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Women Click: Feminism and the Internet |
Scarlet Pollock + Jo Sutton |
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Biography |
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The development of women's use of the Internet has felt like Movement. It's been full of supportive acts and discussions. Women have been willing to share their ideas, experience and time with others who they only know online. There is goodwill and growth between women. This virtual gathering together in small and not so small groups online is showing a range of possibilities for change. There is the capacity for sharing ideas for organizing and action, which some groundbreaking women have been exploring. More women are joining in and creating their own activities.
Communication Technologies Bring Change to Feminist Ways of Working The work of feminists of the past thirty years is often the foundation from which online feminists build. Dialogue, encouragement of others, listening, sharing, dealing with conflict are all brought into play. Many of the premises and assumptions made in online interaction are part of the continuity with other feminist work. To this approach, the Internet offers the possibility of working in ways feminists have often aspired to, but have sometimes had difficulty achieving - inclusion, diversity, transparency - an open process which can lead to action and change. Part of the transition comes with the new technologies. It speeds our communications, shares information on a large scale, and gives an immediacy to what we do. It can make our work more transparent and increase our accountability to women. Using the Internet means that we have to rethink our work to see how what we do can be enhanced by being online. We may decide that using email between organizations is adequate, maybe supplemented by a mailing list or two. Even this step means looking at who traditionally collects and processes the mail, as well as how everyone shares information. We can use this medium, this tool, to communicate with each other and to connect over the issues that are closest to our hearts. We can reach beyond the boundaries of our neighbourhoods to exchange information and experiences with our communities of interest, and at the same time, bring global resources to our local communities. There's much more that we can do with the Internet - such as influencing government, demanding accountability, promoting democratic participation. The point is to assess the possibilities and experiment in using it for our own purposes, while sharing our developing skills and experience with more women. |
Jo Sutton and Scarlet Pollock are founders of Women'space, and coordinating editors of Women'space Magazine, which is published in print and online. Coming from backgrounds in 'Violence Against Women' and 'Women's Health', they are now involved in the Women's Internet Campaign for women's equal access, involvement and control over new communication technology.
Scarlett and Jo coedited "Virtual Organizing, Real Change: Women's Groups Using the Internet", Women'space, 1997. Women'space can be visited online at: http://www.womenspace.ca
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