{"id":28165,"date":"2025-04-04T08:12:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tedic.org\/?p=28165"},"modified":"2025-04-04T08:12:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:12:03","slug":"feminisms-and-technologies-rethinking-digital-spaces-from-the-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tedic.org\/en\/feminisms-and-technologies-rethinking-digital-spaces-from-the-south\/","title":{"rendered":"Feminisms and technologies: Rethinking digital spaces from the south"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When we think about \u201ctechnology,\u201d we often imagine cables, screens, and massive data centers. Rarely do we think about our bodies, our territories, or the long history of feminist struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in our latest research, we invite you to look at the digital world from a different perspective: one where the technical is also political, and where the feminist is deeply technological.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From TEDIC and the Paraguayan Association of Feminist Researchers (APIF)<\/strong>, we\u2019re launching Feminisms and Technologies: An Exploratory Research from Paraguay<\/a>, a project built around a vital but often overlooked question:
How does feminist experience intersect with the world of technology in a country like ours?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s<\/strong> personal is political\u2026 and also digital<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For decades, feminist movements have questioned the power structures that shape our lives. This time, the focus is on technology\u2014how it\u2019s designed, who gets to design it, from what contexts, and which inequalities it reproduces or could transform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research shows that thinking about technology from a feminist perspective means rethinking the gender, class, race, and power dynamics that permeate not only the devices we use but also the ways we use them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology is not neutral.<\/strong> That\u2019s why it\u2019s urgent to challenge its design and development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is this research important?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In Paraguay, there are almost no studies that link feminism and technology from a critical, intersectional lens. And although we\u2019re often led to believe that \u201ctechnology\u201d is a topic for engineers or male \u201cexperts,\u201d the truth is that all of us are deeply affected by its impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From how we communicate to how we work, raise children, or resist\u2014technology is part of it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors \u2014 Montserrat Fois, Ver\u00f3nica Villalba, and Jazm\u00edn S\u00e1nchez<\/strong> \u2014 offer a perspective from the Global South that highlights a crucial idea: technology doesn\u2019t just matter\u2014it\u2019s inhabited, challenged, and redefined from our territories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How was the research carried out?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This study combined theoretical and documentary review with semi-structured interviews conducted with people from feminist and tech sectors in Paraguay\u2014including activists, academics, and professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Download in spanish<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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These interviews not only provided rich input for analysis, but also became a way to recognize, validate, and make visible situated knowledge<\/strong>\u2014the kind that is often excluded from mainstream tech conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the research mapped initiatives, collectives, and experiences that connect gender and technology through activism, education, technical production, and digital rights advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal wasn\u2019t to exhaust the topic, but to open a path for future systematization, research, and collective action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does a feminist lens bring?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A feminist and intersectional lens on technology helps us to:
\u2022 Question the idea that access alone is enough, without looking at development and usage conditions.
\u2022 Identify how current technologies reproduce inequalities based on gender, race, and class.
\u2022 Value situated knowledge and local experiences in contrast to technocratic or extractive approaches.
\u2022 Propose alternatives grounded in collaboration, technological autonomy, and social justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existing forms of resistance<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The research also uplifts the voices of women and gender-diverse people who are already contesting the digital terrain<\/strong> in Paraguay and across the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From peasant communities building agroecological networks, to digital activists confronting online violence, and scientists challenging the gender gap in STEM\u2014these stories show that resistance is alive and expanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a hostile political and economic context, where public policy remains slow to address digital inclusion, these forms of resistance gain even more power and meaning.
As the study says, \u201cdigital technologies are not separate from our bodies, or from the land we inhabit.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Paraguay, for the Global South<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the most valuable contributions of this research is its ability to connect local, regional, and global struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the concept of body-territory<\/strong> to critiques of the coloniality of power\u2014and its digital face: technological coloniality<\/strong>\u2014this document becomes a theoretical and practical tool to think about digital sovereignty from a feminist and Latin American perspective<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also proposes key paths for future action:
\u2022 Strengthening networks between feminist and tech organizations
\u2022 Promoting public policies with a gender perspective in the digital sphere
\u2022 Creating open-access technofeminist repositories
\u2022 Developing collaborative research on algorithmic bias
\u2022 Launching communication campaigns to push for digital justice
\u2022 Investing in gender-aware tech education<\/p>\n\n\n\n

K<\/strong>ey findings that raise new questions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some of the most important findings include:
\u2022 The absence of gender-sensitive public policies in the tech field
\u2022 Limited access for women and gender-diverse people to careers and spaces in tech development
\u2022 The invisibilization of the work of activists, technicians, and researchers in the tech sector
\u2022 The urgent need to produce knowledge from the South<\/strong>, rooted in local resistance\u2014not imported or extractive models<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research also reveals that while technofeminist experiences exist in Paraguay<\/strong>, they are not always labeled as such.
This invites us to recognize that the intersection of feminisms and technologies is not always explicit\u2014but it is constant, diverse, and growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At TEDIC, we believe this study is just the beginning.
A call to keep weaving networks, creating more just technologies, and rethinking how we relate to the digital world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because we don\u2019t want technologies that reproduce the same old inequalities and violence we\u2019re already fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want technologies built with care, autonomy, and the power to transform.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read the full report <\/a>in spanish<\/a> on and share it with your community.
Because when we talk about technology, we\u2019re also talking about rights, justice, and possible futures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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