Women'space: Volume 1 #4

• What Do Women Activists Do Online?
  
• Why Run A Web Site?
  
• Canadian Women's Internet Association
  
• Supporting Community Action For Health
  
• Guerrilla Girls
  
  Part Two
  Part Three

What Do Women Activists Do Online?

Women activists online do what activist women do offline. We use the tools we have to promote equality, to exchange experiences and information, to care for each other, to improve our understanding of issues, to monitor government policies, to organize for social change. We create time and space for women to participate in using, assessing, exploring and developing the new arena of electronic communications. We are developing new skills and ways of thinking.

The Internet offers us a new set of tools which supports our offline activities, and extends our ability to do feminist work. Our networks can reach further, and our understanding can be more inclusive. Monitoring government policies, and their implications for women, is made more effective through the use of electronic communications. Finding information and contacts is easier, and less expensive, especially for those living outside the large cities.

It will take us all some time to learn to use this new technology effectively, to gain the experience to assess what works best. The process can be very exciting as we leap into new ways of thinking about old questions. We need to explore as many ways as possible to use the Internet to achieve our aims, and our visions of equality.

Pioneering women have begun this work for us all. Online activists are seeking new directions, opening up new arenas and trying out new ideas from which we can all learn. The achievements of feminists on the 'Net prompt us all to think about how we can use electronic communications.

Brainstorming

Groups of women can spark ideas off each other, whether they are in one room, share an online chat space, or join a focused Internet mailing list. This is a valuable way to explore unknown territory, and develop new approaches to women's issues. It's a fun way to create reality out of what might at first seem to be an impossibility.

Women online are engaged in working out new rules. Group work is familiar ground, but we are not yet certain how group processes can best operate here. Much of what goes on is for the moment experimental, as we discover the benefits of each process undertaken, as well as the needs which emerge.

Networking

Getting in touch with other women who are working on similar issues, or projects, is basic to all feminist activism. The Internet enables an extended reach across countries and continents, which increases our effectiveness and the extent to which we are able to learn from each other's experiences. Email and mailing lists improve the speed of networking. They also enable calls for information, and getting information out, to be multiplied by forwarding mail to numerous related mailing lists and newsgroups.

Meeting women like yourself on the 'Net is an invaluable part of breaking down the geographical, cultural, and social isolation in which women often find themselves. There is real joy to be found by connecting with others who share your situation, finding you are one of many women facing particular issues and having specific needs. To find a community of women who share your situation, to gain the confidence to claim one's rights as part of diverse groups of women, and to share ways of resolving issues, are central to feminism.

Mentoring

Encouraging women to participate in any new activity involves a process of 'taking someone with you'. Online activists have created women-only and/or women-friendly mailing lists and WWW sites which are designed to help newcomers to learn more easily, and join in more readily.

Women Internet educators often link up with one, or a few women, who want to learn to use the 'Net to guide them and make their efforts more rewarding. In turn, these women can bring other women into the circle of learning.

Activists on the 'Net are also working to help women to develop their own Web pages. There are mailing lists to help with technical problems, as well as a team of women who mentor women's groups to put their information on the WWW, women who help with web design and women who are ready to sponsor women's groups on their Web sites by providing them with free or inexpensive space.

Debating Issues

As our networks extend, we often become more aware of different perspectives on a range of women's issues. Using mailing lists and newsgroups to exchange our views helps to clarify our own thinking and to contribute to an often more inclusive understanding.

Women can make contributions to a debate where they have the time to think about how to make their point, especially for those working in a second or third language. Also women who have difficulty writing can take the time needed to participate. Contributions tend to be relatively short and focused, which enables many women to speak and be heard.

Because we do not physically see each other, what matters is what women say. This lends itself to a greater diversity, where contributions are equally weighted as they would be in the ideal group. The fact that women can participate from a range of locations and situations allows for greater inclusiveness, from which we all benefit.

Caregiving

Women often use email to keep in touch with family, friends and co-workers. Care and concern can be offered and received despite long distances. It is less expensive than phoning long-distance, and sometimes preferable as a way of keeping in touch while carrying on with demands of work or other family responsibilities. Mailing lists and newsgroups are frequently used by women and men with specific health concerns. Sharing health experiences, information about alternative treatments, support for individuals and families, are central to the important caregiving work being done online.

Women dedicated to choice in health care alternatives for women have been amongst the first feminist pioneers on the 'Net. They have established WWW sites which include information, discussion, news, directories of women's groups and professionals, and opportunities for women to get involved in achieving social change in health care for women.

Promoting Awareness

Visibility of ideas helps to encourage other people to think about women's equality, and how it can be achieved. Women demand by their participation in mailing lists and newsgroups that women's perspectives be taken into account.

Women also create places in cyberspace for women to work together to engage in debate and strategizing. The presence of this process on the 'Net makes it possible for more of us to understand and engage with these new ideas and issues for women. It is a hopeful struggle as the essence of electronic communications technology is participation with minimal gatekeeping and censorship. The Internet is primarily oriented towards a process of open communication between individuals who share similar interests. The technology can work with us, not against us.

The World Wide Web is increasingly being used by women's groups and organizations to highlight their community resources and services. Web sites carry valuable information about programs, helplines, emergency services, funding, publications, research, community projects, and contact networks. Millions of people are made aware of the latest news on legal battles, government policies, corporate actions, or other specific events which are reported on Web pages.

Taking action

Electronic communications enable immediate relaying of news. Response activities can happen very quickly. Petitions are circulated, addresses and phone numbers of public representatives are shared, fact sheets are disseminated, meetings are organized and events are publicized. Networking actions happen on a scale we could hardly imagine previously. At the same time, we are aware that those who would like to see patriarchy firmly re-established, class, race, sexual orientation, ability and other social divisions secured, are also using electronic communications to organize. This adds to the urgency of our own efforts.

This is an exciting time to be part of the women's online community. Acknowledging women's efforts in this new forum is a wonderful part of the netiquette which has been evolving on the 'Net. Everyone's work is important and appreciated, and every pioneering effort contributes to women's access to the new technologies for equality and social change. The more of us who take part in this process of discovery, the better we will be able to shape the ways in which the new technologies can be used to enhance women's participation.

Scarlet Pollock

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"Running a website", in its broadest definition, may include anything from a set of personal pages to webmaster/mistress of an Internet Service Provider. It is our hope that at least one of our examples will assist in demystifying the concept, ignite your imagination, fire up your dreams, accelerate your determination and lure you into online participation.

Who's Doing It?

A number of the women who agreed to be interviewed are members of Stephanie Brail's Spiderwomen Mailing List for Women Web Designers. Of diverse backgrounds, their Spiderwomen titles declare their Web pursuits: WebMaster/Mistresses, Web Designers/Spinners/Weavers/Writers, Web Project Consultants, and Virtual Reality Planners/ Consultants. Their willingness to share stories and practical advice reflects both the original net culture and the community of sisterhood. To subscribe, send the message: SUBSCRIBE SPIDERWOMAN to "majordomo@lists.primenet.com
[Editor's Note: This link is no longer valid]

Why Are They Doing It?

The reasons range from the personal to the financial. Some of these women came onstage early; some are visionaries recognizing a fleeting window in time where the barriers to an "equal opportunity world" are relatively low. For many, it is a tentative first step into a whole new world; for others, a natural extension of their accumulated skills and previous work history.

Already inherently endowed with creativity, communication and multi-tasking skills, many women fortunate enough to have access to a computer and modem needed only to add the twin elements of mind and will. Unless you want to be a computer programmer, most of what you need to learn can be learned on the net without the expense of costly courses. The barriers to entry are still low; however, web sophistication and learning curves are rising.

The Personal

Most heartwarming was the story of Isabel Cruz, a "Permanent-Resident-Brazilian-Canadian-Woman" whose creation Isabel's Cyberspace is the result of a search for new community and identity in both foreign land and space. Leaving a promising Pharmacy-Biochemistry career in another place and time, Isabel perseveres to be " a woman, pursuing her dreams of independence, struggling once more to be heard, to be something else than a shadow behind her husband's career." Self-taught through her "best friend-the bookstore", and the Internet itself, she considers the most difficult part was in learning the new language (and decided it was less complicated than the Martindale's pharmacopoeia). Internet involvement has led Isabel from her initial feelings of rejection and uselessness, resulting from her unfruitful job searches, to the confident intent "to turn this pleasant experience into profitable home based work." Weaving in the pleasingly personal, Isabel includes a graphic of her wedding party tablecloth as her home page background. [Editor's Note: The link to this site is no longer valid]

Community Information Providers, Activists And Advocates

Freenets

Coast-to-coast friends of "women-on-a-budget", freenets are a great training/internet resource where volunteers often "cut their Internet teeth". Nova Scotians Bonny Lee and Carol Sin Wulfman have both had a hand in the "care and feeding" of The Chebucto Community Net Training Page.

Nonprofits

Jean Cooper has a background of networking with modems for 10 years (on the Internet for 2) but took up web design in creation of her agency's Web page, Assaulted Women's Helpline Perseverance with the challenge of graphics paid off. In her recently designed Metro Toronto Committee Against Wife Assault site, graphics help deliver vital information in 15 different languages from English to Urdu.

Jean reaffirms "the net provides an amazing learning opportunity, anything that you want to know about Web page development you can find there" but also plans on buying the much touted book: 'Designing for the Web' by Jennifer Niederst with Edie Freedman, O'Reilly & Associates .

Like many other women, Jean's work has been a "labour of love", her payment the joy of creativity and learning. "If I had waited till I got paid, I wouldn't have had the experience at all!" She agrees that none us want to see this turn into an "electronic pink ghetto" but feels "some of the work has to be done for free so that everyone can see what it's about".

Activists And Advocates

Nonprofits, activism and advocacy have often found homes on the net more quickly through the action/web pages of many single individuals.

A Communication class project at Simon Fraser University in BC was the catalyst for WIN: Women's Information Networking an online mentoring program for women. The class over, Angela Austman continues to manage the site because it proved to be such a useful tool/resource for women.

Denise Osted, a freelance project consultant, provides visibility for women and aboriginals through resources at her web site. With a background in Women's Studies and Classics and no formal training in use of the Internet, Denise now also works at part-time sales/marketing for an ISP (Internet Service Provider) and writes web pages for various community groups. She recommends you to: "learn internet and web skills from another woman...who is usually willing to spend time explaining...details"; "spend lots of time surfing and getting used to the feel of the whole thing": "buy Laura LeMay's 'Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in 14 Days'; look at [other)people's source code [when attempting to build your own pages] to find out HOW they did it".
[Editor's Note: Denise Osted now lives and works in the Netherlands]

If you are interested in using the internet as an activist tool, as the foundation of your own home based business, or simply adding to your employment skill set, the time to join in is NOW. If you don't, the peril belongs to all of us: women may well lose the opportunity to profoundly affect the future of the web, the world and the quality of our lives. The leading position in this still male-dominated field will become further entrenched; and the glass ceiling will extend itself over cyberspace.

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Providing a community on the Internet for Canadian women is the Canadian Women's Internet Association. This is a great resource. CWIA was founded in 1996 by Lisa Voisin and Carol Wang to provide a meeting place on the Internet for Canadian women. CWIA intends "to encourage Canadian women to communicate online about the Internet and other issues that impact their lives; to foster mentoring relationships among women online and women looking toward being online; to serve as a resource centre for women with an emphasis on their use of the Internet; and to celebrate and promote achievements of Canadian women."

Here is a well-organized and rapidly developing site where you will find Internet help, events, resources for women, women's studies and feminist links, herstory, global and community awareness, and topical links on health, grRLs, motherhood, sexuality, violence, abortion, spirituality and 'other interesting stuff!'

CWIA also runs two mailing lists which you can join:

Women-L "In this list, we welcome women from all backgrounds and walks of life to discuss women's issues, with a particular focus on the Internet, new technologies, and Internet culture. This list is an attempt to bring women together in the male-dominated worlds of the Internet and the computer industry.... we hope to grow into an informal council of wise women, forging our own paths... But for now, we'll just talk :)" To subscribe: send email to Women-L with: SUBSCRIBE WOMEN-L as the body of the mail message.

Maiden-L "This list is designed for women new to the Internet, who need a helping hand...This list started because the Internet is predominantly male, and women new to the Internet might like to know there are others out there like themselves. Basically, if you're feeling a little lost, join this list... Or if you think you know the ways of the Internet well enough to help out an Internet Maiden, please join! We could use your help!" To subscribe: send email to Maiden-L with: SUBSCRIBE MAIDEN-L as the body of the mail message.

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The Community Health Promotion Network Atlantic's (CHPNA) WWW site provides support for "community builders" in Atlantic Canada. CHPNA On-line facilitates information sharing about community health in its broadest sense, and includes educational, economic, social, cultural, and other approaches.

The CHPNA site now consists of a large database of Nova Scotia groups and organizations active in community health promotion, a news and upcoming events bulletin board, lists of resource material for community action, and links to health promotion data-bases throughout North America. The health promotion activity database and the resource material listing provide much useful information. The database contains hundreds of groups throughout Nova Scotia concerned with building healthier communities, including their areas of interest, approaches, and the skills they are willing to share with others. Databases from the other Atlantic Provinces will be on-line soon.

The resource material list aims to document resource material created in the Atlantic Provinces, as well as provide access to resources from outside the area designed to help community groups develop the expertise they need to take action. Examples of locally produced material include a video on setting up community kitchens from Newfoundland, and a handbook on working together to address violence in the community, produced in Antigonish. Examples of other resource material providing support for community groups include a set of how-to videos on the healthy communities movement in Canada, a handbook on building effective coalitions from Ontario, and a hands-on guide to planning and evaluation produced by the Canadian Hemophilia Society.

Individuals or groups may find useful contacts and resource material on the CHPNA site, or may want to post their own information. Direct links to the CHPNA site now exist on the Chebucto and Cape Breton freenets, others can access it through the Internet:

For further information please contact Susan Lilley, NS facilitator, CHPNA-NS

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The Internet was 84.5% male and 82.3% white. Until Now.
Guerrilla Girls have invaded the world wide web.

"The Guerrilla Girls are a group of women artists and arts professionals who make posters about discrimination. Dubbing ourselves the conscience of the art world, we declare ourselves feminist counterparts to the mostly male tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Batman, and the Lone Ranger. We wear gorilla masks to focus on the issues rather than our personalities. We use humor to convey information, provoke discussion, and show that feminists can be funny. In 10 years we have produced over 70 posters, printed projects, and actions that expose sexism and racism in the art world and the culture at large. Our work has been passed around the world by kindred spirits who consider themselves Guerrilla Girls too. The mystery surrounding our identities has attracted attention and support. We could be anyone; we are everywhere."

Email Guerrilla Girls

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Women'space Home
Part Two April/May 1996
Part Three April/May 1996