Women'S Love/Hate Relationship With The Internet

Content:

Introduction

Pleasures from the Internet

Barriers to Women's Participating

Concluding Thoughts

Extroduction: Getting Women to Participate On-Line

"Spinster: A Woman whose occupation is to spin, to participate in the whirling movement of creation....one who is self-identified; a whirling dervish, Spiraling in New Time/Space" (Daly,1987, p. 167)

Introduction

My interest in readings on women and the Internet arose out of my own experiences as a women on-line. As a graduate student, I love using the Internet for research. I can access material that is up-to-date and informative and often not available at the university library. As a sociologist studying technology as an aspect of masculine gender identity, I am also too aware of the cultural barriers that surround and can limit women's relationship with technologies. This love/hate relationship with the Internet does not seem to be unique to my own lived reality with technology. Across my readings, various authors suggest that women live in a contradictory place in terms of the Internet. On the one hand, the Internet can be seen as a tool for empowering women, a space where women can contribute to the construction of cultural knowledge. On the other, the Internet is seen as simply another medium that is contained and constrained by a contemporary society informed by capitalism and patriarchy. As a result, women seem to locate the Internet as a problematic site for themselves.

Men may dominate the Internet in terms of numbers at present, but it is a space that can be used by women for connecting, networking and sharing information with other women. It is these lived and contradictory experiences with the Internet that interest me. Women taking an active role in Internet culture are true spinsters. They not only have a presence and a voice, they are spinning new ideas and thoughts through their web pages, making connections with other women and organizations.

Several questions guided my thoughts as I surrounded myself with these readings. How do women make sense of the Net? How do they negotiate this space? What are their hopes and dreams for the Internet and what are their fears? What is the Internet being used for by women? While I can not hope to address each of these questions in depth, I do hope to provide some critical thoughts based on the results of my readings. I have come to realize that there are common themes that are brought up by authors addressing Internet technology in terms of gender. I tried to focus specifically on women's unique relationships to the Internet instead of looking at the theoretical relationship between gender and technology. How the Internet is being used by women in real life remains a key question. I hope to provide some thoughts on this question in this essay, and use the Internet myself as a medium for sharing knowledge and resources with other interested women.

"What, then, should be a feminist's relation to computer technology?" (Perry and Greber, 1990, p. 87)

Pleasures from the Internet

As women, we want to create our own spaces in cyberspace, spaces that capture and reflect our voices, realities, concerns and beliefs. The Internet has the possibility to provide a space for the diversity of opinions and realities that constitute our complex social world. Women's voices mustnot be constructed as marginal or subversive to mainstream ideology, but validated as legitimate forms of authority and knowledge about the world. The Internet appeals to many women for many different reasons. There are common elements as to why women are attracted to the Internet as anew medium and cultural artifact. Communication, access and safety are all reoccurring themes that serve to explain why women are attracted to and take pleasure from using the Internet.

Women are interested in the Internet as a result of the possibilities it offers for communication. This can include having connections to other women and women's groups, where one's sense of community not tied to geography but common shared interests. Having the ability to communicate with a wide range of women is also about the ability to mobilize women. By sharing information across the Internet, access to new methods of communication between women can facilitate social changes. Using e-mail to circulate petitions or placing an international Web graphic on one's Web page to show solidarity and increase awareness are two such possibilities. Communication with other women also removes our sense of isolation and alienation on-line. Women have the opportunity to communicate with others sharing similar experiences and situations. In all these situations, what underlies the appeal to communication is that recognition that we can share experiences, create community and disseminate information to other women and groups. The Internet could become a forum for democracy, where everyone's voices, including women's, are expressed and heard.

"Everyone's on equal footing, no matter what kind of shoe you wear." (Sinclair, 1996, p. 8)

In a similar manner, women are also drawn to the Internet due to the nature of accessibility. With the Internet, women have access to new resources and information not locally available. We may also have access to on-line support groups for women not readily or easily available within our own community. Women also have access to material and data on-line that is recent and up to date, as well as material that may be censored for political or moral reasons. Gaining access to information is closely connected with communication as an factor that makes the Internet appealing to women. Having access to new and current resources permits the spread of information that can be used for activism and social change. In addition, the Internet is appealing to women because it permits and facilitates access to more diverse perspectives and beliefs than is presently available in other media.

As ironic and contradictory as it may appear, another feature to the Internet that is pleasurable and appealing to women is the degree of safety it can provide women. Women intimidated by public speaking may feel more comfortable speaking on-line. Some women feel safer participating using mediated communication due to the perception of anonymity and distance. Writing out thoughts and arguments and posting them to a mailing group or Usenet discussion may be less threatening than speaking out to a public audience. This belief in anonymity and distance may also further explain why women feel safe using the Internet to explore their sexual identities without having to initially confront real world bi/lesbian phobias. Places like IRCs or MUDs give women the opportunity to create their own identities, to play with their own new constructed identities. There is pleasure to be experienced in having control over one's identity. Control can be linked to the safety women feel in creating women's only Internet locales. Women can also discuss controversial or uncomfortable real world issues in a safe place that is under their control, where time can be spent fruitfully discussing the issues themselves, from the different standpoints of women. Ultimately, women may be attracted to the Internet because it makes claims to make absent visible cues pertaining to social and power status, such as age, race and sex.

Barriers to women's participation

While women are joining the Internet community and making their presence felt on-line, the degree of participation by women is still lower compared to rates of male participation. Statistics are problematic to determine, given factors such as families sharing one account, anonymous mailing services that remove personal information such as sex, and women assuming male on-line identities in order to avoid harassment. Various authors make claims that women's on-line presence can run anywhere from 6% (Pitkow and Recker, cited in Spender, 1995, p. xvi) to approximately 30% (Gilbert and Kile, 1996, p. 3). As these authors agree, what these figures indicate is that women are not as quick to become involved with the Internet, but this is changing over time as the Internet becomes more enmeshed in our culture. Certain barriers exist that have impacted on women's desire to participate in the Internet. As this section indicates, the reasons behind women's unease and refusal to participate are complex and often interwoven with cultural barriers.

As a basic level, women's ability to be actively involved with the Internet is troubled by the financial costs connected to the Internet. Purchasing equipment and software, paying monthly Internet server costs, and training costs for classes and upgrading all require an investment financially from the user. Even women who have access to the Internet through work or school still pay for their access through hidden costs. Since women still make, on average, less wages and income than men, theirbudget may prioritize other items over technical purchasing. Financial costs are also reflected in the time and energy commitment that is needed to learn how to use the Internet. When women take time to educate themselves about the Internet, it is time and energy that could be used elsewhere in their lives. Women may be able to have access to Freenets or community access centers, decreasing the financial barrier. But public free sites can have long waiting lines, which women may not be able to utilize given time restraints in their lives.

The second primary barrier to women's on-line participation is organized around access issues. Women may not have access to the Internet due to financial constraints, but women who do have an Internet connection may not have access to all aspects of the Internet. Depending on the server, theconnection provided may only have some features, like e-mail but no access to Usenet groups. Other servers may provide all services but censor the material available on the Web or only permit certain Usenet groups to exist. In these instances, women may have Internet access, but may havelittle or no control over what knowledge, information and resources are permitted. For women to have access to the Internet, we have to insist upon having access to services and resources that are of our own choosing. As an additional note, having access to all aspects of the Internet does not mean women will want to participate on-line. Women need to also have access to material that is relevant and pertinent to their own lives experiences. Having access to all the "babe" or sexist pages will not increase women's desire to be a part of Internet culture. The lack of relevant content to women's lives and realities reinforces to women that the Internet is not reflective of their concerns, issues and interests: they are outsiders to the "boy's club".

"But in general, computer culture is created, defined and controlled by men. Women often feel about as welcome as a system crash." (Kantrowitz, 1994, p. 50)

Finally, the cultural forces that exist and inform our society and our social relations have a significant role to play in preventing women from wanting to be a part of the Internet community. As women and men, we are raised in a social climate that has gendered technology as part of masculine identity. To be male is to technological, to be female is to be non-technological, regardless of the reality that women and men experience. This is reflected in our choice metaphors surrounding computer technologies and the Internet. The construction of the computer as a metaphor for the lack of emotions or an escape from reality alienates women. This is further reflected in the stereotypes we hold about computer users, that they are hackers, technogeeks, male adolescents, who are enacting out fantasies through computers. In contemporary society, there is the perception that the Internet reflects male perspective and beliefs (e.g. flaming as masculine form of communication, men determining valid topics for on-line discussion). As Dale Spender argues, men do dominate conversations on-line and actively determine what is worthwhile on the Internet, just as they dominate knowledge and the construction of knowledge in the real world.

"... we have a medium in which only half of human experience and interest, half of all human values, are being drawn upon and given expression." (Spender, 1996, p. 21)

Real world biases and power relations do not simply disappear inside the Internet, for all the claims and excitement being made about on-line democracy. These social relations still exist and organize the relations on the Internet. Men still shape and determine the culture of the Internet in their own interests. Using harassment and hostility while on-line, flaming others who hold different perspectives, using valuable Internet space to share fat women jokes or post pornographic images creates a climate that in unfriendly and intimidating to women. Regardless of how much harassment, flaming, stalking and pornography actually exists on-line, other mass media contribute to the social construction and definition of the Internet as an unsafe space by focusing exclusively on these as worthwhile issues for discussing the Internet. Women have come to fear of Internet as a siteof harassment, rape and pornography through media hype, without ever having experienced the Internet for themselves.

Concluding Thoughts

"Though both are bound in the Spiral dance, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess."(Haraway, 1991, p. 181).

While this essay has served to articulate and clarify the problematic relationship women have with the Internet, it is important to remember some other relevant elements. First, the Internet is NOT democratic. Every person is not on-line and everyone does not has access to the technology. There is a social and cultural world outside the Internet that plays a role in determining of who has access as well as authority in cyberspace. Women themselves as a group are diverse and have different opportunities for accessing the Internet. Women also hold contrary agendas and motivations forusing the Internet. Not all women share the same beliefs and experience the Internet in distinct ways. Second, for all the media hyper and special features, the actual physical risks to being on the Internet are quite low. Stalking and rape occurring in real life as a result of a woman's presence on the Internet are still rare. While the psychological risks resulting from on-line harassment and flaming could be high, there are strategies and methods for dealing with these issues. Women do not have to be victims in cyberspace (Sinclair, 1996, p. 15). Finally, as current and possible future users of the Internet, we need to begin asking what is being given up by making choices in favour of the Internet. Whenever we choose to use the Internet, we are committing time and money that could be more beneficial somewhere else. As was noted at the 1997 Janus Conference on Women and Technology, using the Internet is a choice that has real life consequences. The cost and effort we give to negotiating the Internet means cuts and diversions from other resources.

Women are interested, excited and keen to jump on the Internet bandwagon so that they will not be left behind. However, they are not thrilled about the construction of the current bandwagon available. Women do not appear to be ambivalent about the Internet, they seem to exist in a contradictory state of loving and/or hating this new technological construction. There is therecognition that women need to become powerful forces and voices on-line, to actively become part of the construction of culture, language and decisions for the Internet before it's form and shape are set in stone. But conflict arises with the understanding that much of the attention and excitement surrounding the Internet as a dominant social force is manufactured in the interests of capitalism. The Internet needs to be sold to the public in order for it to be profitable. Bringing women on board as consumers simply brings in a previously avoided market. Do women want to participate in this hyped-up, capitalist venture? The overall response is a resounding "NO". As the readings indicate, what women want from the Internet is an Internet that is democratic, that validates the voices of the disenfranchised, where communication and information are freely circulated and the exchange of ideas is valued as a cultural activity. Women ARE technological and take pleasure in the uses and possibilities for the Internet. The barriers that may discourage or turn women off the Internet are culturally created and are thus open to resistance, subversion and reformation.

"The Net is for women to do what they want with it." (Sinclair, 1996, p. 6)

Extroduction: Getting women to participate on the Internet

Here are four potential ways to change the levels of women's participation on-line and increase their presence once on-line:

Have female mentors available to aid other women with technical knowledge. Mentors can also encourage other women to take an active role once they are using the Internet.

Change our cultural metaphors to include positive images and metaphors for women.

Have available positive role models of women on-line who already have an active role in the production and creation of the Internet. This includes recognizing the history of women's participation in constructing technology.

Show other women that the Internet is useful and necessary to our real lives. Be active on-line, refuse to play the boy's games and begin creating spaces that reflect women's diversity and perspectives.

"Women can not be excluded from cyberspace!" (Sutton, in Cherny and Weise, 1996, p. 184)

REFERENCE: Brayton, J. (1999). Zenski volim/mrzim odnos prema Internetu. In I. Markovic (Ed.) Cyberfeminizam [ver 1.0]. Zagreb: Centar za zenske studije. 193-202.

TRANSLATION: Brayton, J. (1999). Women's Love/Hate Relationship with the Internet. In I. Markovic (Ed.) Cyberfeminism [ver 1.0]. Zagreb: Centre for Cultural Studies. 193-202.

This essay was originally written in 1996-1997 as part of my Ph.D. Reading Course with Dr. Wendy Robbins. It has subsequently appeared in print.