Why Technology Is Feminism’s Most Powerful Force
By Zion Lights | January 21, 2026
Over the sweeping timeline of modern history, technology has emerged as one of the most potent drivers of women’s liberation, often independently of the intentions or attitudes of the predominantly male creators behind it. From mundane household appliances like washing machines and telephones to groundbreaking medical advances such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), technological innovations have expanded women’s autonomy in profound ways—facilitating education, paid employment, entrepreneurship, and personal freedoms.
Technology as an Equalizer
Unlike nature, which often perpetuates gender inequalities, technology has functioned as a powerful equalizer. By easing or eliminating many of the physically demanding tasks traditionally assigned to women, technology has weakened the historical link between sex and economic dependence. This effect is particularly dramatic in emerging economies grappling with energy poverty, where electrification has proven one of the few reliable pathways to liberate women from exhausting manual labor, while simultaneously reducing the risks associated with childbirth and improving child survival rates.
Transformative Impact on Health and Life
The scale of this transformation cannot be overstated. For most of human history, pregnancy and childbirth claimed the lives of between 1 to 2 percent of women, making reproduction one of the leading causes of female mortality. Today, in many high-income countries, maternal mortality has dropped to less than one death per 10,000 births. Child mortality rates show a parallel decline, with the global share of children dying before age five having fallen by more than half in recent decades.
These profound improvements stemmed largely from technological advances in sanitation, vaccination, antibiotics, and neonatal care. Crucially, these outcomes were not the product of changes in attitudes or ideology alone, but of technological interventions that shifted what was possible—making survival routine rather than exceptional.
Technology Versus Ideology in Advancing Feminism
While feminism is primarily a political movement advocating for women’s rights, technology operates as a dynamic set of tools reshaping the conditions of daily life. Over the past two centuries, it has been technology—not moral persuasion or legal mandates—that most reliably enhanced women’s autonomy. By fundamentally altering the constraints of human existence, especially through technologies that reduce the need for physical strength, enhance access to information, and automate domestic tasks, technology has bolstered women’s bargaining power more effectively than many feminist campaigns.
Moral attitudes can fluctuate, legal rules can be broken or unenforced, and cultural norms may resist change. However, once technological constraints are relaxed, it becomes difficult to revert to previous limitations. As a result, feminist progress is best measured by the tangible gains in women’s autonomy, safety, and choice within their everyday lives.
The Washing Machine: A Case Study in Liberation
A compelling illustration of this phenomenon comes from Hans Rosling’s well-known TED talk on social progress. He highlighted the washing machine as a transformative technology. Before its invention, laundry was an arduous, hand-intensive chore involving soaking, scrubbing, wringing, and boiling, predominantly performed by women. The washing machine relieved millions of hours of such labor, freeing time that could be redirected toward education and personal development.
As Rosling famously put it, "You get books out of the machines"—capturing how reducing the burden of domestic chores paved the way for intellectual growth and empowerment.
The Unseen Power of Water Technologies
Of course, physical labor extends beyond laundry. Even before washing clothes, women in many parts of the world spent hours each day collecting water. Access to clean water via piped systems, sanitation infrastructure, and more recently, innovations like desalination, has dramatically altered women’s lives—freeing them from time-consuming and hazardous chores dependent on geography and weather.
These water technologies, among the most consequential but least celebrated advancements, have helped dismantle barriers to education, employment, and health for women globally.
Conclusion
Technology, as a set of practical tools and innovations, has played a vital and ongoing role in advancing the cause of feminism worldwide. By transforming the conditions underpinning women’s lives, from health care and domestic labor to education and economic participation, technology has been a quiet yet powerful force of liberation—one that continues to reshape the possibilities for gender equality in the 21st century and beyond.
For readers interested in exploring more about technology’s role in societal transformation and feminist progress, Zion Lights’ article "Why Tech Is Feminist" is available on Quillette.
