Women'space:
Fall 97 /Winter 98 Vol. 3, #2 Part 1

Part 1: Parallel World | Part 2: National Capital Freenet | Part 3: The Women’s Internet Conference | Part 4: From Bread Riots to Cyber-Revolution | Part 5: Inclusion Works! | Part 6: Using Search Tools |
Part 7: Book Reviews | Part 8:Clearinghouses: Does bigger always mean better? | Part 9: But is it Training? | Part 10: Women’s Sports Pages | Part 11: Opportunities in Online Organizations |

by Jo Sutton

I think of the Internet as a parallel world, in many ways similar to the one I already know. It’s not yet rich in sound and isn’t tactile — except for these keys I’m tapping. So I don’t get to hear the birds sing, nor feel a friend’s warm touch. But I still feel warmth from some people’s email. I get to hear online music I would have otherwise missed. I see images I will never see in any other part of my life. Because whatever is lacking out there in cyberspace is compensated by the things I gain when I’m there, and the ideas, discussions and information I keep on discovering.

But this isn’t a "better” place", it’s an extension of the same place. It’s a lesson many women learn quickly. Harassment, stalking and just plain downright discriminatory statements exist just the same. People are still trying to sell me something I don’t need, and are finding more sophisticated ways of doing so, while believing that, as a woman, I only exist to shop.

Grasping that the Internet is much like the rest of life can take a little time. The women who are doing the groundbreaking work of making the Internet a welcoming place for women are much like the women who realised the necessity to set up shelters for battered women, clinics for abortion, sexual assault centres, places where women could go for help, advice, referral and support. At first they were the visionaries — subject to all the suspicions that such people encounter. Now they work to maintain hard won ground. It’s the same on the Internet. Some women are ensuring that every woman can choose whether or not to go online at any time she wishes. This will not happen without those women’s fight. More women are making the Internet a welcoming place for women, with Web sites and mailing lists specifically for us. In a world where “hits” is the word for visits to Web sites, even the language can be an anathema to women (and once you get inside the machine, the allocation of “master” and “slave” to some devices does not sit well.) We need those groundbreaking women to ensure we can use the new technologies with and for all women. Without them our future is bleak.

The future of the Internet is being fought over right now. It is happening in meetings of bureaucrats and politicians, it is written in the reports of academics and consultants. It happens whenever a woman goes to a Community Access Project and finds them playing online games where naked women are being killed. It happens when women share information on mailing lists. It happens when women put up Web sites for women. The fight is right now, right here. We are all subject to the hype of being online. It misleads us into unrealistic expectations. Sometimes people comment that they went online and couldn’t find what they wanted: “It just wasn’t there, however hard I looked.” To the corporations — whether media moguls or detergent sellers — the Internet is a place of consumption. It’s not just buying, it’s also just looking. Browsing as entertainment, as “interactive” TV. This is utterly misleading. The Internet is what you do. It’s communication, not just listening. It’s joining in the game, not just sitting on the sidelines watching. What is special is that this game is for all of us — women of every cultural background, women with hearing impairments, in wheelchairs, women who are still at school or who do unpaid work, women whose skin colour contrasts beautifully with that of the cream coloured keyboard, women who prefer women, or who don’t. Each and every one of us has something to say, to share, to contribute to this parallel world. If we are just onlookers we have no influence on what happens next. If we are just onlookers we have no power.

Without us women, right here, right now, the Internet will become a place where the rich can spend their time and money. Where we will only be onlookers, because we have been excluded from a world which we cannot afford and which has little relevance to our lives. It need not be so. The groundbreaking women see the future differently. They see the Internet as a place where at any time of the day or night a battered woman can get the information she needs to make decisions about her life and the lives of her children. A place where we build together — anything from constitutions to campaigns. A place where we can hold meetings, have discussions, make decisions together. A place to offer and receive support. A place where we can work to ensure women have paid employment in the future. A place we create together, by women, for women. A place where we can work together for all women.

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