And ain't i a woman: Equal opportunity in cyberspace?

Equal opportunity in cyberspace?

 In 1995, academic Dale Spender wrote a book called Nattering on
the Net: Women, Power and Cyberspace. In it she urged women to join
the cyberspace race and avoid being left behind in the multimedia revolution.

Spender speculated that if women could appropriate the internet as a
networking tool in the same way as they have embraced the telephone (hence
the word “nattering” in the title), then the transition to the computer
might seem less daunting.

Addressing the National Press Club on March 14, Spender, now an educational
consultant, spoke on women and information technology, and how far women
have come.

“In a dot.com economy, the test for success is whether you are smart
— not whether you are male or female ... On this first International Women's
Day of the 21st century, it is appropriate to celebrate women's intellectual
liberation. Australian women are making the most of the opportunity”, Spender
declared.

However, access to the on-line wonderland is still heavily skewed in
favour of men and boys. According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics
figures, children who have advanced computer skills are most likely to
develop them from home use of computers. An ABS report shows that, in Australia,
“boys start using computers earlier outside school and are more likely
to have access to computer-related technologies, games and their own computer,
and supplement their school-based computer activities with extensive experimentation
outside school. Girls are significantly less likely to have their own computer
at home.”

The report says that girls do gain basic computer skills at school,
but most of the advanced applications are attained from home use of computers.

Not surprisingly, there is a dramatic difference in computer use and
home internet access between different socio-economic groups. Households
with annual incomes of $150,000 or more are almost 11 times more likely
to be connected to the internet than those on less than $20,000.

In terms of internet access, 66% of those in the highest income bracket
were connected, compared with 5.7% of those in the lowest. Comparing figures
for August 1999 and August '98, the gap appears to be widening.

The ABS found that girls generally have lower computer skills in all
socio-economic groups. The differences between girls' and boys' performance
and skills acquisition is far more marked for girls in low-income areas,
who attend government and small schools, or who live in rural areas. Indigenous
girls, the ABS report says, are multiply disadvantaged.

With women earning, on average, less than men, heading most sole-parent
households (which are among the poorest of households), and making up the
vast bulk of those living below the official poverty line, it is also no
surprise that adult women are less likely to have access to these new technologies
than men.

Among households that have a computer, but are not connected to the
internet, more than 40% cite cost as the main barrier. Ten per cent said
they would have to upgrade their computer equipment to be able to connect
to the net.

Spender told the National Press Club that setting up on-line businesses
allowed women to avoid harassment by big institutions, permitted women
to control their work conditions and allowed an easier balance of work
and family. While this may be true for some, what percentage of working
women have the opportunity or the time to embark on such enterprises?

Like those who claim that flourishing small businesses will make our
economic system fair and open up a place for the “little people”, the idea
that there is an internet business-led path to women's liberation women
is utterly utopian. It will not challenge the basis of power and wealth
under capitalism.

Concrete issues such as child-care, reproductive rights, ending violence
against women, unpaid domestic work and occupational and pay inequity are
only some of the matters which still need to be resolved before women will
be able to fully enjoy a hi-tech future.

Internet access can be a valuable tool for information distribution
related to the fight to achieve equality, but the sort of social, political
and economic revolution that is needed to create real justice will have
to take place outside of cyberspace.

By Margaret Allum