Web Woman: The On-line Construction of Corporate and Gender Images

Abstract

One of the many interesting applications of information technology is 'business on the net' and, within this trend, the appearance of virtual females whose job it is to assist customers by giving advice and delivering information. These creatures raise a host of interesting questions about corporate image, but also about humanness and femininity. Who or what do they represent: the companies that produced them? their designers? society's dreams - both open and forbidden? Although we cannot aspire to provide final answers to these questions, we do try to formulate the questions in this paper and frame them in contexts that seem to be promising.