In our society, the possibilities and opportunities to participate in the creation of certain social spaces are determined not least on the basis of gender (...) The reasons for this can be found in the gender-specific division of labour. Women are allocated unpaid reproductive work and that of low-paid employment and jobs on the lower steps of the hierarchical ladder. (...) Technical areas are claimed by men with the result that women's experience of life has had little influence on the development and application of information technology. Nevertheless, both the National Union of Employers' Associations and Rita Süßmuth during her time as Minister for Women's Affairs wrote euphorically about the opportunities that new technologies would bring with them of a breaking down of traditional barrier between male and female jobs in the working world. In view of the increasing automation of work that was previously performed manually, women's work could also be upgraded (...) This is a technologically determined argument neglecting the reasons for gender-specific division of labour. I would like to emphasize this by pointing out an example of how the working conditions of typing staff changed as a result of the introduction of information technology. Taking the example of the Bremen administration, it can be shown that positive opportunities for women do not occur as a matter of course. Although good conditions have been created, the application of information technology doesn't lead to better working conditions for women, but on the contrary to worse. At the same time it can be shown, however, that the general conditions in the Bremen administration can be used by women in their own interests. Women don't have to remain as on-lookers while their work-places, most particularly in the secretarial and clerical areas, become more de-skilled and are subjected to additional stress as a result. Women can act in their own interests if they enter into social spaces usually reserved for men. I would like to present some first attempts to design technologically supported work systems in women's interests.