The Hispanic population is the largest minority group, increasing 43% in ten years. There still exists inequalities in employment, income and health because of race. Despite having an example of a member of a marginalized group running our country, these issues still exist.

The challenge of our thinking of women and the workplace is one of basic production and not one of technology. The concept of masculine and feminine labor are not the same. Historical writing of technological subjects are mostly of male figures and others with very few women. The biggest obstacle for women to overcome is this definition that has been placed on their work and workplace.

This article is explaining how gender and technology and technical communication is one sided with a preference to males. The values we place on women that are less technical and more production work oriented. Their traditional workplace is not one that is considered scientific. Women have been seen as child bearers historically. Our views of technology is more aligned with a man's world. Because of this women have a difficult time being recognized in the realm of science for their achievements.

Our cultural views of technology and women exclude them from being part of the story of technology. These views do not identify women as inventors or designers. It also understates women's skills in all different fields of technology. Traditional women's work is defined as "not technological". Women who have excelled in a traditional workplace have difficulty being recognized for their work in relation to technology. Cook book authors being an example of this.

Gender and technological competence has always been seen as a masculine trait when defining the two genders. This gender division has placed women in a non technical role. They are seen as users of machines but not as innovators, the sewing machine being an example of this. Men are more defined as makers, repairers and designers. This puts women in an inferior role in the workplace because of the non technical activities of the work at hand.

The history of women and technical communications is a difficult one because of the lack of contributions to the field and also because men have excluded or downplayed women's role in technology. Women, like men, have always tried to improve their work processes but we as a society have historically not viewed women as technical innovators.

The history of technical writing has been mostly about great men like Einstein, Galileo, Aristotle, etc. The work of women in history has mostly gone unnoticed by historians. The significance of technical writing falls within two spheres, the public (allocated to men) and the private (allocated to women). Technical writings are more aligned with the public sphere as opposed to the private.

The definition of modern technical writings must first be defined and what constitutes these writings. There are no guidelines for these writings but it is understood that there are two important key points to this definition. 1) A subject matter or function about technology. 2) Technical writing is associated with the work and workplace. These terms about technology, work and workplace are gender neutral terms. Articles from the past that address technical writing and women are very scarce.

This article raises the point that most of the history on technology is written by men. The practice of writing is considered to be for men because of the predetermined definition of women's role with technology. There are not many female historians so this has led to "one sided" or male dominated points of view.

These "cultural blinders" have made it harder for women to be seen as a prominent force in the area of technology as opposed to their male counterparts. Women have an attached defenition to their controbution in regards to production of technology. The author offers a definition of this gender difference that can hopefully be used for the future. She also investigates problems within this definition of gender and technology in the workplace.

Our recorded history is more focused on men when it comes to fields of science, technical writing and users and inventors of technology. History tells us that these fields are predominately male centered and the role of women is more restricted to the home and being mothers and bearing children. In almost no culture are these roles seen as male centered with the male responsible for child care. This creates a "locking in" effect that impacts women and their role in society. Because of these roles there has been less opportunities for to experiment with new ideas and tools.