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Design Within a Patriarchal Society: Opportunities and Challenges in Designing for Rural Women in Bangladesh

Authors:

Sharifa Sultana,

François Guimbretière,

Phoebe Sengers,

Nicola DellAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Paper No.: 536, Pages 1 - 13

https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174110

Published: 21 April 2018 Publication History

Abstract

This paper examines the opportunities and issues that arise in designing technologies to support low-income rural women in Bangladesh. Through a qualitative, empirical study with 90 participants, we reveal systemic everyday challenges that women face that form the backdrop against which technology design could potentially happen. We discuss how technology is already impacting women's lives, sometimes by reinforcing their subservient role in society and sometimes used tactically by women to gain a measure of agency. The issues raised by our participants concerning technology's place in their lives provide HCI researchers with valuable guidance about what might (or might not) be appropriate to design for them. We also show how prevalent HCI research and design strategies may fit more poorly than expected into rural women's lives, and we discuss possible alternative design directions, and the ethical and pragmatic trade-offs that they entail. Our contribution is not to "solve" the problem of designing for low-income rural women, but to expand the HCI community's understanding of technology design within deeply patriarchal societies.

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Index Terms

Design Within a Patriarchal Society: Opportunities and Challenges in Designing for Rural Women in Bangladesh
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2018

8489 pages

ISBN:9781450356206

DOI:10.1145/3173574

General Chairs:
Regan Mandryk
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
,
Mark Hancock
University of Waterloo, Canada
,
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Mark Perry
Brunel University London, UK
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Anna Cox
University College London, UK

Copyright © 2018 ACM.

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Published: 21 April 2018

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https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-2806-4.ch002
Chowdhury AAhmed N(2024)Digital Financial Conditions for Low Income Communities of Dhaka City: Exploring Gender Based DifferencesSSRN Electronic Journal10.2139/ssrn.4863970Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4863970
Rabaan HDombrowski L(2024)Healing Structures: Sociotechnical Mechanisms for Centering Survivors of Domestic Violence within US-Based Marginalized CommunitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36870398:CSCW2(1-43)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3687039
Rifat MDas DPoddar AJannat MSoden RSemaan BAhmed S(2024)The Politics of Fear and the Experience of Bangladeshi Religious Minority Communities Using Social Media PlatformsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869268:CSCW2(1-32)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
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