> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 12:02:17 -0400
>> From: Sophia Huyer <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: FWD: GK97 Gender Discussion
>>
>> gk97-gender-digest       Saturday, July 12 1997       Volume 01 :
Number
>> 065
>>
>> Topics in this issue:
>>
>>  Re: REPORT: Women's Breakfast at GK
>>  SUMMARY: 06.15.97 - 07.09.97
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Date: 11 Jul 1997 16:44:47 -0500 (EST)
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: REPORT: Women's Breakfast at GK
>>
>> For reference, here's the Financial Post's coverage of the
>> Women's Breakfast and women participants at GK'97:
>>
>> GK 97 - Financial Post Supplement (06-25-97)
>>
>> Women drive economies
>> by afra jalabi
>>
>> "If you look around the world, you'll see that women are
development,"
>> said James Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank to a
thousand
>> people
>> attending a breakfast forum.
>>
>> "The arrival of information technology in terms of education for
women
>> is
>> the breakthrough we've been waiting for," he said.
>>
>> The program was organized by the Independent Commitee on Women
and
>> Global
>> Knowledge. Nidhi Tandon, one of the organizers, introduced the list of
>> panelists which included Wolfensohn, Shirley Malcolm, director of the
>> American Association for the Advancement of Science, Huguette
Labelle,
>> president of Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and
>> Kathryn White, president of Canadian Committee for UNIFEM.
>>
>> The main themes of the conference focus on information technology
and
>> development, but there has been an effort to include women and their
>> concerns in this conference. A third of the presenters at the
conference
>> are
>> women.
>>
>> Angela Zamaere, a participant from Malawi at the GK 97 has never
>> travelled
>> outside the continent of Africa nor surfed the Internet. "We have
e-mail
>> in
>> Malawi, but I am hoping to learn more about the Internet at this
>> conference,"
>> said Zamaere who is 21 years old.
>>
>> The British Council has sponsored women to come to this
conference.
>> Shehnaz
>> Abdurrahman is one of them. She is a journalist from Saudi Arabia.
"This
>> the
>> first time I go to a conference of this magnitude. I am hoping to be
>> enlightened and enriched by this experience," said Abudrrahman.
There is
>> Internet at the university in Riyadh, she said. But, "it's a process
>> that's
>> happening now, and I think there will be a gradual adaptation the way
>> everything else happened in Saudi Arabia."
>>
>> All the panelists stressed the importance of involving women at the
>> decision-making process. "The discussion is different when women
are at
>> the
>> table," said Malcolm. Women should be active actors in development
and
>> not
>> its objects, she added.
>>
>> Accessibility and friendly technology was stressed by White. "We
have an
>> opportunity to make a gentler technology," she said. "It's a gift women
>> can
>> bring to you."
>>
>> Monia Aziz from a NGO in Tunisia wanted a more grassroot
approach. " I
>> wanted
>> to hear more about how to introduce women to technology and
educate them
>> about it," she said.
>>
>> Elizabeth Robinson from Family Health International said the program
>> was too general. "They did not provide details. I would have liked to
>> see
>> case studies of women who successfuly got involved in this kind of
>> development."
>>
>> White, however, talked about one group of women in former
Yugoslavia
>> who called themselves the Electronic Witches. They explained their
>> situation
>> during the war on-line and gave tips for survival.
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Date: 11 Jul 1997 16:59:00 -0500 (EST)
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: SUMMARY: 06.15.97 - 07.09.97
>>
>> GK97-GENDER Summary
>> 06.15.97 - 07.09.97
>>
>> In the last few weeks, we've been busy in GK97-gender with final
>> preparations for the face-to-face GK97 meeting, as well as follow-up
>> reporting.
>>
>> *** GK'97 Meeting Reports ***
>>
>> So far, reports from the face-to-face meeting have covered these
topics:
>>
>> - - General Impressions
>> - - Breakfast Honouring Women in Technology, including a copy of Dr.
>> Shirley
>> Malcom's inpsiring keynote address, and some comments on James
>> Wolfensohn's
>> comments
>> - - Notes from the Media Collective
>> - - Women and Information & Communication Technology in Ukraine
>>
>> These GK'97 workshops were reported on from a gender
perspective:
>>
>> - - Learning and Using Policy Lessons
>> - - Empowering Information Tools for Grassroots Women (UNIFEM)
>> - - The Development Impact of the Internet: Why and How to Measure
It
>> (USAID,
>> National Research Council)
>> - - Promoting Grassroots Women's Entrepreneurship in Developing
>> Countries:
>> Three Tools (World Bank: EDI)
>> - - Telecommunications Deregulation and The Issue of Universal
Access
>> (ITU, CIDA)
>> - - Extending the Reach: The GK97 Virtual Conferences (EDC, APC,
UNDP,
>> CIDA,
>> World Bank)
>>
>> If you have reports or impressions to post, please do!
>>
>> *** GK97.gender Discussion Highlights ***
>>
>> One Point to Make...
>> "the economic, political, social and psychological contributors to
>> women's
>> alienation from new technologies must be understood and addressed
in
>> order
>> for women to become equal partners in the use of these tools for
global
>> knowledge."
>>
>> Networking Support
>> - - Women need local/regional networking support and training
programs
>> that
>> take into account the local opportunities and constraints women are
>> facing.
>>
>> Gender-Sensitive Training
>> - - one university faculty member observes that her women
colleagues
>> tend to
>> be more timid, avoiding using computers unless necessary
>> - - training issues are aggravated by the prevalence of a foreign
>> language
>> (English) and software inability to deal with non-English characters,
>> widening the gap between people and technology
>> - - need to emphasize the role of facilitators and educators in
>> considering
>> gender issues amongst students
>> - - need more women with jobs at universities, etc., in technology and
>> computers, and training for all instructors in gender issues
>> - - many women still resist moving their work onto computers, even
>> though
>> several of them use computers already, due to fear about not being
able
>> to
>> use them, or of breaking them -- training needs to address these
fears
>> - - in many places, there are relatively few barriers to women
entering
>> technological education programs, but still the numbers of female
>> participants are low... we need to educate girls about the benefits
and
>> uses
>> of technology from primary school age 5-12yrs, so that the girls are
>> more
>> interested in gaining the necessary skills to go further and be more
>> involved as they grow up
>> - - lobby the education system and software producers, at the same
time
>> as
>> encouraging women to be teachers and developers of female friendly
>> technology
>> - - need classes or periods of time for "girls only" access to the
>> computer
>> equipment using teachers who are familiar with the differences in
taste
>> and
>> learning styles of girls: may make girls more confident with the
>> technology
>> and better able to stand up for themselves and participate
>> - - men need to take on more home and family responsibilities so
women
>> have
>> more time to explore technological opportunities without feeling
>> completely
>> overloaded
>>
>> Women's Rights and Preserving Tradition
>> - - the question of the dramatic and possibly negative societal effect
>> of
>> liberating women by means of access to new technologies was
raised and
>> sparked an interesting discussion, with these (and more) points in
>> response:
>> - - if new communication methods are introduced in a way that works
for
>> local
>> people, they can liberate women to find and share information
>> and expand their world views in ways that are sustainable...
>> - - we should be careful in promoting tradition over progress in human
>> rights... as women in various cultures learn about the advances of
women
>> in
>> other cultures, it will be natural to want the same, and this will
>> happen,
>> with or without the internet
>>
>> Lobbying for Gender Considerations in National Policy
>> - - women should become aware of the economic connotations and
>> considerations
>> of the various vested interests and be more watchful at all levels to
>> see
>> that a really gender sensitive policy is shaped at every level -- a
>> Himalayan task but not an impossible one
>> - - how can we even think of talking about Global Knowledge, without
>> considering the social inequality of women: one of the biggest
problems
>> in
>> Haiti is educational, where 33 per cent of Haitian girls 10-14 years old
>> already work full-time and in Haitian villages, where electricity and
>> phones
>> are often rare the Internet is an impossibility -- in 3rd world
>> countries,
>> national policies are very important, in women's issues generally, and
>> in IT
>>
>> Software Design
>> - - computer engineering and human computer interface development
must
>> take
>> into consideration women's specific needs and environments
>> - - many web sites developed by women for women are highly
innovative,
>> and
>> have been deliberately created as social environments instead of
mere
>> information reservoirs... the interaction devices available are
>> specifically
>> geared to provide opportunities for social networking, support, role
>> modeling and mentoring in order to support women's movement
efforts and
>> enhance women's careers and education
>>
>> Practical Applications
>> - - an electronic conference for francophone African women, to
promote
>> indigenous production of content, for women to keep pace with
>> information
>> developments instead of being left behind
>> Here's an example of how various communication methods intersect
to a
>> useful
>> end:
>> Last year, a young Ivoirian woman, married very young (under legal
>> marriage
>> age) by her parents to an older man, refused the marriage after being
>> subject to conjugal rapes and violence, and finally cut the throat of
>> her
>> husband. She went to jail. News of the incident was circulated in
>> English by
>> IPS Harare (Inter Press Service), and ENDA translated it into french
for
>> the
>> francophone constituency. The Women Living Under Muslim Laws
Network
>> (WLUML)
>> heard the news and requested the contact information of the
women's
>> group in
>> Ivory Coast lobbying to get her out of jail. We were only able to give
>> them
>> the telephone number, as this organisation doesn't have fax nor
>> computer.
>> WLUML started an international solidarity campaign for the girl. She
was
>> pardoned by the Cote d'Ivoire president at the beginning of this year.
>> At
>> present we have to count on many communications tools, not only on
>> email, as
>> few people have access to it in our region.
>>
>> *** Resources Recently Posted ***
>>
>> o April-June GK97.gender in review: summary of emerging discussion
>> themes
>> o GK97 Gender Declaration: GENDER, PARTNERSHIPS AND ICT
DEVELOPMENT:
>> http://www.postindustrial.com/morewomen/canon.html
>> o Society for International Development (SID) Statement to GK'97
>> o Gender Analysis guidelines, developed by the Canadian
International
>> Development Agency (CIDA)
>> o Daily reports from GK'97 http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/linkages/sd/gk97/
>>
>> *   *   *   *
>>
>> Next Focus Topic... starting July 10th
>> - - Factors Affecting Gender-Relevant Content
>> - - What's Next with gk97.gender
>>
>> *   *   *   *
>>
>> Archives of the discussion are at:
>> http://www.igc.apc.org/gk97/gk97.gender
>>
>> 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: [log in to unmask] with the
>> following text: get http://community.web.net/gk97/resource.htm
>>
>> To participate in the discussion, send a message to:
>> [log in to unmask]
>> Do not enter a subject.  In the body of the message, type ONLY the
text:
>> subscribe gk97-gender
>> We also offer a digest (once-daily) version of the list:
>> subscribe gk97-gender-digest
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> End of gk97-gender-digest V1 #65
>> ********************************
>> --
>> Sophia Huyer
>> Women in Global Science and Technology Network (WIGSAT)
>> International Federation of Institutes for Advanced Study (IFIAS)
>> 39 Spadina Road, Toronto, ON  M5R 2S9    CANADA
>> [log in to unmask] = [log in to unmask]
>> www.wigsat.org/index.html
>