Women and ICTs (2007)

One day, the internet may reach its potential of creating a utopia where everyone, regardless of gender, colour, class, sexuality or religious affiliation has a voice and access to multiple points of view. In the meantime, the internet and other communication technologies, such as radio and television broadcasts, mobile phones and wireless access, serve merely to create new ways of reinforcing gender inequalities and perpetrating violence against women.

Perpetrators can make innovative use of a plethora of tools to monitor and control their victims. Wireless technology, such as scanners, can be used to monitor conversations. Spyware can be installed onto computers to monitor keystrokes to gain access to passwords and personal accounts online. GPS trackers in cars, new mobile phones and PDAs can pinpoint the exact location of their victims at any given moment. In developed countries, technology is everywhere so control can extend outside your home to into your office and as close as the mobile phone in your pocket.

Even if you are not in an abusive relationship, it is certain that you will encounter at least one manifestation of gender inequality in your daily interaction with communication technologies. For example, how many marketing texts do you receive offering you the chance to 'chat with girls in your area'? How much spam do you receive every day? The chances are that much of it will be pornographic in nature, reinforcing women as objects to be dominated, sexually (with the cut price Viagra offers and penis enlargements) or otherwise.

16 Days 2007 sees the launch in the UK of the Take Back The Tech campaign. The campaign calls for everyone - especially women and girls - to take control of ICTs and consciously use them to change power relations between men and women. Women from a number of IT and women's organisations have come together to profile the work being done with technologies by organisations that work to end violence against women. There will also be a series of how-to guides to inspire you to integrate these tools in your campaigns and service provision.

For women living in isolation, their computer and their internet connection may be their only link to the outside world and therefore the only way for them to access information and support. As many domestic violence service providers have realised that perpetrators can check the websites that have been visited by checking their computer's history, domestic violence websites now carry information for victims to 'cover their tracks' featured on their home pages.

Through understanding technologies, how they work and how they can be used to abuse, we can use them to create tools to keep women and children safer but also contribute to ensuring that women's voices are heard and that these technologies are developed to address our needs and purposes.

ORGANISATIONS & WEBSITES

Association for Progressive Communications

http://www.apc.org/

BBC - Domestic violence - internet safety

http://www.bbc.co.uk/relationships/domestic_violence/safetyhh_index.shtml

GenderIT

http://www.genderit.org/

Object

http://www.object.org.uk/

Take Back The Tech

http://www.takebackthetech.org.uk/

http://www.takebackthetech.net/