Steve McKay

The article focuses on the persistent links between workplace stratification and gender ascription in the organization of flexible high-tech production. Using a comparative case study analysis of three multinational electronics firms in the Philippines, it examines three key organizational factors: firm nationality, product characteristics, and existing labor relations—that help drive variation in the gendering and gendered impact of technological upgrading. It also considers three extra-organizational factors—trends in flexible production, the role of the host state, and gender ideologies—that also influence firm choices. The article assesses the variation in gendered processes and outcomes focusing on the fulfillment of workers’ practical needs versus strategic gender interests. The article finds that despite continued variation at the firm level, extra-organizational pressures will likely contribute to continued gender stratification as firms upgrade, leading to the potential masculinization of skilled high-tech work.

I argue that contemporary philosophy of language in the analytic tradition rests on two fundamentally wrong assumptions: empiricism and externalism. After I show why these two assumptions are incorrect, I turn my attention to biological rationalism. Biological rationalism—a research program inspired by the work of Noam Chomsky—is committed to nativism and internalism. I believe biological rationalism provides the best framework to achieve a genuine understanding of language. I try to show this by considering the biological rationalist answers to major problems in philosophy of language