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Women'space: Volume 1 #2B
The Computer in the Collective:
Technology and Group Process
The use of electronic technology has exciting potential - the sharing of information, learning, use of resource materials, and the exchange of experience and viewpoints. This potential is only beginning to be explored by women's organizations. In our own experience and those of other Internet educators working with women, there is also a social side to the use of this technology.
This involves working through the feelings and changing social relationships brought about by electronic communications. Fears and negative feelings about these changes tend to focus on the initiators of change, and can greatly slow down the process of getting women on-line. These are some of the issues we face:
Accessibility or exclusion
Who in the organization had access to electronic communication? Which groups have equipment and which do not? How does this affect our daily work? Does the centre provide a point of accessibility for women in the community, or are resources provided for the centre staff only?
These are important questions. The use of electronic communications can perpetuate inequalities, or decrease them, depending upon how we share them. Unless we address the risk of enhancing existing divisions, we are in danger of adding to the discrimination that already happens.
Sharing information
The use of electronic communications allows for rapid and widespread access to resource material, including information which may affect the decision-making process. This can include the funding possibilities of projects within the organization. Electronic information is public, and e-mail may be collected by co-workers, unless a system of passwords is used.
These changes in the flow of information will sometimes alter relationships within the group, causing concerns, fears and conflicts amongst members. Women need to recognize these problems, and to try to find ways to resolve them before they become larger.
Power
Power relations within the centre may begin to shift, or there may be fears that they will. Individuals who feel threatened by their possible loss of position in the organization may become hostile to new innovations, or direct their negative feelings towards those they feel represent these changes.
We need to reflect on internal power relationships, and the changes taking place. We have to find ways to ensure everyone participates equally. A conflict resolution process can help everyone cope with the inevitable changes. Fears need to be named and expressed in a supportive atmosphere. There is also the question of whether everyone needs to learn at once, or can there be a division of skills which is cooperative rather than competitive?
Time
In the initial stages, learning to communicate electronically will add to the workload of a women's group. Priorities need to be rethought and goals reassessed. We need to explore and plan how electronic communications will enhance our work, increase our effectiveness and the visibility of our achievements.
Space
Where will the computer live? Will it be in office space already used by a worker, thus interfering with her work, or curtailing computer use. Can the computer be placed in the main room where groups happen? Or in a library or resource room? This assumes there are some choices. Does the computer dominate, or become another shelf to store things on? Where can the computer be placed so that it is most accessible to women coming into the centre?
Vision
Let's explore the possibilities and find creative ways to use this new technology. We need to envisage cyberspace as a tool for equality, rather than as a burden or opportunity for exclusionary practice. Electronic communications are still being developed, and women's organizations have much to offer in the search for creative ways of working together.
Midwifery Online
by Donna Dolezal ZelzerMidwifery Today magazine, the tiny, woman-run, woman-owned company where I work as Marketing Director and "Internet Person" has had an e-mail address since February 1994 and a World Wide Web page since November 1994. When we first went online there was little available about birth and next to nothing about midwifery. Today, women all over the world participate in midwifery networking and contribute information to help inform other women about their birthing choices.
It's exciting and very satisfying to be in at the start of this new community of women! I'm most involved with the MIDWIFE mailing list, the WWW pages I maintain, and the E-mail they generate. The MIDWIFE mailing list isn't "ours," but we've been involved from the beginning and did play a small role in its birth. MIDWIFE is a wonderful, gentle, supportive family of people--mostly women--who share advice, support, comfort and lots of good birth stories. It's a great list for any woman who wants to know more about pregnancy and birth. For midwives, some of whom are very isolated, it can truly be a long-needed lifeline of support. To join e-mail midwife-request@fensende.comwith the message: subscribe
I maintain two groups of related and interlinked Web pages. Midwifery Today includes articles from our publications and information about our conferences and other educational offerings. The Online Birth Center holds material from other sources, as well as links to related sites all over the world. Information in the Birth Center is organized into several sub-pages, including midwifery, breastfeeding, and a page for parents.
One of the exciting things about putting up WWW pages is that by the sheer act of doing so, you become part of a community of people of like interests. I often receive e-mail from someone who has linked her site to mine and asks me to return the favor, from someone who has found a site that might interest me, or from someone with information she'd like to put online. In the latter case, I may offer to put it up for her, or offer to help her get started with her own pages. Information I've placed online includes materials from the Hunter Valley Midwife's Association in Australia and the Brighton (UK) Homebirth Support group.
People also write to thank us for the material they've discovered and/or ask for more information. For example, we've received many letters of appreciation for posting "A Burden to Share" a moving personal account of how childhood sexual abuse affects pregnancy and birth.
Midwifery Today also benefits as a business. It's great publicity, (the Birth Center got a review and Midwifery Today a photo in the June 1995 issue of NetGuide), we've found new contributors, we've make important networking contacts, and--yes! we get orders! Our total online income so far is small, but larger than the response from some of our mailings, which cost a lot more. Plus, once something is on the Web, it's always there for people to find or to go back to, unlike direct mail, which often ends up in the recycle bin.
What does this mean to you? If you're involved with birth in any way, join MIDWIFE and visit the Birth Center. If you own or work for a small business, think about what your company can do online. But whoever you are and whatever you do, get online if at all possible! There's a world waiting out there -- a world where you can make a difference!
Midwifery Today is located in Eugene, Oregon, USA. Write them at midwifery@aol.com. Write Donna Dolezal Zelzer at In January 1994, midwifery was recognized and legalized as an independent health profession in Ontario. Midwives are being educated and are practicing as an accepted part of Ontario's health care system. Why not here?
We believe that midwifery offers the highest possible standard of care for mothers, babies and families. Help us to make that kind of care available to all Nova Scotia's families."
To contact or join the Midwifery Coalition of Nova Scotia,
mail: PO Box 33028, Halifax, NS B3L 4T6 or
phone: (902)-479-0855.
Nova Scotia Health Information
A Lesbian and Bisexual Women's Health Study is under way at Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax. Aimed at lesbians and bisexual women in Nova Scotia, this three year study is the first to be done outside the USA. The study looks at "what it is like to get the health care we need...we need to know about this, and so do doctors and other health care workers". Participants will be interviewed by one of a team of four women working on the study. The interviewers will make tape recordings and "bring the findings back to the women who were interviewed to make sure we stay true to what women tell us". There will also be "gatherings... where women who participate can discuss the information that comes out".
There is still a call out for participants, so if you want to take part get in contact with:
C.Mathieson, Health Study
Department of Psychology,
Mount Saint Vincent University,
Nova Scotia, Canada, B3M 2J6,
or phone: 902-457-6347 fax: 902-445-3960
Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre
The AHPRC encourages and facilitates health promotion research in Atlantic Canada. The AHPRC's main objectives are: to promote research and education about self-help, coping, mutual aid, and public participation and to foster partnerships among academic researchers and community groups.'
To find out more about the free services offered contact:
AHPRC
Room 5200 Dentistry Building
5981 University Ave.
Halifax, NS B3H 3J5.
Phone: (902) 494-2240
E-mail: AHPRC@dal.ca
Contributions
We would like to hear how you are getting on in cyberspace. What sites do you think are valuable for women? How does your group/organization use the 'Net?
If you want to contribute, drop us a line at diamond@womenspace.ca