SUMMER 1999

Women'space: Summer 99 Vol. 4, #3

Summer Issue

The Women’s Internet Campaign for women and girls’ equal access, equal participation and equal voice in communications technologies is at
www.womenspace.ca.
Go to the Women’s Internet Campaign column on the right side of the screen.

Many western countries have spent millions of dollars encouraging their peoples to use the Internet. Most have provided for access in public spaces, such as libraries and community halls. In Canada all schools have access, and now this is being extended to the classroom
www.schoolnet.ca.

The next step of applying this technology is well under way. Public Internet access is still expanding. In the meantime computer literacy, electronic commerce and lifelong learning are areas of intense discussion and development. Talk of a knowledge based economy and society is developing rapidly. The momentum of applying communications technologies to many parts of our lives appears to be gathering speed.

The Internet now has the potential, and in many cases the reality, of touching most people’s lives. While it still can’t take out the garbage, or do the washing, it brings change. Maybe it’s just not the first improvement some of us would want to see :-) We are living in a time of great social change, which some say is on the scale of the industrial revolution.

The question is whether this change will be imposed on us, or whether we will participate in developing the society we will be living in? Most of us are observers, with little or no input into the changes which are overtaking us. From information being put online for us to consume, like any other product, to the design of the society we are about to live in, we find an expectation that we will be quiet recipients. We are expected to download, where interactivity becomes limited to giving a credit card number. Unless we are part of government or the academy we are being given a top down model of this social change which affects us all.

These developments are not taking place in a vacuum. They have their roots in our everyday structures. Inequality is built into our society. It is now being built into the way these changes are taking place, and it will be firmly in place in the society of the near future. For many women and minorities this has little to recommend it. So far we have had few opportunities to play a part in the creation of this new society. Without access to the technology and skills in using it, women and minorities will be continue to be relegated to the position of recipients, not controllers, of the changes that are taking place.

The broad application of technology has so far left large gaps in the supply and application of technology. Unfortunately we do not know the effects on women, girls, seniors, minorities and more. Without developing this medium in the service of equality, we will be affected by the consequences of technological ‘progress’ which actually enhances inequality.

It’s not that women have stayed quiet. But in the end, as women we’re just not viewed as playing a valuable decision making part in the visions and implementation of the technological twenty first century.

The Sunshine Coast Women’s Resources Centre, for example, repeatedly applied to participate as a women’s Internet access point in a widespread government program. They became the first women’s Internet access point in Canada, but without the support of any federal government program.

The Women’s Internet Conference
www.grannyg.bc.ca/confer/
helped to move things forward, getting a few women onto a single government committee.

The National Organisation of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women of Canada are continuing the research they initiated with their Report Assessing Immigrant and Visible Minority women and the Internet, July 1998.

At the Activists Speak Out section of the Women’s Internet Campaign site, you can read the views of women concerned with the present situation
www.womenspace.ca/ Campaign/SpeakOut/overview.html

There are huge implications for our future as citizens, and for women’s economic independence. Online information can guide our decisions. Online courses make it possible to train for a new job. Online consultations give us the opportunity to participate in discussions which can affect future developments. Creating our own place in cyberspace empowers and gives us our own unique voice. Connecting to others and working together online makes it possible to develop ways of working which are relevant to ourselves and our situation. Our participation is key to an equal future.

Information haves and have-nots don’t happen by accident. The present implementation of a technologically sophisticated society is allowing the inequities of racism and sexism to be repeated and embedded into the future. Policy decisions need to take better account of those who are becoming marginalised by communications technology, by including those who will be affected by the policy-making process. If inequities are to be overcome, programs to ensure the participation of marginalised groups need to be implemented from the ground up.

Technology and the Internet are not a level playing field. We don’t own the language - “master/slave” still describes the relationship of some computer parts. “Hits” are what happens to our web sites. Young women are still a small proportion of the enrollment in computer sciences. Yet these and other barriers to women’s participation still continue and thereby impede our future place in our developing social order.

The Women’s Internet Campaign web site lists the Canadian government programs which fund public access and use of the Internet. There’s a wide range of programs there, but little is specifically for women, or an attempt to level the playing field.
www.womenspace.ca/Campaign/Government/programs.html

There are a handful of government reports which take women into account when planning and implementing a knowledge based society. Try the short-list at
www.womenspace.ca/Campaign/Government/policy.html

There are a greater number of reports about women and the Internet at
www.womenspace.ca/Campaign/Research/reports.html
which more directly discuss the lack of, and need for, a gender-based analysis in planning how technological change will affect our future.

Online Activism

Meanwhile the growth of activist applications of communications technology is continuing. The Internet offers activists more ways to develop and extend our work, to reach more people, to increase our speed and effectiveness, to learn more about each other, to build solidarity and to organise.

Women’space has put together a list of 40 activist ways that web sites are being used by non-governmental organisations, with links to a couple of examples of each one. The range of uses includes online directories of related web sites, requests for donations, organising to get the vote out, working online to produce position papers, templates of campaign stickers, a “wall of shame” of politicians’ sexist remarks and many other ideas. Go to
www.womenspace.ca/Campaign/Activism/activistways.html

Here you will find examples of using the Internet for Taking Part in the Party Political Process; Organising; Making a Splash; Reaching Out; Coordinating with Offline Events; Creating Women's Space; & Making the Internet Work For You.

To support women’s participation online, you will also find a section of the Women’s Internet Campaign called:
Online on the Cheap
www.womenspace.ca/Campaign/Online/ onlinecheap.html
Here are suggested low-cost or no-cost ways to start exploring the World Wide Web, especially methods that include having some knowledgeable support nearby.

Lists Plus: Women Working (Online)
www.womenspace.ca/Campaign/Online/listsplus.html
discusses the use of mailing lists for women’s activism, ways of working together on lists, and considering other options and combining strategies for enhancing your group’s presence and effectiveness using the Internet.

The Women’s Internet Campaign web site is growing and developing. We will be adding material over the coming months. We hope you’ll visit and return many times. Tell your friends!