What does it take? Feminist Readings of Innovation Studies

While innovation studies traditionally ignore gender issues, predominant means of attending to this oversight tend to reinforce gender stereotypes. Thus, innovation is cast as male by default and female innovators are given niche roles, prompting us to ask: what does it take to make the gendered practices of innovation visible without re-confirming essentialized gender dichotomies? In answering this question, we promote a “third wave” of feminist readings of innovation studies that takes issue with both the assumptions of gender-blindness and gender stereotyping. Gendered norms, we argue, result from innovation practices, which means that changing the practices can change the norms. We illustrate the methodological and practical purview of this argument through analyses of three illustrative cases. The first reproduces gender-blindness, and the second focuses exclusively on innovation for and by women. The third case adopts a norm-critical perspective, which, we conclude, is an effective driver of innovation for gender equality.