This research examines the reduction effect of the Oriental cultural superstition, women`s bodily normality, and body`s normative conception on women`s access to technologies in East Asian societies. Male gendered norms are often the embodiment of culture`s functions that systematically exclude one from male spheres which are the paradigm of the active element (technology). As a representative instance of such norms, females in Oriental culture are assigned to the passive, nurturing part (Yin), in contrast to the masculine aggressive and rationality (Yang). This body`s subjectification is a deeper commonality of Western and Eastern phallocentric traditions. The passive and fragile nature of women has been superstitiously as well as philosophically believed to be linked to the natural world rather than technical or mechanical fields. An embodied practice in hazardous locations is that women are not supposed to sit on the box of equipment, which represents one of those superficial ideas of women regarding a specific configuration of organisms and technologythe tool box.
On the one hand, the absence of women`s bodies on this object does not only simply formulate the norms; it bears the otherness of women and maintains the myths of the danger of the cooperation between the two organisms gifted with opposite natures. The whole narrative is not only articulated through the maturity of time, which causes the absence of women`s bodies, but because of the fact that the female body can be the site of constant contamination of the sources of "negative energy." This built-up of the traditional myth is developed to be a barrier for women to get into the technical field. As such, superstitions, beliefs, and social norms are not only the cause of women`s under-representation in technology; they are also the tools to create psychological, physical, and institutional barriers for women to access technology. This research will analyze how history texts, academic theory, case studies, and different narratives from the interviews, as well as personal experiences, are used to both understand the roots of the problem and to suggest a better future for women.
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