Gender @ GK97

WORLD WEB: Illustration by Juliet Breese

by Maureen James

From June 22-25, the World Bank and the Government of Canada hosted an international conference on Global Knowledge, in Toronto (http://www.globalknowledge.org). GK97 convened over 2000 representatives from government, academia, science and technology, business, the media, multilateral institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to look at the role that knowledge technologies can play in promoting global development.

There were lots of reasons to be skeptical as this conference was coming together, among them:

a US $750 admission fee
no women listed among the keynote speakers and very few women invited
panels and workshops finalized only a couple of weeks before the event.

Several initiatives to bring global gender and information technology issues to the forefront of GK97 began in April.

LOBBYING FOR MORE WOMEN

As it became clear from advertisements that GK97 was to be a male-dominated event, women across the Internet rapidly gathered names of women working in the field of information technology to present to conference organizers to make sure there was closer gender balance among participants. As a result of a huge lobbying effort, the women invited was increased to 30% of participants

GK97-GENDER ONLINE DISCUSSION

APC (Association for Progressive Communications) and Web Networks (APC Canadian member) were asked to facilitate a virtual discussion of gender and information technology, to broaden participation in the articulation of these issues at GK97.

In April the “gk97-gender” mailing list/conference/website was launched, to look at the practical considerations facing women and women’s organizations around the world, in our adoption and use of information and communications technologies. Using the findings of the APC Women’s Networking Survey
community.web.net/apcwomen
as a point of departure, nearly 300 subscribers from around the world have considered the following focus issues so far:

Including Gender Analysis in Information Technology Policy and Projects
Why Should Women Bother?
Building Women’s Communication Bridges: Linking to Non-connected Women
Privacy and Security Concerns for Women on the Internet
Gender-Sensitive Training and Support
Developing Regional and National Networking Support

A number of key themes have emerged:
Pay Attention to Local Context:
A diversity of approaches is needed to enable local adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Communications policies and projects can’t be effectively introduced without first finding out what the opportunities and constraints are in the affected communities.
Deal with Barriers to Access:
To increase the number of women using ICTs globally, several access issues need addressing, including:

building communications systems with tools that make sense locally (e.g., solar, radio, video, tape-recorder, people who will act as information bridges between those connected and those not, etc.)
making sure women are involved in the design of tools and interfaces
creating a hospitable online environment for women

Demonstrate Practical Benefits:
Use training methods and tools that take into account women’s approaches to technology: show women how using ICTs can help them do what they need and want to do.
Include Women in Planning:
Women must be involved right from the start in planning and decision-making on ICT policies and projects for them to be relevant and accountable to women’s needs. We need to be able to track the effect of ICTs on all aspects of women’s lives.
Emphasize Community Needs:
ICT developments will only be successful if the emphasis is on people’s needs and uses, and infrastructure decisions are made from that standpoint: "work for the people, not the pipes".
Cooperation:
We should continue to use discussions such as gk97-gender as a place where women can support each other in benefiting from these tools by sharing strategies, funding sources, approaches, successes, and information on local opportunities and constraints.

BREAKFAST HONOURING WOMEN

About 1000 women and men gathered to take part in a breakfast honouring women’s involvement in and contribution to information technology. Keynote address by Dr. Shirley Malcolm, Director, Education Programme, American Association for the Advancement of Science, was the highlight. Dr. Malcolm emphasized women’s critical role in key development processes: women are at the centre of food security, water availability, reproduction, family maintenance, knowledge transmission, etc. “The discussion is different when women are at the table”, she said.

GENDER, PARTNERSHIPS AND ICT DEVELOPMENT

At the same time as pulling the breakfast together, the Independent Committee on Women and Global Knowledge also assembled and presented a declaration outlining three basic principles and three critical priority actions for ensuring gender-equitable development of ICTs.
(http://www.postindustrial.com/morewomen/canon.html)

GK97 was billed by the organizers as a " learning process" and "work-in-progress" ; outcomes were not meant to be binding in any way. If nothing else, GK97 was an event ripe for gender input, both virtually and face-to-face, and that input did happen. And in the process, the connections made between women online are proving to be as effective or even more so than actually being at the Toronto meeting.

Even though the Toronto conference is over, the issues remain. I will be facilitating the gk97-gender discussion at least until September, so that we can continue to strategize around gender issues in the development of ICT projects and policies.

The most valuable outcome of gk97-gender has been the sharing of our own experiences and examples from the communities we work with that highlight major gender and information technology concerns.

Women on gk97-gender have asked each other for suggestions, help and ideas and have supported one another in sharing relevant information. Gk97-gender is engaging users, advocates and women’s networking specialists in the discussion of gender and information technology issues in a useful and respectful way. Connected women are sharing the information and ideas they get on the list with non-connected groups locally. And the online discussion provided a basis from which to make much-needed “gender interventions” at the face-to-face meeting. We have been able to broaden our own understanding of global gender and information technology issues, and to make new connections with people interested and working towards similar objectives.

Archives of the discussion are at:
www.igc.apc.org/gk97/gk97.gender
For more information, see the introductory documents, summaries and reference materials for this discussion in English, Spanish and French at:
community.web.net/gk97/resource.htm

To participate in the discussion, send a message to:
majordomo@igc.apc.org
Do not enter a subject.

In the body of the message, type ONLY the text:
subscribe gk97-gender
We also offer a digest (once-daily) version of the list:
subscribe gk97-gender-digest

APC Women’s Networking Survey
community.web.net/apcwomen

SURVEY FINDINGS (May 1997)

“We're pleased to share highlights from the findings of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Women's Networking Survey and hope they'll spark dialogue and action on gender and information technology issues.

The APC Women's Program is a global initiative aimed at facilitating access and use of computer communications for women. In September 1996, we surveyed over 700 women's groups and individual women by E-mail to identify women's electronic networking needs and opportunities”

The findings are summarized online and include:

The summary is available in english | francais | español.

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