This study addresses the dearth of gender analysis within debates about technological innovation and workplace change. Qualitative analysis of 12 focus groups conducted with women in ‘frontline’ and ‘professional’ roles discussing their use and engagement with digital technologies at work reveals contrasting narratives of ‘digital frustration’ and ‘digital invigoration’. To explain these distinct narratives, we synthesise insights from science and technology studies with findings from scholarship on gendered work and labour market inequality to show that these differences are not driven solely by a technology’s form or the degree of automation it ostensibly represents. Instead, women’s narratives reflect an interplay between technological design, employment context and workers’ own voice and agency. These findings challenge assumptions about the totalising and transformative power of work-related technologies, redirecting attention to how social and political contestations over digital technologies inform worker experiences and shape the future of work.

这项研究解决了关于技术创新和工作场所变革的辩论中缺乏性别分析的问题。对 12 个“一线”和“专业”女性焦点小组进行的定性分析讨论了她们在工作中对数字技术的使用和参与，揭示了“数字挫折”和“数字振兴”的对比叙述。为了解释这些不同的叙述，我们将科学和技术研究的见解与关于性别工作和劳动力市场不平等的学术研究结果进行综合，以表明这些差异不仅仅由技术形式或其表面上所代表的自动化程度驱动。相反，女性的叙述反映了技术设计、就业环境和工人自己的声音和能动性之间的相互作用。