Karin Altmann
Zeros + Ones: Digital Women + The New Technoculture is a provocative and intellectually rich exploration of the hidden connections between women and the development of digital technology.
First published in 1997, the book blends history, philosophy, feminism, and cyberculture into a dense but rewarding narrative that challenges conventional assumptions about both gender and computing.
The central argument is that women have always been integral to the evolution of digital technology, even though their contributions have often been overlooked or erased. Plant traces this lineage back to Ada Lovelace, widely considered the first computer programmer, and follows it through the women codebreakers of World War II and the early days of computing when programming was seen as clerical “women’s work.” By reframing technological history in this way, she exposes how gendered hierarchies have shaped not only who gets recognized, but also how we understand innovation itself.
Rather than presenting a straightforward historical account, Plant adopts a nonlinear, almost poetic approach that mirrors the networks and systems she describes. Ideas flow associatively, weaving together figures like Alan Turing, Norbert Wiener, and Donna Haraway with broader discussions of cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and posthuman identity.
Plant’s feminist perspective is central but not simplistic. She does not merely argue for inclusion or equality; instead, she suggests that digital technology itself is inherently aligned with what has historically been coded as “feminine”: decentralization, multiplicity, and connectivity. In this sense, the rise of digital systems destabilizes rigid binaries, not only between male and female, but also between human and machine, natural and artificial. Her ideas anticipate many later discussions in gender studies and media theory, making the book feel remarkably forward-thinking despite its age.
Plant, S. (1998). Zeros + Ones: Digital Women + The New Technoculture. London: 4th Estate.