Gender, identity and CMC

Abstract

This paper re‐examines a number of recent discussions of computer‐mediated communication (CMC) in the light of debates concerning gender, identity and inequality. There have been many claims made by disparate groups and institutions, from educators and technologists, through to the advertising of communications companies, which have claimed that CMC‐based interactions lack the overt structures of inequality found in other communicative situations. This ideology of ‘on‐line equality’ is partly based upon a number of research findings, as well as popularised accounts of ‘life on the screen’. Set against this is a growing body of research into CMC and gender, as well as other structures of inequality, which has made apparent the differences in both access and practice. By re‐examining the various claims underlying both positions, as well as deploying recent research into the cultural aspects of gender identities, this paper aims to make clear the centrality of gender to CMC interactions.