Hey Siri, wer ist deine Mutter? Eine Imaginations- und Materialitätsgeschichte weiblich codierter Medientechnik von den 1960er Jahren bis in die Gegenwart

The thesis examines the genealogy of digital voice assistants employing a Foucauldian discourse analysis, using Siri as a case study. It poses the questions of how and why predominantly female coding of various media technologies was established over the years and which conclusions this allows regarding societal power structures. The thesis examines historical development of gendered media technologies since the 1960s through five exemplary stages: fictional voice assistants in film and television of the 1960s, secretaries and typewriters, ATMs, navigation systems, and finally Siri. The mutual production of gender and technology as a central point is examined mainly through analyzing adverts that reveal both self-representation and intended external perception of manufacturers while at the same time shaping societal values. The study shows that female servitude is a common feature of all examined technologies. The portrayal of femininity is intended to lower the threshold for users of the advertised technologies; the association of femininity with helpfulness and servitude, then, has been actively (co-)created by manufacturers over decades and continues into the present day through modern technologies such as voice assistants, thus it is largely socially constructed.