Final Blog Entry- On Women and Computers

For my final project, I wanted to re-cap off of what we had learned and discussed in this class. We learned that there have been many struggles with women on the web, including sexism, access to computers and the web, class status, location, and acquiring the skills and knowledge that are necessary for contributing work on the web. Websites and organizations, such as Feministing and NOW are great examples of feminist supported websites, dedicated to uniting with women from all areas and invites them to become activists in their communities and their world. 
Other issues, such as seeing gender differences on social networking websites like Facebook is important because it shows us who researches or does more on a certain topic. The digital divide is another important issue that greatly affects women all around the world, and their access or limited access to acquiring computer skills. I have learned that in other parts of the world, women really struggle to use the computer or web because of the digital divide. As Nadine Moawad said, for example, in Lebanon, some women cannot use public access computers because of the censorship, slow internet speed, and men's use of viewing pornography. This not only enforces the Digital Divide, but puts women in danger as well. 
This class taught me a lot about the importance of knowing computer and web skills to expand my feminism and share my feminist beliefs. Because social networking, blogging, and other feminist web organizations are so widely used as a tool of communication and connecting these days, it is important to know how to use certain tools like hyperlinks, screen shots, heading styles, voice threads, web searching skills, and blogging skills to professionally share your ideas for activism and social change. 
 Learning about women's contribution to the web is especially important, because, as we know from the second digital divide, the world views mostly men as the ones who have the better computer and web use skills. I learned how important it is to properly web search other women who have made great contributions the web, and how their work is part of how we social network and connect today. 
I created a video on Xtranormal, that shows my results of several interviews I conducted with 15 people, 10 male and 5 female. I chose to interview more men than women to see the male perspective of women on the web, because of the sexist stereotype that women cannot contribute technological work on the web. I did not mention any famous women contributors in my interviews. I simply wanted to know their general attitudes towards women, feminism, and their relation to the web. 8 of the 10 men had a positive attitude about women being able to make equal contributions the web and to social networking, and they believed that women can acquire web and computer skills just as easily as men. However, of those 8 men, 6 of the 10 men thought that more men than women have a bigger interest in learning about computer and web skills. Of the 5 women I interviewed, 100% of them had said that they believe women can make equal contributions the web and can learn and acquire basic web and computer skills. Critique: these interviews were only of 15 people, so if I had interviewed more, my results would probably vary. I want to continue to research about people's visualization of women on the web and if they believe women can make great contributions to tools and social websites that are popular today, and teach others about feminist contributions to break the stereotype that women are technological or cannot have these kinds of skills. 

Our WS 445 Class

This class overall has been helpful in my learning about feminism and the kind of contributions and work women have made to the web. I liked learning about the Digital Divide, along with other barriers women around the world face that make it harder for them to access the web. I think having a range of computer skills is important and necessary for feminist work on the web because social networking is so widely used today to communicate and connect with other people. Blogging is a tool I personally find fun and interesting to feminist work, because it helps feminists express their feelings and knowledge about current events, contributions, and other women's issues around the world, such as issues dealing with racism, disability, sexual orientation, age, class, etc. Knowing how to use hyperlinks and screen shots, along with other tools are a necessary knowledge to have as well, because it helps enhance and capture the reader's attention when reading a post or a website. I also found it important to know about other famous female contributors to the web. This, I believe, will help break the worldwide stereotype that women do not have computer and web skills, along with the idea that women cannot make useful contributions the web. My final project will be a re-cap off of what we have learned in this course, including my thoughts on women's work on the web, and the importance of recognizing them and their work.
By having basic computer and web skills, this will help women and other feminists create insightful and professional blogs, websites, reports, and organizations that will help us move forward in the fight for gender equality.

What I learned from Women's Contributions

After seeing my classmate's presentations on the Women's Contributions assignment, I felt like I was able to learn a lot more about other women's work on the web, and the kind of contributions they made to the web. I think that often, women's work on the web is not recgonized as much as men's work and contribution on the web, so I think this assignment helped me learn the kind of work other women have done to the web and social media.

I particularily liked Stef's presentation on Beth Kanter, and learning about the work and contribution she made. I learned that Beth was very big into activism, which is a very important part in femism and is required to changing the way the world's visualization is about women on the web. I liked her views on using social media as a way for positive activism in women's roles and women's issues, and i thought it was interesting to know she has been known as one of the most influential women in technology. I think this is a very positive idea because it can help contribute to the way we see women's work on the web and how their hard work should be recgonized because of the every day growing use of the web and social media. Actually, part of my final project will be focusing on the women's contributions to the web, and the visualizations from other people of women's work on the web, so it is very important that we recognize these amazing women and their work and contribution.