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Gender and ICTs

IT for Change recognises that as information society transformations take place across social systems, structures and institutions, they impact gender relations in a variety of ways, creating both challenges to, and opportunities for, greater gender equality. Building upon feminist theories of gender and development, we therefore seek to integrate gender analyses, as well as develop frameworks that further gender equality in information society policies, in all thematic areas of our research and advocacy work, at local, national as well as international level.

Cultural rights, Information Society and globalisation in the agenda of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Anita Gurumurthy, IT for Change Executive Director, presented the topic "Cultural rights and globalisation of exchanges and of information" at the Seminar Implementing Cultural Rights - Nature, issues at stake and challenges, held in Geneva, on 1-2 Feb, 2010. The seminar was organised by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in partnership with the International Organisation of La Francophonie and UNESCO, in collaboration with the Observatory of diversity and cultural rights. The topic was presented as part of the panel on Relationship between cultural rights and cultural diversity.

The presentation discusses the intersections between the Information Society and Cultural Rights in the context of corporate globalization; explores the challenges and possibilities of using digital spaces to disseminate alternative cultures and emancipate hitherto marginalised groups, in particular women; and questions the role of Internet to build a democratic discourse for constructing alternative, emancipatory social structures. Considering the digital media not only as transmitters of cultures, but a new space embodying new cultures and allowing counter-cultures, the paper brings recommendations and points for further action in the areas of: 1. Internet Governance and Cultural Rights; 2. Public Support for Culturally Diverse and Local 'Content' Production; 3. Educational Content and Information and Communication Technologies in Schools; and 4. Engagement with 'Digital Natives'.

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“The Internet and Citizenship: Applying a Gender Lens”

IT for Change, APC Women's program and Sulá Batsú co-hosted a workshop on “The Internet and Citizenship: Applying a Gender Lens” at the IGF 2009 Meeting in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt to analyse the interface between citizenship and the Internet through a gender perspective. The theme brought together inquiries in three dimensions: 1. within the Internet itself, considering the impact of the present paradigm and emerging trends on inclusion of women; 2. at a global citizenship scenario, understanding the trans-local nature of the Internet; and 3. within national contexts, examining how the Internet re-situates the citizen and redefines citizenship vis-a-vis the state and the market. Anita Gurumurthy from IT for Change moderated this discussion. Heike Jensen (from Humboldt University in Berlin/OpenNet Initiative Asia), Margarita Salas (from Sulá Batsú Cooperative in Costa Rica), and Olga Cavalli (from the Government of Argentina) were the panelists. The participants spoke on women's citizenship based on a more broadly defined notion of 'censorship', the ways in which the feminist movement strategically used digital technologies to resist from the Free Trade Agreement with Central America and Dominican Republic (CAFTA), and also the existing barriers that impede women from using technology and developing a career related to it.

Court of Women on Dowry and Related forms of Violence

The ‘India Court of Women on Dowry and Related forms of Violence against Women’ was held in July 2009 at Christ University, Bangalore. This three day event, called ‘the daughters of fire’, was organised by Vimochana and the Asian women’s Human rights Council. "Reflections about Media, Violence, Identity and Representation Through an 'information society' Lens" is a presentation made by IT for change at a round table co-organised with CFAR, New Delhi. The presentation focused on the theoretical framework examining media-related constructs and critiques of the 'new' public sphere through the lens of information society and gender. It illustrates the complete transformation of the media in the digital era and the possibilities for strategic repositioning of feminist intervention in this new space. Additionally, it examines the challenges of these transformation especially in the reconstruction of masculinities, power, and violence, and their implications thereof in the on-line and off-line identities and representation of women.

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Violence Against Women Via Cyberspace

This article titled 'Violence against Women via Cyberspace'is a commentary on the Sakhi-Jagori Consultation, 'New Technologies and New Forms of Violence against Women and Girls', which took place in Trivandrum, Kerala, on 27th and 28th March 2009. Building on the issues raised at the consultation and with a view to broaden the parameters defining the gender and ICTs debate, the note provides an overview of the emerging information society context and its redefinition of the public sphere; the policy context that has emerged in relation to the social-structural nature of ICTs; and considerations that are important for a feminist response to the policy context.

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Recasting the Beijing Platform for Action through the Information Society Lens (for UNESCAP)

IT for Change, on invitation, prepared a document for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) on the progress made on the Beijing Platform for Action, concentrating especially in Section J about Women and Media that required considerable reframing in the light of the epochal techno-social developments characterising this historical juncture. This document aims to use the powerful lens of the 'information society' to defiine the emerging priorities for analysis and action towards gender justice.It offers a conceptual framework that takes from Section J the critical concerns articulated around issues of Media and Access to Technology, but it also goes a step further to flag two more issues for women's empowerment (not grasped by Section J) that the information society casts its long shadow on – Violence Against Women, that the BPfA addressed as a central concern and Access to Knowledge, which at the time of Beijing, was not anticipated to transform so profoundly the very basis of power in society. In including these two additional dimensions, the document explores the new context of self-expression and social relationships vis-a-vis digital reality and the centrality of knowledge ownership and sharing paradigms to the new social and economic order.