Final Thoughts

I appreciated taking Women and Computers because it gave me tools to explore the diversity of the Internet.

Before this class, all I did online besides research for school was check my email and Facebook, and use Google maps.

Thanks to this class, I now have a blog, learned about several of the various women contributors to the Internet, learned how to create online cartoons, and appreciate how important Internet access can be for women on a global level. I hope to continue to utilize all the great tools of the Internet as I continue with my education.

Women's Contributions

I was interested to learn about Caterina Fake, one of the co-founders of the Flickr photosharing website. Two people chose her to talk about so that shows she has been very influential.

Amy did a presentation on her as did Becky.

I was interested to learn that not only is she highly educated, but her interest in the Internet began with an interest in gaming. I guess I usually stereotype online gamers as men, so it's a nice surprise to learn that women also enjoy gaming online. It was good to learn that Fake is also working on her new project, called Hunch. It proves that knowledge around the Internet is constantly updating and evolving.

Increased use of Facebook can lead to a higher risk of eating disorders

This is a link to my Zoho presentation on the recent study that shows that an young girls who use Facebook frequently are more likely to develop eating disorders.

This is a troubling because more women than men use social networking sites such as Facebook.

Media has always been cited as a reason for the development of eating disorders in teenage girls, and now social networking is being added to this list of triggers.

Feminist Fashion - is this possible?

I like to shop. I like to dress up. I'm also a feminist. I always thought the two couldn't go together, in part because of the fashion industry's exploitation and objectification of women.
I'm interested in the idea that people, especially women, can use clothing to express themselves.
Maybe clothing, and other forms of visible self-expression, can actually be empowering.

I'm interested in learning more about the cultural significance of clothing in different countries as well as our own, and also the issue of how clothing is produced in today's world. I'm also interested in how women can use their representation of self to reclaim and celebrate their bodies, in a world that pressures them to believe they are imperfect.

A cool website I found is called Feminist Fashion Bloggers. It gives links to other blogs where the authors talk about issues such as body policing, what it means to dress "feminist," and how they have learned to love their bodies.

International Feminist Sites

When looking for more information on feminist issues, it's important to remember that we live in an increasingly globalized world. Much of the published, academic information out there on feminism is written from a Western viewpoint. To get a better picture of what feminism looks like worldwide, we have to look for global information.

The first feminist international site I visited was called The F-Word. It is a site about feminism based in the UK. All the articles on their home page featured content I would find interesting. They didn't have many pictures or other gadgets, just mostly articles. The issues in the articles were very diverse. The first thing I read was a blog entry about a woman who didn't want to have children. She wrote about she was tired of always being asked if she wanted children, and in order to escape judgement she felt like she had to give the reason that she just didn't like kids. It got a large number of comments. It was easy to read, and publicized the author going on a talk show to debate the issue. Another article I read was about the development of "pink Viagra" and how a woman did a documentary covering it's release. It was interesting because it got into the issue of female sexuality and how scientists get confused when trying to measure it because we are not inverted men.

The second site I visited was a South African site called Women's Net. It was a professional looking site that encourages equality for women and girls and an end to violence. The site had links to blogs, events, and other affiliated networks. The site has bright colors and pictures. One article I looked at was about how South Africa is ahead of most of the world in the percentage of women holding senior positions in business. The article talked about how women need to use this power to help shape the future. It also discussed how few women globally do hold senior positions.

Technology can be powerful and it's great that feminists globally are accessing this resource. Women globally do share many of the same issues, as well as many differences, and sharing experiences can promote unity and maybe ultimately lead to women all over the world feeling empowered.

It Starts with the Kids

The digital divide along lines of gender is a tricky issue. So much goes into the digital divide in the first place, like race, age, and class. The issue of the gender digital divide can fit under all those categories. Women are definitely less likely to be tech savvy if they've never seen a computer, and if they are poor, elderly, or in a developing country that could definitely be the case.

In the article called "The Digital Divide - The Special Case of Gender" the author explains how like most oppressive gender roles, people begin to learn them at a very young age. Girls are given dolls to nurture and hug, and boys are given army men and dirt bikes. Most parents or family don't see this as doing anything wrong - they assume those are the toys kids of those genders like to play with. They are correct usually, because that is what they have been taught to like.

In the case of the digital divide, the article states that boys are usually given computer games to play and encouraged along that route until they feel comfortable with computers. Girls are not. I think this is a valid point because if boys are encouraged from a young age to use computers, and the classes on computer technology in schools are usually male-dominated, girls will most likely be discouraged from trying to enhance their computer skills.

I think this is changing. An earlier post describes how young children in Sweden are using computers more frequently and how girls participate in games and communication online. If girls continue to be encouraged into becoming comfortable around and interested in computers from a young age, and this leads to more women in technology classes and careers, the gender digital divide will become less of a problem.

Barriers for Women and Internet Use

In this article and study called "Gendering the Digital Divide," it goes very in-depth in explaining why there is a gender digital divide at all. It reinforces my research on reasons why the gender digital divide exists, and also brings in the new information about how men and women use the Internet differently.

The fact that men and women use the Internet for different things has been pretty much accepted. This article suggests that the reason women may use the Internet more for communication is because it is seen as their role to be the organizer or event planner of the family. The article also goes on to discuss how even though gender roles aren't quite as defined as they used to be, women still do more care-giving than men, which severely restricts their time online. So, maybe the women don't have all the time they would like to pursue hobbies or read the news online. It could be that when they do get a chance to use the Internet, they would rather communicate with family and friends.

On the other hand, men are still sometimes considered as the ones who need to "bring home the bacon" and while working outside the home, they most likely have computer access, where they can share videos or play games or read up on current events.

Since gender roles are becoming more blurred and men are taking on more at home responsibility while women continue to excel in careers, this gender digital divide might not last very long. Women will gain more time to access the Internet and possibly participate in more varied activities. However, the issue still remains that if children are socialized to believe that computers and technology are only for boys, the gender digital divide will continue to flourish.

Women afraid of IT problems?

For a recent class assignment, we did research on the digital divide. Like many of my classmates I looked up the digital divide as it relates to gender. I found this article that shares the information that men are three times more likely to try and solve IT or computer issues on their own than women. I noticed a classmate also found this article, and I think it's an interesting piece of information.

Are women suffering low self-esteem when it comes to computer issues, like the gender digital divide suggests? Or do they merely want to fix the problem right away instead of messing around for hours and risk making the problem worse?

Women and Internet in Lebanon

  Nadine Moawad is a feminist based in Lebanon. She is researching the intersection of sexuality issues with Internet censorship in her country and area of the world. I watched an interview where she explained the issues facing women and the Internet, and how censorship works in Lebanon.

  Lebanon is different than the countries around it because it is not government censored. It is institutionally censored, which means that colleges and religious and political organizations can censor what is on the Internet by blocking key words or entire URLs. Moawad talked about the large number of fundamentalist groups who use the Internet to promote their viewpoints. She mentioned how these are often sexist and promote violence against women. Another issue facing women is how they access the Internet. If women are not wealthy enough to pay the $200 a month rate for very slow Internet, they have to access it in a public place. Moawad shared that the Internet cafes are often very male dominated and unfriendly and dangerous to women. This brings the issue of class into the picture because poor women will have to brave these conditions to access the Internet.

  Since Lebanon allows more content on its Internet, the sexual rights movement is able to progress. By limiting women's access to the Internet however, this prevents women from learning about their rights and joining the movement. Moawad mentioned how the Internet may soon be taxed in Lebanon to pay for the country's debt, which could mean a better Internet infrastructure. Hopefully, the access of the Internet to women will continue to grow, which means more education and opportunities for them. 

Children and Internet Use

  In the article "Class and Gender Impact Internet Use" from the site The Local, researchers looked at young people in Sweden and saw how their economic status and gender affected how they use the Internet.

  The research showed that children are beginning to use the Internet at progressively younger ages. This is obviously affected by their economic status in ability to access the Internet. The education of parents plays a role in this. Children who come from a family with more educated parents come to school with Internet experience, while children coming from a family with less educated parents are not as well prepared. This shows that schools need to take into account the difference in Internet skills that children have when coming into schools, so not to put some at a disadvantage.

  Like the difference in use of Facebook, there are gender differences in how youth use the Internet. Age also has an effect. Girls start Internet use at an earlier age than boys and their use is quite varied. They blog, instant message, and share videos and photos online. Boys are more likely to play games and continue to use the Internet to that purpose into their 20s, later than girls.

  Unfortunately, the article explains that even though girls are getting more out of their Internet use, and at an earlier age, boys consider themselves more tech-savvy than girls. This could be because computers and technology is still typically a male dominated field. Girls need to realize that using the Internet to cater to their interests is giving them an advantage, a further and more varied knowledge of the resource.

  It isn't surprising that the age children begin to use the Internet is getting more and more younger. Playing games and watching movies is easy online and it is important that children get comfortable around computers and the Internet to help with success in school. Schools should realize and take into account the different Internet experiences that children have when they come to school. Young girls also need to start giving themselves credit for the amount of Internet experience they attain. The Internet is a resource that can be used in a number of ways.

Gender Differences in the Use of Facebook

 In the article "Got Facebook? Investigating What's Social About Social Media," by Dr. S. Craig Watkins and Dr. H. Erin Lee, they looked at the different people using Facebook, and how different identity factors affect their use of the site. In their study, they looked mainly at the difference between how college students and college graduates use the social networking site. Besides those two factors, the researchers also looked at how age, race, and gender affected people's use of Facebook. For this entry, I'm going to focus on how gender affects people's use of Facebook.

  In the beginning of the article, the researchers shared the demographic chart stating the statistic of college educated Facebook users, 38.9% of users were male and 61.1% of users were female. I thought this was interesting. The use of this site in both genders is close to being split down the middle, and later in the article it explains reasons why more women may be drawn to a social networking and communicating site.

  The two main themes in the difference in use of Facebook between the genders is stated early in the article, and later there is evidence given to back it up. First, the researchers found that women are more likely to use the site to share content and communicate with friends and family. They are more likely to post photos, and those photos posted are more likely to be about family related events. If they post videos, they contain content that is more friendship oriented. Women are more likely than men to have certain beliefs in who it is important to communicate with on Facebook. Women think it is very important to communicate with family and also with friends who may live in a different state or country. This clearly explains why more women than men use Facebook - they see it as a tool to communicate and share with friends and family.

  Men, on the other hand, are more likely than women to communicate information about pop culture, news, or current events. They are also found to be more likely than women to list their political and religious views on their profiles. They also have more links to current events or news related content. While women were more likely to post photos, men are more likely to post videos. These videos are often work related in comparison to being friendship related. When men do post photos, they are more often to do with a person's hobbies or personal interests. The researchers also looked at use of and activity in certain groups on Facebook. Men were more likely than women to participate in civic or political activities online, and if they belonged to a group were more likely than women to post links or notes on that group's wall or participate in discussion boards.

  These differences can tell us a few things. Women seem to value personal communication on Facebook more than men. Men seem to value the easy sharing of interests and current events. This site is so widely used, it is interesting to see how people utilize it in their lives, and what factors of their identity affect their use.