The low and shrinking numbers of women in higher computer science education is a well-known problem in most Western countries. The dominant Western perception of the relationship between gender and computer science codes the latter as "masculine," and the low number of women is seen at least partly as an effect of that coding. Malaysia represents a different case. There are large numbers of women in computer science, and computer science is not perceived as "masculine." Rather, it is deemed as providing suitable jobs and good careers for women. This reflects an understanding of gender where femininities are constructed by association to office work, commonly recognized as a woman-friendly space because it is seen as more safe and protected than, for example, construction sites and factories. The findings suggest that gender and computer science may be more diversely coproduced than commonly believed in Western research.M uch research has explored the gender-technology relationship to analyze how women have been excluded from technological fields and how gendered perceptions and values have worked to shape design as well as use of technologies. A common claim across an otherwise diverse body of research has been that this exclusion has been produced through a strong relationship between technoscience and men's performance of masculinities

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This paper shows how professional communication practices with customers are accounted for in software engineering. It looks at how communication and related activities are enacted and placed in relation to the so-called social/technical binary while also critically engaging with analysing how this dualism is performed. Empirically, the paper investigates how software engineering and communication with customers are framed in two settings: at one Norwegian university and in three Norwegian software companies. At the university, an effort was made to reframe software engineering as a communication-oriented rather than technically-focused activity. However, faculty as well as students reproduced a technically-focused framing of software engineering that externalizes communication. The framing observed in the companies was different, with less outspoken distinction between 'technical' and 'social' aspects. Rather, communication with customers was described as based and dependent on technical knowledge. However, a closer reading shows how the social/technical binary is maintained by a consistent reference to the technical in professional terms while communication is described in lay terms. Implications of this are discussed in the conclusion. IntroductionIn this paper, we analyze how professional communication practices with customers (including users) are accounted for in software engineering. 1 We focus on the way communication and related activities are enacted and placed in relation to the

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