icon caret-left icon caret-right instagram pinterest linkedin facebook twitter goodreads question-circle facebook circle twitter circle linkedin circle instagram circle goodreads circle pinterest circle

WOMEN AND THE MACHINE: REPRESENTATIONS FROM THE SPINNING WHEEL TO THE ELECTRONIC AGE (The Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2001, paperback 2003)

Julie Wosk's WOMEN AND THE MACHINE tells the fascinating story of how women and machines have been portrayed over the past two centuries. From Alarming Woman Driver to Rosie the Riveter to women artists using electronic technologies today, this lavishly illustrated book captures dramatically changing social attitudes about women and their technical abilities

With over 150 photographs, art works, cartoons, and vintage advertising illustrations--many in color--WOMEN AND THE MACHINE highlights the important role women and machines have played in history. Its wide-ranging images present women successfully mastering new technologies: women driving automobiles, bicycling, flying and repairing airplanes, operating machines in World War I and II, using sewing machines,electric home appliances, typewriters, computers, and more. Wosk details the gender stereotypes that have haunted women for centuries and the ways women have countered these stereotypes by mastering technology and demonstrating their technical skills.

Chapters also include women as automatons, robots and cyborgs, women working in industry, Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs),women mechanics, women artists creating electronic images, nineteenth-century women dressed in wired bustles, corsets, and crinolines, and more.

See Julie Wosk's website womenandthemachine.com

"Engaging and entertaining"--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"A delightful book framed by captivating illustrations"--CHOICE


From CHOICE--"Wosk (English, art history, and studio painting, SUNY Maritime College) offers a delightful book framed by captivating illustrations that support and enrich the text. Eight chapters treat women's relationships to fashion, transportation, electricity, and war through historical material and illustrations...Viewing women as mechanical and unmechanical, and machines as sexy, masculine, and feminine helps Wosk to explore questions and controversies about women and machines...Reproductions of the classic Rosie the Riveter and We Can Do It are included, along with a wealth of other images of women empowered by and through machines (the bicycle images are fabulous."---CHOICE, June 2002.