This introductory essay outlines the main theoretical and contextual frameworks of the special issue. It argues that the focus on women and technology advances the gender studies agenda of the journal while reframing and updating the current understanding of Russian, Eurasian and Central European new media within the global context of digital information flows and technological development. The ways in which gender is discussed and the degree to which gender equality is a political, social or theoretical concern offers an important window to understanding geographically and culturally localized processes. As the theoretical and methodological framework for the contributions to follow, the introduction discusses a range of feminist approaches to technology. It also discusses some significant gender biases in the history of women and computing in the Soviet Union, which have impacted the further development and cultural understanding of one of the largest national online networks, the Runet. The aim of this framing is to launch a critical feminist reconsideration of computer technology, the internet and digital media communication across post-Soviet cases and the rest of the world.

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