Why do virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa and Cortana often have a female-sounding name and voice? And why was it that in the 1940s computer calculating power was expressed in ‘girl hours’? The design exhibition Women as Technology shows how applied science, engineering and technology are far from neutral tools and always carries a complex history that reflects the attitudes of the society in which it is created.
With a display of more than a hundred design objects and hi-tech artefacts, the exhibition presents how women have come to embody ideas about computing power, domestic work, fertility and satisfaction through history.
Alex Garland (Director), Rob Hardy (Cinematographer). Ex Machina, 2014. Still from film.
Unknown photographer, Marlyn Wescoff and Ruth Lichterman, two of ENIAC´s six female programmers, 1946. Photograph.
The exhibition moves between automatic looms and programming pioneers, from the housewife’s kitchen appliances to dancing robots, spanning anatomical models and fictional girlfriends alongside therapeutic chatbots and ironic housewives. Ultimately it invites all visitors to ask: Who shapes the technology and machines that surround us and for what purpose?
Women as Technology opens in March 2027
In collaboration with Design Museum den Bosch, Netherlands, adapted by the Nationalmuseum.