Ethical perspectives on femtech: Moving from concerns to capability-sensitive designs

Abstract

Femtech is the collective name for technologies that address female health needs. Femtech applications can help women digitally track their period, manage their fertility, and support their pregnancy. Although femtech has beneficial potential, there are various ethical concerns to be raised with current femtech apps. In this article, we discuss three of the main ethical concerns with femtech apps regarding (1) medical reliability, (2) privacy, and (3) gender stereotyping and epistemic injustice, and we explore how Capability Sensitive Design, a novel design framework for health and well-being technologies, is able to mitigate these concerns and help create morally sensitive femtech.