The Web Women Want - How does tech fuel the feminist discourse worldwide?

re:publica 18 - Politics & Society

Digital technologies have the potential to be a powerful catalyst for the empowerment of women and girls and the promotion of gender equality. The web helps to bring out the voice of women and girls worldwide. The digital revolution offers new channels to promote equal access to rights, education and economic opportunity. Female tech entrepreneurs, researchers and activists around the world create innovative platforms, which enable women to pursue equal rights and engage in teaching girls and young women to learn digital skills. [Partnersession]

• Dorothy Gordon
• Robert Franken
• Japleen Pasricha

A broad range from health apps, such as ‘GiftedMom’ from Cameroon and ‘Ask without shame’ from Uganda, mobile educational solutions such as ‘Eneza’ from Kenya and career platforms such as ‘She leads Africa’ provide innovative solutions for women’s economic, social and political empowerment. Others address sexual harassment, such as the worldwide platform ‘Safecity’ and the SMS based reporting system ‘Harrassmap’.

On the other hand, we see a gendered divide in terms of access to and use of digital technologies worldwide. Once online, many women suffer from attacks and hate speech and as a result, many of them shy away from participating in controversial online discourses. It sometimes seems as though the Internet reverses the achievements of feminism and female empowerment of the past decades.

We want to hear from feminists from all around the world how digital tools help them to make their voices heard and to fight unequal gender relations. What backlashes do they face and what do they do to create safe spaces online? And how can tech promote an inclusive feminist dialogue that involves women and men from different margins of society?