and take care of their families becomes strong in middle 19th century
• late 19th century more middle class women start to work, particularly before marriage
• some women chose career rather than marriage--but the assumptions were so strong that these women were discriminated against
  
• clerical work was a man's job in the early 19th century
  
• the typewriter story (and a more scholarly version)
• defining of skilled vs. unskilled work
• assumption that machines make work rote (p. 13) and physically easier
  

How computing was organized to consolidate power

British government policy to encourage the computer industry in Britain failed

• one problem was a shortage of skilled engineers, but that was because women who already had the skills were excluded
• a focus on control led to centralized mainframe computers

key computers