Who runs the smart home? The importance of tech competences and engagements in gendered household practices

Energy use and consumption in households will in the future be subject to fundamental changes in energy systems to foster a green transition to renewable energy sources. This transition builds on smart technologies to support flexibility and efficiency in energy use as well as the connection between consumption and production of energy. Smart technologies will potentially create disruptions in the everyday life of households in terms of the division and performance of household tasks that are gendered in different ways. Building on ethnographic studies of Danish heterosexual households with smart technologies installed, this paper explores how household tasks are differently affected among technological frontrunners and less tech savvy users. The introduction of new smart technologies has implications for the competences needed to perform everyday practices and affect the meanings ascribed to these. The paper shows how the competences and engagements in everyday practices are distributed in different ways according to gender roles. For instance, digital housekeeping is unevenly distributed when one person in the household is particularly competent and interested in the technology (typically a man). The uneven distribution of digital housekeeping affects the distribution of ‘traditional’ housework, risking reinforcing gender norms and roles. Existing research indicate that men and women engage differently with both sustainability and technologies. Related to this, men and women’s respective impact on energy consumption also seems to differ. In the paper, we argue that different competences and engagements have implications for both the use of smart technologies and the related energy consumption, as well as the distribution of time and activities in households. This deserves ongoing awareness when tackling unsustainable energy consumption as well as digital and gender inequality.