Message-ID: <2.2.16.19970517111410.0e6fa7ec@pop.web.net> Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 11:16:02 -0400 From: Maureen James <mailto:maureen@WEB.NET> Subject: SUMMARY: gk97-gender 04/30-05/15 To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
GK97-GENDER Summary 04.30.97 - 05.15.97Practical considerations facing women and women's organizations around the world, in our use and adoption of information and communications technologies is the focus of the gk97-gender discussion launched by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) on April 30th. It's a place for those who are not attending the Global Knowledge '97 conference in Toronto, as well as those who are, to speak, strategize and intervene on Gender and Information Technology issues at the GK97 meeting.
Initial discussions have been concerned with the first Focus Piece: Gender Considerations in IT Programme and Policy Development.
The questions open for input are:
o What are the IT policy and programme issues you think need addressing? o What are some strategies you think will yield meaningful results for women?
Suggestions so far have included:
- learning from the past application of technology - ensuring that the application conforms to the beneficiaries' concepts of development - lobbying by marginalized groups if policy-making mechanisms aren't fully representative - gender sensitization programs for policy makers - having a domestic body to promote gender and IT interests, which should be complemented by the experiences and lessons of the international community - workshops on methods to assess whether the benefits/costs of an initiative are: 1) baised against/for women, and 2) applicable to the development of women - far more emphasis on grass roots access to new technologies e.g., women's microbanking, IT applications to deal with illiteracy, solar-based IT technologies for use by rural women - using IT to improve the lives of aging women - using IT to improve gender monitoring of organisations, e.g., the current online attention being given to the extreme under- representation of women at the GK97 event - developing 'buddy systems' where women's grass root organisations are provided with access to technology by the more adequately resourced development and governmental agencies - using the GK97 process to directly addressing the gender requirements of global knowledge - asking CIDA and the World Bank to present their progress in addressing the gender constraints of women's access to technology, and identify obstacles and prospects - focusing on one-on-one training to show women how the technology can make a difference to their lives - providing accessible training to help people master Internet technologies and thus control them rather than merely using them
Participants from around the world have also been sharing their personal experiences in either using IT, or being involved in IT projects for women. We've heard about:
- a community women's networking access initiative in Tver (Russia), operating out of a university professor's home, where one e-mail account is shared among 30 women, and where women act as information bridges to those not online by making presentations of online findings; plans are to expand into library-based access with more computers, if fundraising is successful - Network of East-West Women (NEWW Online), a communication and resource network for women's organizations in the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has implemented a small but effective train the trainer program and regional networking strategy - Sirene, a project in Berlin, to get local women's organisations interested in using email and networks, offering women-only training - situation in Eastern Europe, a region in political, economic, technological, and social transition from strict information and communication control to one where women, if enabled to use them, can harness the democratizing possibilities of using IT - using the Internet as an educational tool for separated families - Moondance: Celebrating Creative Women, an ezine devoted to enhancing the lives of women - outline and requirements for a distance education/training setup - acknowledgment of the need for gender-specific requirements in publishing print and electronic information resources for attorneys - research into the impact of women's computer communication networks on the development of international feminist communities - personal experiences in IT-related environments: training courses, work ,etc
Participants have also been asking questions, including:
- where can we find effective tools to carry out gender analysis of programs, projects and policy ? - are there places in the world where these tools are respected and used effectively? - request for more women's networking success stories - information on funding availability for one-on-one women's training programmes
Next Focus Topic... Starting May 18th: Making Computer Networking a Women's Priority - How do we address the economic and social barriers women face in adopting information and communication technologies? - What are the reasons that women should want access to this technology? - What can we do to make it something women should want access to and to fight for?
Maureen James APC GK97 Facilitator
* * * * For more information, see the introductory documents, summaries and reference materials for this discussion in English, Spanish and French at: http://community.web.net/gk97/resource.htm If you are without WWW access, you can access these documents by sending a message with no subject to: mailto:getweb@ecn.apc.org with the following text: get http://community.web.net/gk97/resource.htm
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