Increasing feminist visibility in professional communication research

Abstract

In recent years, feminist scholars have called on professional communication researchers to incorporate insights from feminist theory and gender studies into their research. Although this call has been heeded to some extent, feminist thinking has not had nearly as much impact on professional communication research as it has had on research in other academic disciplines. For example, to date, there is no major publication devoted to researching issues in feminist theory and professional communication, and at major conferences feminist issues are not guaranteed a place on the agenda. This essay joins other scholars' calls for increasing the presence of feminist theory in professional communication research. In particular, I focus on feminist critiques of technology, making a case for the relevance of these critiques to professional communication research. After a brief overview of feminist approaches to technology, I suggest how the insights offered in these critiques might contribute to a feminist theory of technology design. I explore three general principles that would inform such a theory, consider how these principles both complement and challenge current thinking about technology design in the field of professional communication, and I argue that developing such a theory would be one way to increase the visibility of feminist perspectives in professional communication research.