World Wide and the Web

by Fatima Rodrigues

The social stereotype that women do not use or work with the web as much as men is wrong.  Although many people believe that women are mostly associated with the internet in pornography, there is actually quite a movement of women engaging in cyber-dialogue, creating strategic information links, lobbying and advocating for change, and building solidarity in communities of people who share the same views and goals online.

Women have headed many civil rights and social debates online and, through this spread of information, managed to spark change.  One example of this is in Rajasthan, India.  This poor area has struggled with women's sexual exploitation.  The area has had problems with rape, dowry deaths and torture.  In 1998, the women's group Bal Rashmi drew attention to these problems by contacting international human rights and women's networks around the world.  Immediately following, the National Human Rights Commission, the Rajasthan State and National Governments were all flooded with letters and faxes on the issue.  Within months five bogus criminal cases filed against the group, were stopped.  Many other instances exist such as this, where awareness, support and aid has been courted through the use of the internet.

However there are many problems that arise from this movement.  One concern is the sheer amount of information that is bombarded at people.  It is very easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of information available out there and it often becomes a problem to sort through it or devote attention to everything fairly.  Another issue is that, while the number of women using the internet has grown in numbers, there is still the concern that they are not the ones really designing and controlling the internet at its core, that they are only "scratching the surface" of the internet.  Also there is the issue of internet access.  Recently there has been a lot of debate on the subject of a "digital divide" that has arisen between social classes and groups and even between countries.  In the future, women will have to work on penetrating the surface of the internet and becoming more involved with the "masterminds" that create it all.  They will also have to overcome the obstacle of the digital divide.