Work Mate Marry Love

June 8, 2020
Harvard Business School professor Spar (Wonder Women) probes the historical links between gender, family, technology, and work to understand their implications for the future in this thought-provoking and cautiously optimistic account. Moving chronologically through human history, Spar places the plow’s role in creating the concept of land ownership at the center of female subordination through marriage, and describes the impact of automobiles, the birth control pill, and kitchen appliances on women’s labor at home and in the workplace. Turning to the present, she establishes links between assisted reproductive technologies and the legal and cultural acceptance of same-sex marriage, and claims that smart machines are pushing men out of the workforce without an understanding of their new gender and social roles. Looking ahead, Spar discusses the implications of integrating robots into people’s work and love lives, how digital personality archives and extended life expectancies might affect social structures, and the importance of addressing inequities caused by differential access to technology. Though the book lands somewhat awkwardly between futurist think piece, gender study, and historical survey, Spar’s explanations of how specific technologies developed are lucid and insightful. Readers will take comfort in this clear-eyed assessment of humanity’s ability to adapt to technological change.

August 1, 2020

Technology shapes our world, even the things that people may not consider technology today. At one point, the plow was a completely new technology, and Spar (Harvard Business Sch.; Wonder Women) discusses that and other technologies, from agricultural tools to kitchen appliances to smartphone dating apps that have shaped how humans live and interact with each other, and even more so, that have affected how people form relationships, start families, and have careers. Spar includes historical facts, statistics, and pictures throughout the narrative. Many other works are cited, but Spar also includes personal anecdotes into the fold. For example, while she did not personally go through IVF as she wrote about it, she did create online dating profiles in order to write about them first hand. In blending history and educated speculations for the future, Spar has created a relatable nonfiction narrative about how we live with technology. Readers of Spar's other works will want to add this to their reading lists. VERDICT This is a humanizing and unique take on technology is a necessary addition to the genre; Spar's voice included with the history will keep readers engaged in whatcould otherwise be dry information.--Natalie Browning, Longwood Univ. Lib., Farmville, VA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2020

Currently Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and the former president of Barnard College, Spar (Wonder Women) investigates love in the time of technology. With romance shifting from inline at the movies to online with one's favorite device and medical advances facilitating both gender changes and new ways of procreating, how will our sense of romance and very humanity change?

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.