The Women's Cause and the Internet
“Women’s rights are human rights!” I heard someone shout making me suddenly realize that even though this is Canada, promoting women’s rights is as important an issue here as in any other under-developed country of the so-called Third World. The United Nations had decided the day’s theme to be: “Women and men united to end violence against women and girls.” The slogan chosen for Canada was "good jobs and dignity for all"—a topic that is older than just in reference to the current economic crisis. I decided to join in the parade with my daughter to support the cause of respect, safety and equal opportunity for all women and girls no matter what their age, the colour of their skin or language. I feel the International Women’s Day is a symbolic gesture. It is not the beginning nor the end but just a part of a journey that represents the basic desire for respecting human life and existence. Everyone is valuable…I thought this as I smiled and joined in the shouting. “Women’s rights are human rights!”
History lovers can get more information on the United Nation’s International Women’s Day at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/iwd/ and on the 1993 Vienna Declaration which proclaimed that the “human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights” (I,18,1993) at http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/whr.html.
When I came back from the parade and sat down to write this blog, I thought that I should focus on how the Internet had impacted the women’s cause over the years. Being in the Internet, Adult Education and Community Development course has made me think of everything in reference to the Internet! Researching on the subject made me realize that a majority of women’s organizations all over the world seem to have already understood the importance of the Internet and have made a strategic effort to maintain an online presence in some form or the other.
Canadian and Global online efforts for women empowerment:
There are hundreds of websites on the Internet that promote topics that interest women ranging from information on health and beauty to activist content demanding more rights, respect and resources for women. For example, The World March of Women movement (http://www.worldmarchofwomen.org/) that started in the year 2000 now has an extensive online presence with an international agenda that involves more than 146 countries. According to the details on their website, the aim of this activist movement is to help eradicate poverty, inequality, discrimination and violence against women. Interestingly, activists from Montreal, Canada were the first to introduce the idea of this movement during the United Nations’s landmark International Women's Conference in Beijing in 1995 (http://www.greenleft.org.au/2000/395/24274). The Beijing conference is well known for having played an important role in revamping women’s movements all over the world. I believe that since this was approximately the time when the Internet was beginning to seep into our daily lives, this was the time when activists were already considering using it as an integral part of their future action plans. Another example of a Canadian women's online activist movement is “Step it Up Ontario” that demands an end to physical and mental violence against women (http://www.stepitupontario.ca/).
The Internet appears to play a significant role in women’s movements in other parts of the world as well. In Mexico, the Association for Progressive Communication (APC) has played a significant role in empowering the women’s movement by promoting the use of the Internet (https://www.isoc.org/oti/printversions/1197prsmith.html).
An important aspect of the women’s cause is the empowerment of women. Since knowledge is power, the best way to empower someone is to provide them with information, training and self-reliance. In this connection, when I was researching for this blog, I came across a very interesting project of the International labour Organization (ILO) which aims to use the Internet to train professional women from Saudi Arabia. (http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/skills/hrdr/init/sau_1.htm). If we consider that in a culture where Saudi women can neither drive, travel alone, vote or work freely, the ILO's plan to use the Internet to improve their lives by empowering them with information and professional training seems to be a great idea.
I think women’s empowerment through knowledge is also a kind of activism. Activism need not always be vocal or violent but it can also mean bringing about a silent but steady change that helps to improve the lives of women on a long-term basis. In the challenging scenario of empowering Saudi women, the Internet appears to be an extremely useful tool. At this point, I have to disagree with Susan Kohn who asserts in her Christian Science Monitor article (http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0630/p09s01-coop.html) that real change can only be brought about with offline activities and not merely by a few clicks of a mouse. I disagree with her because I think the Internet is not an “either or” matter. For a cause as great as the women’s movement, any and every facility available should be utilized.
Facebook, Twitter, blogging and women:
As already mentioned in our class presentation on social movements the other day, the organizers of the International Women’s Day successfully used Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=46471953703#/event.php?eid=46471953703) to invite more supporters to their cause and promote and organize their event. Here are a few more links to show how online social networking tools are being used to benefit women’s causes:
The health section of the Facebook's Causes application has a considerable number of pages dedicated to collecting donations for women’s diseases: (http://apps.facebook.com/causes/causes?category_id=5&m=5e8b17e0).
In fact, using Facebook for social causes has proved to be so successful that Chris Eldredge notes in the Daily Bruin article, Philanthropic causes capitalize on Facebook’s resources, users’ contributions, (http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2007/sep/23/philanthropic_causes_facebooks_resources/) that “Marathons for breast cancer research are successful largely because they often encourage donations from friends of the participant who might not have otherwise contributed, and now this same connection between friends is being used to encourage donations over the Internet… Almost $400,000 has been donated and 3.5 million people are using the Facebook’s Causes site.” Similarly, another article in Newsweek magazine, Facebook-ing Philanthropy (http://www.newsweek.com/id/62168/output/print), also says that the online social networking tool is creating a “revolution in charitable giving” through its Causes application. A large number of the 27,000 Causes pages are dedicated to causes for women.
When talking about Facebook and women, it is perhaps appropriate to also mention here the controversy between some feminist groups and Facebook over the latter’s refusal to allow pictures of mothers breast-feeding their babies. Time magazine reported that “as a form of protest, 11,000 protesters held a virtual nurse-in by uploading breast-feeding photos onto their Facebook profiles, and 20 or so women showed up at the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. to breast-feed there” (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1869128,00.html). Regardless of the fact that some women might actually disagree with the feminist stand on open breast feeding, the encouraging point to note here is that women today are trying to assert their views and are not allowing their perceived sexual vulnerabilities to hinder their confidence in the real as well as the virtual world.
Women all over the world seem to have realized the power of networking to connect and express themselves. Two other online networking tools that are becoming increasingly popular with women are Twitter and blogging. To get an idea of how useful online tools are becoming for the women’s cause, here are some more links again. Supporters of the National Organization for Women and The WomensMuseum can track the listed twitter updates of their organizations on the links: http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/17789578.rss and http://twitter.com/TheWomensMuseum respectively. The list of posts by an international women's rights organization, Equality Now, can be viewed on http://twitter.com/equalitynow. The CauseWired Communications website on http://causewired.com/2009/03/03/twitter-for-womens-rights/ highlights the concept of “Tweet-a-thon” to raise money. Under the title, Twitter for Women’s Rights, it explains that the “short-messaging mini-blogging tool is quickly emerging as a potent fundraising and attention-gathering tool whether it is for a particular cause or for marking the International Women’s Day.” Another informational women’s blog website can be accessed on the link: http://www.blogher.com/twitter-charitable-giving-spreader-meta-analysis. The most exciting thing for the modern day woman is that women all over the world are using online tools like Facebook and Twitter to raise money and awareness and are writing about their achievements on their blogs which in turn results in more distribution of information and awareness and empowerment for women.
Challenges for women in using the Internet:
Although the increased online presence of resources for women has made it easier for them to use the Internet, there are still many challenges to overcome. I feel that there are still leaps and bounds to be covered to help women achieve complete equality and social justice. For example, the digital divide between women living in rich and poor countries makes it difficult for women in under-developed nations to afford and maintain a computer and Internet connection. Furthermore, the disparity in their literacy capabilities and social and family pressures to restrict computer use can make the Internet appear like an inaccessible luxury for many. Jennifer Brayton, in her article, Women's Love/Hate Relationship with the Internet (http://www.unb.ca/PAR-L/win/essay.htm), says that real life biases and social realities can influence the internet, making it an environment where women can feel insecure and intimidated because of male dominated content on most websites. Brayton adds that women can face inhibition in using the Internet also because of other women who might “hold contrary agendas and motivations for using the Internet” as not all women share the same beliefs and experience the Internet in the same way. The author concludes that women end up experiencing a love-hate relationship with the Internet.
Reflection on course readings:
I am reminded of the article in our course readings, Real-Time Politics: The Internet and the Political Process, in which Philip E. Agre expresses the opinion that the Internet itself does not automatically ensure freedom of access to information but that it is the society or culture in which it operates that influences the nature of information available on the Internet. If this is the case then it is important that women and those who care for them work towards an enlightened society that ensures the availability of more offline support programmes to supplement the power of the Internet in achieving the goals of the women’s movement. I found another article, Social Movement Learning: Theorizing a Canadian Tradition (http://web.uvic.ca/ocbr/assets/pdfs/learning_and_social_movements.pdf ), by Budd Hall who states that through the women’s movement, our mothers, partners, daughters and friends have created a learning environment for the society to learn about gender and power relations. Keeping this in mind, it is then important that society uses this learning to create an environment that Philip Agre describes as being one in which there is freedom of information and empowerment for all --equally for both men and women.
This short and simple video briefly relates the history of the feminist movement.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwTblxz4t5I)
-Nilofar
