Sex and gender and humanization of care technologies for the elderly

Abstract

Population aging is one of the main challenges to public health in developed countries. Technological innovation is emerging as one of the recurrent and hopeful responses to address this phenomenon sustainably. A scoping review is conducted on sex and gender in care technologies that have characteristics assimilable to humans, such as voice, physical attributes, social and cultural competencies, etc. The result provides twenty-nine materials. Eleven address aging and/or gender relations in voice assistants, while 18 address robotic technology. The critical review of the scientific literature allows us to determine the main features that characterize the devices by linking them to a specific sex, and the dilemmas posed by the perpetuation of gender stereotypes concerning these technologies are analyzed. Finally, it highlights the need to deepen the interactions between humans and care technologies from disciplines such as Science, Technology, and Society Studies or cultural studies, to address the design of assistive technologies aimed at older people from a gender perspective.