Woman-Centered Design through Humanity, Activism, and Inclusion

Abstract

Women account for over half of the global population, however continue to be subject to systematic and systemic disadvantage, particularly in terms of access to health and education. At every intersection, where systemic inequality accounts for greater loss of life or limitations on full and healthy living, women are more greatly impacted by those inequalities. The design of technologies is no different, the very definition of technology is historically cast in terms of male activities, and advancements in the field are critical to improve women's quality of life. This paper views HCI, a relatively new field, as well positioned to act critically in the ways that technology serve, refigure and redefine women's bodies. Indeed, the female body remains a contested topic, a restriction to the development of women's health. Women's health-as a medicalized field exists, and people's experiences of it are problematic for many. This is visible today in e.g. socio-cultural practices in disparate geographies or medical devices within a clinic. Moreover, the biological body is part of a great unmentionable, i.e. the perils of essentialism. We contend that it is necessary, pragmatically and ethically, for HCI to turn its attention towards a woman-centered design approach. While previous research has argued for the dangers of gender-demarcated design work, we advance that designing for and with women should not be regarded as ghettoizing, but instead as critical to improving women's experiences in bodily transactions, choices, rights, and access to and in health and care. In this paper, we consider how and why designing with and for Woman matters, and use our design-led research as a way to speak to, and illustrate alternatives to this field. CCS CONCEPT insertion: The new template enables you to import required indexing concepts for your article from the ACM Computing Classification System (CCS) using an indexing support tool found in the ACM Digital Library (DL). The tool generates formatted text after you have selected your terms. To insert your CCS terms into your document, copy and paste the formatted text from the CCS tool using the "https://dl.acm.org/ccs/ccs.cfm" link into the "CCS CONCEPTS" section.

Caring for Intimate Data in Fertility Technologies

“…Miscategorising an unsecure app which contains medical records (such as user's medical conditions and/or medicines) as Health & Fitness would enable the developers to avoid the potential consequences, for example, of remaining in the app market without drawing signifcant attention to it [71]. At the time of this writing, Google 4 defnes Health & Fitness category examples as "Personal ftness, workout tracking, diet and nutritional tips, health & safety, etc. " and Medical as "Drug & clinical references, calculators, handbooks for health-care providers, medical journals & news".…”

“…abortion, but it is also the freedom to be a parent independently of sex or genders. We advocate for advancing justice and equity in fertility technologies in ways that, for instance, innovate and can be transferred with care to new contexts and concerns, that are more humanistic and inclusive, as discussed in [4]. In doing this, we aim for a future that seeks its technological and social innovations to be developed responsibly and transparently, the key to the process of social change.…”

Privacy, Data Sharing, and Data Security Policies of Women’s mHealth Apps: Scoping Review and Content Analysis

“…This has led to the design of a business model that focuses on individual empowerment involving self-designated women’s health technologies. Women-centered technology is a new concept that has been gaining popularity in the market and has been related to the increased observability of women’s health issues [ 12 ]. This huge growth and expansion in the femtech market comes with the price that some of these apps use the data they collect to generate profit.…”

“…Furthermore, a lack of knowledge about fertility and the cultural reservation around it encourages women to use mHealth apps to obtain more clarity and awareness in this domain without needing to ask publicly [ 15 ]. Sociocultural norms make women more vulnerable in the new tech era [ 12 ]. Issues related to women’s bodies that are taboo in some cultures influence the demand for and use of women’s mHealth apps.…”

“…Furthermore, women’s mHealth apps are accessible and used on a global level. The practices are set in different cultures and backgrounds [ 12 ]. Modern technology has been affected by commercialism and masculinist ideologies [ 16 ].…”