The Good Robot

To close out Women's History Month, this week's review applies a feminist lens to the study of ethical digital technologies

Posted on March 31, 2025 in Reviews of the Month

The Good Robot: Why Technology Needs Feminism

ed. by Eleanor Drage and Kerry McInerney Bloomsbury Academic, 2024
224p bibl index, 9781350399969 $90.00, 9781350399952 $29.95, 9781350399976

Drage and McInerney (both, Univ. of Cambridge, UK) have edited a marvelous collection of 22 short essays derived from a similarly titled podcast series hosted by the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies. In brief introductions, the editors frame sections on good relations, systems, design, visions, and rebellions, and chapters are written by various luminaries in feminist and gender theory, as well as activists, researchers, and designers in fields as diverse as AI, public policy, biometrics, and philosophy. This collection could definitely be the scaffolding for teaching on technology and ethics/social justice, and the chapters are framed to inspire conversations. It is focused on AI, cybernetics, robotics, and algorithms, which is both engaging and relevant, but perhaps trendy. The Good Robot reifies the presentism of common understandings of technology, which is always already imagined as high tech. This devalues the adaptability and ingenuity of traditional cultures and the politics of non-information-centered infrastructures and technologies, and continues the erasure of women and feminine-oriented perspectives from the history of technology and the history of technology-centric professions. However, these shortcomings are minor in relation to the clear and insistent engagement with intersectional feminism and its commitments to inclusivity and justice.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.
Reviewer: J. L. Croissant, University of Arizona
Interdisciplinary Subject: Women’s & Gender Studies
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Sociology
Choice Issue: Sep 2024

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