Bob, U.2016-04-192016-04-192004GeoJournal 61(3): 291-3000343-25211572-9893http://hdl.handle.net/10919/67272Metadata only recordThis article highlights the importance of women's roles in connection to their responsibility and use of technology in poor rural communities. The paper reflects on the notion of technology in both traditional (locally-based) and modern concepts. This study is the result of field research that used participatory techniques of both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect and analyze data from a community in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. The article shows that the use of technologies is also gendered, and that it is important to understand locally-based gendered nature of knowledge. Poor rural women use, adapt, and innovate technologies in their everyday lives. Due to women's roles this knowledge is often invisible and unrecognized. Women have several constraints limiting their access to technology.text/plainen-USIn CopyrightParticipatory processesRural developmentWomenIndigenous communityGenderLocal knowledgeAdoption of innovationsGenderMethodologyLocally-based/indigenous knowledgePoor rural womenTechnologySouth africaAbstractCopyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-004-3691-6