Information Technology is a
WOMEN’S RIGHTS Issue

by Scarlet Pollock
and Jo Sutton

Women do not gain access to public resources on an equal basis with men, including access to the new information technologies. As we go through the social transition to becoming a technologically skilled population, we will find that education and jobs are linked with the ability to use information technology. Those of us excluded from access now, will find ourselves at a disadvantage in the future. Whether we are personally interested in pursuing information technology or not, we need to take on this fight for the right to access for our daughters and our sisters.

Based on the discussions we have seen on mailing lists, Web sites, written papers, projects, and verbal exchanges, here is our summary of the access issues for women. They include getting online, developing relevant content, process issues, safety concerns, economic development, organizational issues, developing programs and financial support.

Getting Online - Gaining Access Issues

Technological Infrastructure

Women, like men, need the technological infrastructure of electronics and telephone wires, and perhaps a satellite or other non-wired telephone system for remote areas. In addition, the cost of Internet service must be affordable to all if it is to be genuinely accessible. The cost to the individual is driven primarily by private companies, who have an interest in reaching concentrated populations, and wealthier rural areas. Companies have less incentive to reach the poorer rural regions of the country unless there is a way to recoup the higher costs, or government legislation. Hardware and software

While everyone does not need to have a computer at home, it is no doubt, the most convenient. For women to gain access, we would need to have computer/modem equipment and relevant software available in a wide range of women’s services and education/employment/resource centres, where they are made available to women on a regular basis.

Computer/Internet literacy

The social transformation to using the Internet has been equated to the effects of the invention of the printing press. How the Internet is used can be determined by all of us. To participate requires comfort and literacy with the technology. Women do not take long to discover the potential of the Internet once they have the opportunity and some educational support to begin to explore this new realm. We do not all need to know how to design a computer in order to use one.

Developing community access points for women

It is reasonable to expect that all schools, libraries, community centres, hospitals and other community access points should be able to provide for the people in their communities. The problems women are encountering is that these are often places where women would not be comfortable using the computers, or where they feel that what is being offered is not relevant or appropriate to them, or where they are likely to step back as the (often, younger) males step in to use the resources. Women’s participation is enhanced by a women-friendly, women-positive environment where women can explore and find relevant information to meet their own interests and needs.

Inclusive use of technology

To include those groups which have traditionally experienced discrimination - we need to address how to ‘open the Net’ and enable everyone to access and use the technology - breaking down barriers of language, culture/racism, disability, rural women and low income women. Barriers associated with inclusive access include ignorance and prejudiced attitudes about who can or should have access to the new information technologies.

Developing Relevant Content

Locating women’s resources online
The amount of information on the Internet is overwhelming for everyone. A range of tools and indexing to help direct women to relevant information, which is also inclusive information, is necessary for women who typically do not have the time to browse at leisure. The Web site format of linking to other similar pages means that once women find one useful source, they can more easily find other relevant material on a particular issue.

Making women’s issues visible
Women are creators of knowledge. We are all involved in the process of naming our experiences, and of promoting the visibility of women’s issues and women’s perspectives on all issues. The strength of the Internet so far has been its guides and links between similar sites, its weakness has been the lack of content. Women’s groups have much in the way of content to offer - our understanding of equality issues and ways in which to offer support and information are vital content for the Internet.

Presenting a diverse range of women’s content
We need to ensure that our diversity online reflects our population and our issues, and that the range of concerns of women’s groups are evident, to each other and to the global network using electronic communications.

Women’s empowerment
This depends upon exploring how to use the technologies for our own purposes - to find resources, to network, to support, to make our own voices heard and to care for each other. For women, using computers are likely to be associated with doing secretarial/office work for someone else. We are less accustomed to using computers as a tool for our own purposes.

Group Process Issues

Democratizing information flow in an organization
The use of electronic communications allows for rapid and widespread access to resource material, including information which may affect the group’s decision-making process. Changes in the flow of information may also result in a more fluid and participatory process, of great benefit to the organization.

The computer in the collective
Not everyone in a group will have the same interest in information technology. This reflects personal inclinations as well as a political balance within the group. Power relations within a collective may begin to shift, or there may be fears that they will. We need to recognize these changes and to develop ways to work positively with them.

Transparency of work
The openness of working online, and the visibility of what we do gives us the capacity to work together collaboratively. We can discuss, debate and form new positions of consensus based on a more diverse set of voices, and build our sense of accountability with each other.

Organizing responsibilities
Groups may need to rethink responsibilities so that the equipment, information gathering and use, making voices visible online, etc. are seen as jobs that someone must carry. This includes arranging the time necessary for learning, and for using the technology, in light of time used for other accepted routines of the organization.

Mentoring processes to share skills
Encouraging women to participate in information technology, like any new issue, involves a process of ‘taking someone with you’. Online women have been developing women-friendly environments through mailing lists and Websites designed to help newcomers to learn more easily, and join in more readily. Organizations may need to establish mentoring processes to reach their members, and offer support and guidance in developing women’s skills.

Safety Issues

Health concerns
Associated with the use of computer technology are a number of related health risks. For example, Repetitive Strain Injuries include a whole range of musculoskeletal disorders and are linked with computer use amongst other occupations/activities. Information and resources have been placed online to inform and offer suggestions about prevention and alternative treatments.

Violence against women
As with other women’s issues, the ‘Net is being used to network between women’s groups, and share important documents to fight legal cases and address current issues. Online harassment, and intimidation are real concerns to be addressed if women are to be comfortable in accessing information technology, and encouraging of young women to use it. Online work is being developed which emphasizes streetwise netiquette, such as taking care when to offer your telephone or address, and also how to find ways to have harassers tracked and the behaviour stopped.

Sensationalizing pornography on the Net
Media scare stories about the levels of pornography online serve largely to discourage women and girls from getting online, at the same time as it invites men and boys to join in the fun. In fact, pornography online has to be sought out and is much less intrusive than in other media such as television and magazines.

Economic Development

Education & training opportunities
As training to use the Internet for employment is often associated with ‘upgrading skills’ for employees, areas of high unemployment leave women particularly vulnerable, and facing fewer employment prospects. Where general upgrading and courses are set up, they are frequently not designed with women in mind. Courses designed for women are more successful with women are being offered ‘good’ jobs on completion of computer/Internet courses.

Economic independence
Women make up the largest and most sustainable segment of small-business owners. While women are not more likely to become wealthy, we are less likely than men to go bankrupt. The flexibility of hours, home-offices, and the empowerment and control in ‘being your own boss’ makes this an important area for women economically, and access to electronic communications is becoming a vital part of the process of providing goods and services.

Women’s employment projects/telecentres
Given that one of the primary causes of poverty is the lack of fairly paid work, new initiatives for women’s employment are critical to our women’s equality work. The problem of under- and unemployment requires us to develop networking projects that will connect employment opportunities with women, especially those who live in rural areas.

Developing Programs

Creativity & visions
Where is the energy and innovation coming from? 1995-97 has seen a tremendous growth of new initiatives by and for women. Often younger, often newer, groups are forming to explore and develop the potential of information technology. These groups are creating the time and space for women to participate in using, assessing, exploring and developing the new arena of electronic communications.

Giving the visionaries the opportunity to develop new projects
The development of woman friendly spaces and projects come from the experienced need for women to work together, not from government initiative or social policy plan. This self-help approach is commendable, but it requires a consistent policy and input to become sustainable.

The need to reflect, rethink and revise our ways of working
The growth of information technologies requires of us an attitude shift, a matter of looking again at our women’s equality work and practices. In rethinking the long term equality issues in the new context, we may be able to refresh our work processes and overcome some of our time, cost and participation constraints.

Financial Support

Initial costs
The cost of supporting participation in the new technologies is high initially. In the longer term, we can expect costs to slow substantially. Equipment updating and software costs remain, but the learning curve will ease. Savings will begin to appear from the reduction in long-distance telephone costs, travel, conferences, and accommodations. While these will remain important for strategic networking, much can be done online.

Who should be financially supporting these initiatives
The education and participation of the population in adapting to social transformations in our recent history has been a role of government. Who should be called upon to support the women’s community in this transition and what are the possible sources of financing our participation as equals in this change?

Let’s explore together the power which we can generate through our use of information technology. How will we make our voices heard, and our concerns more visible? Let’s use the global networking made possible through this technology to share our experiences, to understand diverse perspectives on women’s issues, to develop activities in solidarity with our sisters, and to strengthen the impact of our organizing.

Email: diamond@womenspace.ca

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