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What About Gender Issues in the Information Society? cation were weakening all initiatives. The need to link women’s organizations nationwide became a priority, and she decided to launch the creation of an electronic communication network. With a minimal infrastructure and some previous training on the use of electronic mail, a group of women started Modemmujer, an information and communication network that aimed to strengthen women’s participation in this process. During the first years of work, in combination with wellestablished technologies (radio, fax, print media) and repackaging information available online, Modemmujer was able to bridge the distance between women’s organizations and decision-making processes (Sabanes Plou 2000). The need to strengthen their political participation encouraged Indonesian women’s activity in the field of ICTs. In 1998, when women’s organizations that had been demanding the end of the Suharto regime came together to work for democracy in their country, they saw that in order to influence the new political process and have a voice in decisions on the country’s future, they had to build their own communication strategy. They wanted to share their ideas and proposals with as many other women activists as possible. With women’s organizations spread across the many islands of the extensive archipelago, it was crucial to identify a means of distributing and exchanging information speedily at the lowest cost. A Web-based free mailing list service became a feasible option. The Rumpun email Perempuan (Women’s Mailing List) was launched in July 1998 with a handful of subscribers, which had multiplied by 10 in two years. The mailing list covered action alerts, announcements, news clips, statements, press releases and discussion topics strictly on women’s issues and activism. By putting into practice their right to communicate, Indonesian women were able to build together strong positions on issues of national interest (Buntarian 2000). How can women better the development of their communities or play an informed role in public life, without access to pluralistic information, the means of public expression and sharing knowledge? How can women work toward a new geopolitical order governed by norms of peace and mutual respect without channels of communication for dialogue and exchange of information? When ICT policy is linked to women’s human rights issues, as stated in the Beijing Platform for Action, it can be seen that ICTs offer a potential for the defence and advancement of these rights. Women worldwide are using ICTs to monitor the promotion and protection of their human rights, using the Internet to denounce violations, send alerts and campaign for their rights. They are also using ICTs to facilitate communication among organizations, thus empowering the networks that work to ensure that women have equal rights. Gaining access to legal information (law and other legal instruments, new legislation and legal recourse, and 15
Communicating in the Information Society accountability procedures) via the Internet enables them to discuss human rights issues with authority and thus further their struggle against any sort of discrimination either under law or practice (IWTC 2003). In a successful use of the Internet in campaigns against violence on women, the Kenya-based African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), launched the Men to Men Initiative in 2001 to mark the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Violence on Women. The campaign targeted men to promote male involvement and action to combat gender-based violence at the regional level in Africa. In Costa Rica, Radio FIRE (Feminist Interactive Radio Endeavour), the first Webbased feminist radio station in Latin America, organized a 25-hour marathon in 2000, broadcasting a special programme on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. FIRE asked women from all over the world to contribute material for the programme and invited other radio stations worldwide to link in simultaneous broadcasting. For this effort, Radio FIRE received the Peace Builders Award during the IV World Encounter on Non-Violence (WomenAction 2000 2001). The globalization of communications produces new challenges and impacts that need to be considered in relation to gender equality. Women’s access to information sources and interchange channels are crucial for their democratic participation, the respect for their human rights and for intervening with an equal voice in the public sphere. Gender Issues in the Information Society “Old” patterns in the “new” media? The “new” ICTs already reflect many of the gender patterns (in relation to power, values, exclusion and so on) that have been evident for decades in relation to the “old” media. Indeed these patterns cannot be divorced from patterns of gender relations in society as a whole. Neither old nor new media by themselves can offer solutions to this problem. Their structures reflect much wider social, economic and political relations in which women tend to be marginalized. For instance, the new media—just like the old ones—are primarily vehicles for the transmission of ideas, images and information. An issue for women, in relation to both old and new, is who decides on access, content and control. In essence, many of the issues are the same as they have always been since they refer to questions of power and power relations in the context of gender. At present, women’s organizations feel that, although more women with university degrees are in the communication field and more grassroots women are trained in communication skills, little has been 16
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