Feminist scholarship in the areas of women and technology and women and the Internet has proliferated in the recent past. A central theme to much of this research is the negative relationship between women and technology — i.e. the impact technology has had on women's work, their lack of input into design and creation and their inability or unwillingness to relate to products of male values and domination. Research on the Internet concentrates on the significant barriers to women's participation which stem from the problems of women and technology in general. Particular emphasis has been placed on patterns of interaction and styles of communication that exclude women in so-called 'real life' and that have followed women on-line. Sexual harassment, verbal abuse and trivialization are among these patterns that have degraded women's experiences of computer-mediated communication, or CMC (1). While recognizing these that these concerns are well-founded and well-documented, a minority of feminist researchers are seeking to find a place for the Internet in the context of social change (Kramarae, 1988; Balka, 1992; Van Zoonen, 1994 and others). This discussion strives to build on the work of these researchers in advocating the Internet as an important space for societal transformation. What all researchers in this area do acknowledge however, is that the Internet has become and will continue to be an important new sphere of communication in the foreseeable future. As such women's relationship and involvement with this medium deserve serious attention from all angles.
While acknowledging the difficulties women experience in getting and staying on-line, this paper nevertheless offers up for discussion the revolutionary potential of the Internet for women. This potential is rooted in two propositions. The first is that the Internet provides an important opportunity for women to have a rare level of control over the means of symbolic production, thus providing an important cultural space for women within the realm of computer communication. It is assumed here that social change takes place on at least two equally consequential fronts. One of these is the organizational dimension of social movements — the act of engaging directly with state apparatus through the formation of activist groups, lobbying and other forms of political action focused on immediate and specific forms of social change. Another front of social change is the cultural dimension of social movements — of which a central component is "struggle for control over the production of meaning and the constitution of new collective identities" (Canel, 1992:22). While both dimensions of social movements are essential to their success, it is the cultural sphere that is of the most interest here. The organizational capabilities provided by the Internet for feminist individuals and groups is convincing and has received attention elsewhere (i.e. Smith and Balka,1988) but will receive very limited analysis in this discussion.
The second proposition of this discussion is that the structures of production and distribution on the Internet are allied with feminist communication principles. Specifically, many of the physical aspects of the network's structure — i.e. that it is non-hierarchical, non-linear, decentralized, user-controlled, etc. — resonate with the way women prefer to communicate and are consistent with a certain stream of feminist principles. The claim can not be made that all feminists hold similar ideas about ideal communication. As van Zoonen (1992) illustrates, feminist perspectives on new information and communication technologies range from the liberal feminist tendency of encouraging women to access and succeed in male-dominated (communication) structures by taking on masculine qualities to the ecofeminist rejection of all forms of technology because they are part of a system of patriarchal oppression. The perspective informing this discussion fits more into socialist feminist theory in which it is seen as important for women to participate in technology and communication, but in the context of working to make technology fit their needs and values and being critical of its negative impacts on women's lives. This position advocates transformation of existing structures and also recognizes the need for women-only, women-oriented and women-controlled forms of communication, such as alternative feminist media.
From a socialist feminist point of departure then, the Internet is very appealing. In many ways the Internet can be seen as a form of alternative media. Traditionally women have sought to access mainstream media and in some cases to change it by making mass media more welcoming and relevant to women. Alongside these efforts women have also created alternative media in the recognition that mainstream media provides very limited space for women to make meaning. Feminist media in particular is created with communicative ethics of production in mind. It is in these forms of media that feminist communication principles are the most evident and explicit. These principles can include an emphasis on collective decision making, a non-profit orientation, women's ownership and control of all areas of operation, high levels of user input, and so on. These principles are connected to explicit goals — to provide a place where women can make meaning, to distribute feminist culture, ideology and information and to create community, connection and identity among women who are often isolated geographically and ideologically from the mainstream.
The essence of the argument presented here is this: that the Internet provides a cultural space where women can make meaning and that importantly, they can do so via a structure that is in line with feminist communication ethics. The point of this inquiry however, is not to gloss over the significant barriers to women's access and participation in CMC. Instead, the first section of this discussion will address the research that illustrates the generally negative relationship between women and computers and problems women encounter on the Internet in particular. The intended purpose of this overview is to illustrate to the reader why the future of the Internet must be considered with these issues in mind. Currently there is determined maneuvering on the part of institutions that have traditionally controlled communication (i.e. government and the corporate communication industry) to impose the old models of hierarchical control and regulation onto the Internet (as seen in the Information Highway Advisory Council's 1995 report). It has been these models of control that are largely responsible for women's exclusion from and domination by technology. The following discussion as a whole will highlight why this is a condition that will disrupt the structure and potential of the Internet as part of feminist cultural change. Looking at women's barriers related to the Internet will also serve as a context for recommendations about what will facilitate the Internet as a space for feminist culture.
Despite the significant problems women experience accessing and being on the Internet, the theoretical position advocated in this argument allows for the possibility of co-optation of the medium to meet feminist objectives. Women's relationship to any technology can not be considered to be inherently negative nor a product of the technology itself. Instead these relations can be viewed as socially constructed and as historically and culturally variable. From this perspective, technology must be viewed as embedded in cultural practices, both of domination and of resistance. Even though 'real world' patterns of interaction are reproduced in the sphere of CMC, the very structure of the Internet allows the means of resistance. The creation of women-only and moderated discussion groups, and modification of software to meet women's self-defined needs are examples of this. The second part of this discussion then is to outline how co-optation of the Internet has been possible. The concepts of culture and ideology and their relation to social change will be considered to illustrate the potential of the Internet as a cultural space for women. The role of the Internet in providing a way for women to discuss, connect and create community, and the importance of these processes to feminism are discussed in this context.
A third objective is to link the importance of creating feminist culture according to feminist principles of communication, and to show how the Internet is conducive to such a project. It is assumed here that every moment in the production of meaning is important to the communication process and that the creation of meaning must take place via feminist production practices. Alternative media serves as a model for feminist communication principles and its structures are compared to that of the Internet. In addition, a study conducted by Ellen Balka (1993) provides case studies of several different network structures to show how certain structures are conducive to certain kinds of communication, with special focus on on-line discussions of feminism.
The final section of this paper is an attempt to generate ideas about what structural aspects of the Internet facilitate and maintain a cultural space for women as well as structures and conditions that inhibit or limit women's participation. Many of these ideas take the form of recommendations at the level of individual users and others address the political maneuverings of traditional power interests.
Concerns about technology have been centered in several areas, such as "differential access to computer education across racial and gender lines, about the construction of software for the male and middle class user, and about the effects on women's lives of the computer in the home and in the workplace (Perry and Greber, 1990:77). The invention of computers and their introduction into society has had a particular impact on women and their work. Computers have allowed work to become more fragmented and monotonous and also enables supervisors to monitor the pace of work. This has been especially true for the clerical and administrative work that is performed largely by women. These changes, in the context of certain social, economic and political forces, have resulted in increased job stress, lower wages and greater management control over workers (Perry and Greber,1990:78). Frissen (1992) cites that information technology in particular furthers the gender divisions of paid work in that computerization creates more low skill and low paying jobs that are traditionally available to women — or worse, that it eliminates positions that have traditionally been done by women (39). A further implication of automated and monitored clerical work is the proliferation of work performed at home, or 'outwork'. Like manufacturing-based piecework, the working conditions of outwork lead to fewer employee rights, lower wages, less negotiating power with management and difficulties in organizing due to isolation. women in Third World countries have been especially marginalized by outwork. The electronics industry has taken advantage of low labour costs and large profit margins, in part on the backs of Third World women. For example, 84 percent of electronic assemblers at Philips Components Philippines, Inc. are women (Perry and Greber, 1990:81). Data and word processing are now following the same trend of exporting work to Third World countries for the same reason — cheap labour. Often these women make a wage that doesn't even cover living expenses and maternity benefits can be limited to certain number of children who must be 'legitimate'. These workers are often forced through lock-ins, threats of being fired or sometimes physical violence to work extensive overtime (Perry and Greber, 1990:81). What these examples serve to illustrate is the way that technologies reflect a patriarchal order and can used to reinforce it. Technologies themselves are not to blame but they do reflect the values of a society and are used within a particular social context of exploitation.
Part of the story then of women and computers is that "men and women have different access to and experiences with computers" (Frissen, 1992:31). One of the explanations for this is that the design and production of computer technology was and is male-dominated. There is an assumption based on this that technology reflects traditionally male values and that the interaction between human and computer is structured by this bias. Therefore, because computers were not designed by women or with their needs in mind women find it difficult to relate to technology; in essence technology is not based on their way of experiencing the world. While it would be difficult to dispute that technology, with its emphasis on linearity, rationality, objectivity, mastery and control represent masculine values it should be noted that there is nothing inherently masculine about computers. Paul Edwards (1990) notes in his article on computers and the politics of gender identity that computer science has been heavily funded and influenced by the military, that it is "conceptually driven by the strategic and technological puzzles that the military provided (115). The military is intimately connected with the discourse of masculinity and this too has been part of the perception that technology is a male sphere, not conducive to women's participation and something that is a force of domination in their lives. Edwards explains that these attitudes are an understandable reaction to a dominant discourse propagated within the media and by professional circles. It is the result of a complex combination of "the discourse of computer science, the culture of engineering and the symbolic link of the military and masculine identity" (103).
Ideological conceptions of programmers and programming are also involved in the conceptualization of computers as male and male-dominated. The programming style of 'hard mastery' is the dominant image in most people's minds of scientists, programmers and men in general — that of imposing one's will over the machine, careful planning, abstractness, specific goals, high tech skill, rationality and impersonality (Edwards, 1990:103). Because computers are a medium for thought, the characteristics of hardware — its sequential nature and exactness down to individual punctuation marks "enforce a pattern and type of rigor on their users" (Edwards, 1990:107). These images of computers and the modes of thought they facilitate are viewed as appealing more to a masculine style of relating and as more familiar to men.
Yet there are contradictory aspects in the constructions of gender and technology, what Edwards calls 'ideological gaps' that serve to illustrate the constantly shifting and changeable nature of these constructions. For example, hard mastery is only one form of programming in common use. So-called 'soft mastery' is a much more artistic approach to programming that involves trial and error, spontaneity, interaction and intuition. Though these are highly gendered conceptual categories, both men and women computer scientists engage in many modes of thought, including hard and soft mastery (Edwards, 1990:103-4). Neither should it be assumed that women are inherently technologically incapable and that they were uninvolved in the creation history of the computer. For instance, 35 percent of computer programmers and 30 percent of systems analysts in the U.S. were women as of 1984. In addition, before the use of the first computer, ENIAC, women were the 'computers' who used hand calculators to tabulate ballistic tables. Perry and Greber (1990) cite this as the beginning of a trend of designing computers to replace women's labour (83). They also note that women's undocumented contributions to computer science are potentially enormous. While men created much of the computer's hardware they argue, women may have invented much of the necessary software. Adele Goldstein for one, was a key designer of software for ENIAC (86). There has been a selective telling of the story of the history of women and computers that is part of a larger trend in other fields of inquiry. Molecular biology and botany are other examples of fields that were originally developed and dominated by women until men discovered their complexity, challenge and cash value. At this point, a field generally emerges into a professional one from which women are excluded and the memory of their participation disappears (Perry and Greber, 1990:87).
This brief overview is intended to illustrate that there is not an inherently negative relationship between women and computers. It is clear is that the computer is a social form "that has created and reinforced modes of thinking, systems of interaction , and ideologies of social control" (Edwards, 1990:102). What all of this research serves to point out is that the relationship between women and all forms of technology is a socially constructed one that changes historically and culturally. Indeed, much of the work women traditionally do could be construed as technical — word processing, electronics assembly, the use of several household appliances at once, etc. But work that women do is devalued and thus any claim to technical capability or excellence on the part of women is over-shadowed by masculine definitions of what is valuable and what constitutes technical competence. Masculine conceptions of computer technology and modes of thought that are the standard of computers have been part of the "master trope" in the construction of gender and technology (Edwards, 1990:108).
The same type of cultural analysis can be applied to women and the Internet. While the structure of the Internet is a radically new form of communication, it still needs to be examined within the larger social context of technology and computers from which it emerged. The access and participation barriers women have faced regarding other uses of computers are relevant to the Internet as well. These include less experience with computers and less technical training, fewer hours of leisure to explore the Internet and significantly less access to economic resources that would facilitate Internet participation (i.e. owning a home computer and modem, ability to pay for commercial Internet services. women may tend to lump the Internet into the general category of technologies that are not designed with their needs and interests in mind, feeling excluded from control over its development, seeing the Internet as a male-dominated structure not conducive to women's participation.
That the Internet is used disproportionately by men verifies these feelings that the Internet is male-dominated. In 'Gender Issues in On-line Communications' Hoai-An Truong (1993) observes that "on many systems women comprise between 10 and 15 percent of the on-line population. On electronic bulletin boards, or BBSs, which are rarely as supervised or monitored as the more well-known on-line services... their numbers tend to be far lower" (2). However, in some instances, such as SeniorNet or newsgroups focusing on women's issues or fields women tend to dominate, women are much better represented (Balka, 1993:4). As noted above part of the explanation for women's lower rates of participation are related to economics.
These issues are part of the reason there are fewer women on-line but there are other important factors to be considered as well. In many ways women are discouraged from participating and contributing on the Internet because gender issues in so-called ' real world' communication follow them on-line. Susan Herring (1993; 1994) addresses this explicitly in the title of one of her papers: 'Gender Differences In Computer-Mediated Communication: Bringing Familiar Baggage To The New Frontier'. She describes this 'familiar baggage' as the different communicative ethics of men and women in which men's style tends to dominate (literally) and discourage women's contributions to discussion. women are also discouraged by on-line harassment in the form of flaming and also by the lack of responses to topics women try to initiate within mixed gender discussion groups. All of these factors, Herring argues, impose a type of censorship on women.
Despite the claim that CMC neutralizes gender and status clues that can bias one's access to and participation in communication with others, Herring (1994) was able to document gender differences in style and amount of communication in addition to topic preference in two academic lists. Approximately 70 percent of men's postings in these lists were characterized as adversarial in which the contributor "distanced himself from, criticized and/or ridiculed other participants … often while promoting his own importance" (2). The few women on the lists tended to ask questions rather than make assertions, apologized and compromised more often, displayed a more personal orientation by expressing thoughts and feelings, and were more likely to interact with and support others (3).
Herring cites this trend in other lists as well. Men dominated and drew attention to themselves even in discussions on women-centered topics or on lists specifically geared to women. Yet when women enter male-dominated lists and attempt to be heard they tend to be "ignored, trivialized, or criticized by men for the inappropriateness of their topic" (3). This can explain why women's participation is generally lower than their numerical representation. In a discussion of sexism, a topic which tends to draw women, their contributions were 30 percent of the discussion even though numerically they were a much higher percentage of listed participants (Herring, 1993:5). On average women's messages are shorter than men's — one screen or less, compared with the male average of one and a half screens. Sometimes men contributed messages of ten or more screens but women's messages were never so prolific.
Censorship comes in the form of intimidation and lack of response to women's postings and to women-initiated topics. Topics that women initiate get taken up by the whole group significantly less often which is a source of frustration and works to marginalize topics women are interested in (Herring, 1993:6). women receive significantly fewer responses to their postings when they do contribute and both men and women respond more to men's postings. From woman to woman constitutes the smallest number of responses, "an implicit recognition, perhaps, of the more powerful status of men in the groups" (Herring, 1993:6). Herring (1993) provides a particularly disturbing example of the way women's contributions are responded to. She noted that in three related discussions in the LINGUIST newsgroup women's postings gradually approached and stayed at 50 percent for two days. The response in all three discussions: "a handful of men wrote in to decry the discussion and several threatened to cancel their subscription to the list" (6). Herring acknowledges that it is difficult to prove that women's high rates of participation were the cause, but notes that it was a very strong coincidence since in her four years of observation "at no other time did women participate as much as men, and at no other time did any subscriber, male or female, threaten to unsubscribe from the list" (6). The effect of these patterns is that women participate less. In this case, the day after the men's complaints and protestations women's participation returned to its average of 15 percent, and no more protests emerged (7).
This type of reaction can be classified as one form of harassment. Harassment also includes what is commonly called flaming — highly aggressive, sarcastic, vulgar, or critical responses sent to particular contributors. Flaming is much more allied with the traditionally male style of communication. In fact it is predominantly men who flame and most men according to a questionnaire Herring (1994) circulated see this type of interaction as a normal part of debate. Men tended to be more accepting of this behaviour and to view it as impersonal while women felt flaming was very intimidating and a type of interaction they actively tried to avoid (1).
Harassment is also sexual — unwanted, sexually explicit invitations and messages in discussion groups, games or through email. Because there are significantly fewer women on-line, many women experience this frequently and find the problem irritating enough to use an androgynous alias, to limit their participation to women-only and moderated spaces on-line or drop out altogether (Truong, 1993:6). Sexist humour and comments are also reasons for segregated participation or complete avoidance of the Internet.
Many of these issues will resurface in the conclusion of this discussion when recommendations are made about overcoming such barriers. For now it has been sufficiently demonstrated that women have different experiences on the Internet (many of them negative), and face specific access and participation problems. The intended effect of this overview is to temper the claims made in the next two sections of discussion in which the Internet may appear to be feminist utopia. While the Internet offers great potential to furthering feminist social transformation the relationship between women and communication technology remains highly problematic.
Considering this picture of women and technology, and women and the Internet, how can there be any room left for women's gain? First, the negative relationship sketched out above can be seen as socially constructed (and thus changeable) and not as one of monolithic control. On the contrary, the relationship between women and technology is filled with cracks. As van Zoonen (1994) outlines in Feminist Media Studies "gender can be thought of as a particular discourse, that is, a set of overlapping and of ten contradictory cultural descriptions and prescriptions referring to sexual difference, which arises from and regulates particular economic, social, political, technological and other non-discursive contexts" (33). Thus gender is continually constructed and reconstructed through ideology, cultural practices and social relations. Technology, and in particular the technologies of communication are part of this process. They play a role in "accommodating, modifying, reconstructing and producing" the discourse of gender — thus "the relation between gender is therefore primarily a cultural one, a negotiation over meanings and values that inform whole ways of life" (van Zoonen, 1994:41).
The idea of negotiation is an important one. The discourse of gender is not monolithic or unified and the relationship of women to communication is also constructed, not inherently negative. Under the right conditions then, this relationship can be subverted. Negotiation implies that there is resistance to the imposition of meaning and social practice. Both are constantly constructed and negotiated.
The constructions and definitions of gender change over time and across cultures. The generally negative relationship between women and technology, and women and the Internet must be seen as embedded in social, economic and political structures. If the "rigid structure of computer courses and language weed out women and people of colour and prevent the recognition of the computer as a flexible medium, adaptable to human needs" then the values involved in the design and production context must be considered as part of this process (Perry and Greber, 1990:90). If women are excluded from the design and production of technology and thus from an important sphere of power, this is the product of gender relations and not the result of women's inherent lack of technical abilities. This is a culturally constructed relationship, full of contradictions, in which there are always ways to resist and to co-opt.
Ideology and culture are located in communication. Because they are central to the discourse of gender, media and communication are seen as an important site for the construction and contestation of gender. Looking at communication in this way also necessarily rejects the idea that the meaning of any media message or technology is a transparent reflection of an objective reality and are thus polysemic (Barrett, 1985:69). Barrett (1984) explains the connection between ideology, culture and communication: "Ideology is a generic term for the processes by which meaning is produced, challenged, reproduced, transformed. Since meaning is negotiated primarily through means of communication and signification, it is possible to suggest that cultural production provides an important site for the construction of ideological processes." (73).
If technology is a site of discursive struggle over meaning, including that of gender, women's relationship to communication technologies are ways to examine this struggle. The emergence and use of the telephone is a case in point. When the telephone was introduced in the United States, its design and marketing was specifically geared toward professional use (read: male use) and only for serious purposes related to business. Doctors, men in business and other of that ilk were the targeted users. The discourse of advertising and publicity campaigns emphasized the telephone's potential for transactions among professionals. Telephone companies were instrumental in promoting the phone as an efficient and rational means of communication (van Zoonen, 1992 :23). Nevertheless, from the beginning women used the phone to maintain ties with family and friends — a source of great concern to many. "According to the professional experts, women did not understand the proper use of the new technology and they were accused of 'technical incompetence'" (van Zoonen, 1992:23). Professionals and phone companies alike reprimanded women for their deviant use of the new technology and feared that such use would keep the rational, serious and efficient (male) user from using it. As the current use of the phone attests, women successfully co-opted it — they changed the social meaning of the medium and affected its consequent production, distribution and marketing. This kind of example illustrates that the social, economic and political context of production does impose a bias on the way a communication technology is used, but does not control it outright. This context shapes the discourse of technology — its prescribed relevance and benefits for society and users, and the 'appropriate' way of using the technology, but "when a certain type of technology is continuously subjected to the same kind of use, its meaning as a technological product will change" (van Zoonen, 1992:23). Van Zoonen (1992) argues in her article 'Feminist theory and information technology' that technology can be considered as text, of which the cultural context it emerges from "is a circumscribing factor, inflicting *valence* on technology, i.e. a bias towards a particular kind of use and social relevance", but the context of its user and cultural practices are also critical (12).
The ways women are using the Internet is another example of co-optation and resistance. women have rejected that theirs is an inherently negative relationship with computers and have created spaces within a network of computer communication. They have structured it to meet their own needs through the creation of newsgroups and bulletin boards dedicated to feminist issues and other areas of interest to women. Resources are shared among organizations and individuals via mailing lists, bibliographies and responses to postings that request information. It is the hypothesis of this author that women have been an important part of the co-optation of email, much like the telephone, from a medium intended for serious communication between academics to one that is primarily social. They use the established hardware to circulate information among feminists, but which all people interested can access and comment on. Feminists have adapted the structure to meet their self-defined needs in order to facilitate women's access and participation. Moderated newsgroups, women-only sites and standards of interaction based on user decisions are such measures. The organizing on the part of individuals and groups of users to establish Internet sites dedicated to the discussion of women's issues, such as Soc.women, The Femail Mailing List, The Women's Issues Section (via Compuserve Information Service) and countless others are evidence of women's resistance to the discourse of women as uninterested in and unable to use technology. More examples of women's use of a structure which presents significant barriers to their entry and continued participation will follow in the discussion of the Internet as an important cultural space for women and one that is created through feminist principles of communication.
Barriers to women's access and participation are crucial issues to address. They can not be separated from more general patterns of women's experiences of communication (both interpersonal and through media) but there are certain structural characteristics which facilitate or discourage women's participation. In recognizing what these structures are measures can be taken to at least improve the situation. Much attention has been paid to the participatory and democratic structure of communication on the Internet. However, based on women's access and participation barriers, this claim is not universal — not for women, or people of colour, or other traditionally marginalized groups. The Internet does not have to be an ideal democracy though, to be important. What is of importance is that there is a space, however small, for a plurality of voices and perspectives that has not been found in mass media.
Feminists have long identified media and communication as a site of struggle. There is disagreement about whether to try to change the structure of mass media which has consistently marginalized and trivialized women or to segregate and form alternative media. Those who have followed the alternative path have done so in order to produce meaning within a structure that women can contribute their own views, stories and ways of seeing the world, and often from a feminist perspective.
The desire to control the means of symbolic production has been identified as the central struggle of new social movements, including feminism. Theorists on new social movements (NSM) "emphasize the cultural nature of the new movements and view them as struggles for control over the production of meaning and the constitution of new collective identities and social roles" (Canel, 1992:22). They are a reaction against systems of ideological domination which do not legitimate or allow for the meanings, norms and values which are the models for concrete social practices espoused by various movements. For feminists this includes the exclusion of women from cultural production but also their experiences and ways of knowing the world from culture in general. NSM theorists argue that in postindustrial societies social movements emerge from resistance to the domination that exists at the level of meaning — it is "the monopoly over the supply and processing of data and in the control of the ways of organizing social life" (Canel, 1992:28). This monopoly is "possible with the invention of technologies that produce symbolic goods, languages, and information that shape or transform our representation of human nature and the external world" (Canel, 1992:29). Social movements then, question cultural models rooted in domination and struggle to create new ones. Action within NSMs is located at the level of communication and is concerned with cultural reproduction, new forms of social organization and socialization. Feminism, like other social movements "challenge established cultural codes, and through the things they do and *how* they do them, they show that an alternative is possible" (Canel, 1992:34).
There are several well founded criticisms of the NSM paradigm that bear brief recognition. The first of which is that NSM theory does not account for the way identity translates into action. Connected to this is the criticism that the organizational dimension of social action is ignored by NSM theory — the processes of how activists make decisions, develop strategies and mobilize resources. In addition, the exclusive emphasis on the cultural dimension of social movements does not allow for acknowledgment that social change is also a struggle for institutional reform (Canel, 1992). The history of the feminist movement illustrates that while the realm of culture is important, organizing for institutional reform has been equally important. women have not only sought to implement changes in the symbolic life world, but also to change their legal rights. As Canel (1992) argues, social movements can be viewed as struggles for control over the means of economic *and* symbolic production. Clearly social movements have an organizational dimension which is critical to their success. What is argued here is simply that the cultural dimension is more relevant to looking at women's co-optation of the Internet. The attempts to create new cultural spaces that do not reproduce existing forms of control and domination are of most interest to this discussion. "It is in the context of these 'liberated' spaces — where alternative norms and values guide social interaction — that new identities and solidarities are formed" (Canel, 1992:33).
What then is the role of the Internet as a counter-hegemonic project? Several aspects of the Internet make it relevant to women's struggle over the production of meaning. It is a sphere that allows women are rare place from which to produce and distribute ideas that existing forms of feminist alternative media do not offer. Despite problems with women's access and participation, the Internet offers enough cracks within which women can create meaning. These cracks are related to aspects of Internet structure, including its software, that are more conducive to feminist culture and communication. And the structure of the Internet in general, its very hardware, offers the potential for women to produce meaning through feminist communication principles. As noted above, it is not only *what* social movements accomplish but also the process of *how* things come about. If we consider that every moment in the communication process is important — production, distribution, reception and use — then the importance of the creation of meaning via a feminist communication model becomes clear.
In an article on the history and structure of women's alternative media Linda Steiner (1992) documents that "for nearly 250 years women have recognized the value of establishing and operating their own communications media, literally making their own meaning and communicating it to one another across space and over time" (121). Women have created their own mediums of communication because they have been unwilling or unable to use mainstream media. Mass media have consistently ignored, trivialized or marginalized women and the feminist movement. Feminists are discouraged even when women's issues do receive media attention because they are generally watered down and co-opted into the dominant discourse. There is no room for "the alternative visions, definitions and ways of being" advocated by the women's movement (121). It is for these reasons that many women seek out alternative mediums. As Steiner points out though, there are other more positive reasons why women create their own media. Women's media are away.
"..to articulate and dramatize their emerging interests, to nourish and defend an identity that imbues their lives with meaning. Not only can they thus mount an effective challenge to the dominant structures, ideology, and content, but they also derive considerable intellectual and emotional satisfaction from producing and supporting their own women-controlled and women-oriented media. In and through communication they transform and empower themselves" (Steiner, 1992:121).
Women have been attracted to the Internet because it is such an alternative media. While many of its structures resemble that of feminist media, there are some important distinctions to be made. First, the Internet is unlike any media that has existed before. It is completely unlike mass media because the distinction between producer and audience collapses. Any person with a certain level of technical competence and access to a modem can create and distribute meaning with very few restrictions. Traditional media on the other hand is produced by the few and distributed to the many. It is a hierarchical structure of information flow that is further restricted by a preoccupation with events rather than process, what makes 'good copy', space and financial restrictions and elite professional codes of objectivity and information gathering. The very structure of the Internet allows for amateur participation, informality, spontaneity, and complexity. In many ways the philosophy of alternative media is identifiable in the organization of the Internet in attempting to overcome these limitations. Yet the Internet is significantly different from alternative media as well. Many, especially feminist media work to overcome the distinction between 'source' and 'receiver' but the distinction remains nevertheless. There are still producers and their audience. Another important difference is that alternative media has never had the potential for distribution that dissemination via a world-wide system of computer networks offers. One of the objectives of alternative media is the production and distribution of alternative ideas and information and the Internet offers this on a level that was previously never dreamed of by social activists. Unlike other media the Internet can not be classified as a particular genre (i.e. film, radio, magazine) nor along one theme (i.e. news, entertainment, documentary) and thus is free from particular corresponding constraints. Feminism and women's issues have always been too complex (and counter-hegemonic) for mainstream media but the infinite space within the Internet for discussion can accommodate the various theoretical positions within feminism and the multitude of viewpoints on women's issues through designated sites. My own forays into the computer network for instance, have turned up information on and discussions about everything from the politics of a marriage, to environmental menstrual products and from a socialist-feminist political organization to scholarships for women.
The importance of being able to discuss these issues with other women can not be overstated. Finding and exchanging information about issues that are often well outside the mainstream and yet so central to feminist ideology and identity creates an invaluable space to foster alternative culture. These cultural spaces are 'struggles for control over the production of meaning and the constitution of new collective identities' where women find validation for feminist ideals, and connection and community with like-minded women. This is critical because there are so few spheres in which women find legitimation. Neither mass media, nor the majority of interactions in daily life provide feminists with a source of strength for their norms, values and meanings. The philosophy behind women's independent media has been exactly this — to provide that strength, the muscle and energy — to feminist communities (Steiner, 1992:132). Without a doubt there is great diversity within women's media but "at the same time certain themes — notably of identity and community — consistently emerge, revealing that ongoing connection between communication and community, communion and commitment (Steiner, 1992:123). Here too, lies the potential that the Internet offers to women.
It was noted earlier in this discussion that all of the stages in the communication process are of consequence, to use Stuart Hall's (1993) categories — production, distribution, consumption and reproduction. While recognizing that the reception and use of information has some autonomy from the context of production, the initial encoding of meaning does influence the entire communication process. Acknowledging this Barrett (1985) explains that "certainly the means of representation are important. In the area of cultural production, for example, it is easy to see how forms of representation are governed by genres, conventions and the presence of established modes of communication and so on. Yet these are not determining in the absolute sense.." (70). For feminist media and communication, production structures of communication are the political starting point. While realizing that the information can be received and used in any number of ways feminist conventions and modes of production remain the prerequisites of feminist communication. Without these, the whole communication process is undermined.
These principles of communication, consciously selected, are reflected in the structure of women's alternative media. Describing these structures, and illustrating how these characteristics exist on the Internet is intended to show that the Internet provides a means of symbolic production via feminist principles of communication. Feminism and the Internet are both outcasts from the mainstream and are located there in part by choice. The tenets of feminism (excluding perhaps liberal feminism) represent social change and social justice on a level that intend to deeply alter the existing ideological, cultural, political and economic structures of society. Similarly the Internet is such an anomaly compared to other means of communication that it threatens to undermine the old regime of control over information, and by extension society. Like the Internet, women's media, both within and outside of the Internet "are oppositional, alternative, and resistant in both product and process" (Steiner, 1992:123). It should not come as too much of a surprise then that this new form of communication speaks to the anarchy of feminism.
Central to feminist communication is women's ownership and control. This means that women are involved in all aspects of production, including technical ones. Women's control can also mean that men's participation is limited or that men are excluded altogether (Steiner, 1992:124). Although nobody actually *owns* the Internet (much to the dismay of Bill Gates), control is in the hands of every user. Individual women as users must by necessity be involved in all aspects of production and to some extent distribution as well. To produce meaning on the Internet includes generating ideas, deciding where to put that information and engaging in the technical process of sending the content of that idea to designated sites. Once that information has been distributed though, the future path it will take is determined by those who receive it and who may redistribute it to other relevant sites or to people they know. Just as in women's media in many instances men's participation to discussion of women's issues is limited or excluded altogether in feminist Internet sites in order to preserve a women-oriented atmosphere. Often on-line discussions about feminism are moderated so that certain people that users agree upon can be prevented from contributing. Additionally, some sites are designated as women-only and all contributors must join the list by notifying the moderator. One need only browse sites such as alt.feminism or soc.women to understand why this is the case. Originally called Net.wom en newsgroup, Soc.women was created for the discussion of women's issues and feminism. It was a confrontational site from its inception, and many women became dissatisfied with it because "it was offensive, chaotic, the discussions were boring and endless, and women's opinions were treated as dumb, stupid, or ignorant by men. Many women had grown tired of debating assumptions they took for granted." (Balka, 1993:5). As is often the case, men who have feelings of anger related to feminism seek out these discussions in order to vent, with the effect of dominating the discussion and leaving women feeling upset and frustrated. These experiences are part of what motivates women to leave such sites and create structures where feminism, women's issues and interests can be discussed in a less hostile way.
In creating these spaces production is organized to be as feminist as possible. Creators avoid hierarchy, economic gain and attempt to narrow the difference between sender and receiver. The organizational and economic structures of women's media are always decided with feminist ideals in mind. Collective decision-making, which is based on trust and concern for all members often overrides "political expediency and efficiency" but provides an alternative to concentrating power in the hands of only a few (Steiner, 1992:132). The negotiation that takes places within newsgroups about models of communication and interaction (popularly known as netiquette) are similar attempts at a more horizontal distribution of control.
Egalitarian production structures and receiver input as feminist principles of communication are exemplified in feminist network sites and have exceeded other forms of feminist media in this area. The women and Technology Computer Network created by Ellen Balka is one example among many of a feminist structure on the Internet. A one page summary of the networks goals plus a questionnaire asking potential users about their computer needs, access to computers and modems and preference for topics and services in a computer network was distributed to potential users as part of the development of this network (Smith and Balka, 1988:92). Balka's philosophy is that "one nice thing is about computer networking is that it lends itself well to being participant controlled. For example, rather than considering ourselves 'in charge' of a service, we can view ourselves as facilitators of a process." (92). Participants decide what topics they are interested in, how they are catalogued and what the conventions are for interaction within a particular group. They also decide on communication issues such as whether anonymity is acceptable and who they chose to give information to and who it will be received from. This gives women the opportunity to speak for themselves and not only the choice but the responsibility to define themselves. Compared to the carefully filtered, selected and packaged information presented by mass media, the Internet is truly revolutionary because it forces people to be more responsible for the information they choose.
Many of the women who work in feminist media are volunteers who offer their time and energy as to work on a cause of personal importance. And "because the goal is authentic communication, women's media tend not to require professional experience or formal training (Steiner, 1992:124). To participate in and distribute computer-mediated communication women are not required to have any professional experience in media or any other form of cultural production. Like women's media the Internet can serve as a place for and validation of real life experiences, rather than a platform for experts. Certainly many Net sites are dedicated to academic discourse, but discussion groups of a more informal and amateur nature exist alongside these, and the two form s of discussion can coexist peacefully. Like women's media, the Internet can bridge the gap between academic and popular discourses of feminism (Steiner, 1992:134).
Economically, "among the foremost implication of the announced commitment to communication is that women's media are not profit-motivated" (Steiner, 1992:125). Of course there are exceptions to this, (i.e. Ms. magazine), but the model of communication espoused here is rooted in socialist feminism in which the oppression of capitalism is critiqued. Communicating outside of economic exchange is an ideal that is hard to achieve. Women's media rely on volunteer work, fund-raising, donations and some revenue from sales. However, feminists recognize that women are often economically disadvantaged and hesitate to charge a price that even covers their costs if it means that information will not be disseminated. This is one area that the Internet offers a measure of success. The exception is commercial services on-line where users pay a one time sign up fee and are charged by amount of time on-line. With computer accounts through universities, corporations and government though, the individual user is exempted from direct costs. Many of the jobs within these institutions provide Internet access to all employees and this has allowed women who perhaps could not afford a commercial service to engage in feminist culture on-line. The computer network that Ellen Balka developed is a non-profit structure achieved through creative efforts such as seeking donated computer time from educational institutions and paying the salary of a troubleshooter from summer job creation programs (Smith and Balka, 1988:95). In addition, software to interface with the network is often free and Balka provides information about these on-line. In some areas the Internet can provide cheaper and faster communication even if billed by the minute because it is cheaper than long distance phone calls, and many times faster than the postal service. Posting information to many people at once or conferencing also saves money and is very efficient (Smith and Balka, 1988:94). Freenets are a particularly important way that the Internet allows for women with less disposable income to access feminist community and culture on-line. Even though dialing in can be a slow process, hopefully in future libraries or other public spaces in which Freenets are located would be willing to absorb the cost of a modem pool to make access easier.
The Internet has been characterized as anarchic because it can not be controlled through a centralized hierarchy. It also has the potential for anarchy because information is not filtered to nearly the extent that it is in mass media and any information can be distributed between modems around the world. Developed in the basements of universities, the Internet has emerged through cooperation and agreed upon protocols. Many believe that the Internet could never have been created by corporations because the level of cooperation that was required is so alien to competitive capitalist organizations. Feminism and feminist media is also based on the values of cooperation and the widespread dissemination of information. Even though they criticize each other "feminist communicators are relatively disinclined to regard each other as competitors, even when they disagree" (Steiner, 1992:129). Further, "they are notable for their willingness to re circulate each other's information, to publicize, help, and advise each other" (Steiner, 1992:129). On the Internet these values are evident in the distribution of articles, bibliographies, software, offers of advice and facilitating others in their searches for information, and not only by feminist contributors. This communication medium facilitates this kind of interaction like no other.
We can see that feminists both on and off-line
"are acutely sensitive to matters of political principle not only regarding content but also decision-making generally. More importantly, they also contribute to the making and remaking of definitions of women, thereby transforming their audiences....We hope we can help create a new world, by speaking in our own voice and defining ourselves" (Steiner, 1992, 134).
The physical structure of the Internet provides a means for this redefinition of women and of culture. In accordance with feminist principles of communication it is non-hierarchical, collapses the distinction between sender and receiver, can operate out side of economic exchange, and is based on collective production and expression. Discussions of feminism on-line and the distribution of feminist ideology are valuable contributions to the cultural dimension of social change. Information on absolutely any topic related to feminism and women's issues and interests can be found within the Internet and are available to more people than ever before. And for those women who approach their computer, weary from conflict and struggle in daily life, feeling disconnected from other feminists who can be few and far between, the Internet provides an important cultural space within which to rejuvenate through communing with others who share the same vision.
But these structures of production, as important as they are, do no guarantee the Internet as a feminist space. The problems women face in getting and contributing on-line are severe limitations to this space. Fortunately there are some software structures available that can overcome these problems to some extent. Balka (1993) outlines four issues related to network structure in the context of women's access to on-line discussions about feminism. Her findings will form the outline of an assessment of what will facilitate the Internet as feminist cultural space. The issues Balka considered included: the relationship of the structure of the computer network to the array of communications possible, who the users were and what they discussed in on-line feminist groups, the types of communication within these groups and the processes in which each network group engaged in order to maintain their communications environment.
The groups chosen for study (Soc.women, the Femail mailing list, Women's Issues Section, The Women's Bulletin Board Service) were located in different network structures and were considered feminist by the users themselves. Balka (1993) also operates on the assumptions that "in theory, computer networks ought to be consistent with the democratic, decentralized, participatory structures of women's organizations dedicated to feminist social change" and "that all technological practices (including the processes of innovation, creation, production, maintenance and use of technology) affect the ways, places and content of talk, writing and publishing in a feminist context" (2). She acknowledges the problems of the Internet and manages to offer meaningful solutions.
Soc.women is located on Usenet, used by universities and institutions that have Unix software. Usenets are user-controlled, and with little organization and policy is described as "an administrationless volunteer-maintained computer network of information anarchists" (Balka, 1993:5). However this very structure in the context of discussions about feminism in Soc.women led many women to leave this discussion group. The confrontational style of debate, offensive comments and degradation of women's opinions frustrated women enough to break away and form the Femail Mailing List, distributed through the Internet. Femail started with a questionnaire posted in Soc.women from which its structure is based. Femail is moderated and contributions are screened by the moderator who must initially be notified before a user can join the discussion. CompuServe Information Service (a commercial service) offers the Men's and Women's Issues Section in which participants can conference, interact one on one or talk with a guest speaker. The Women's Bulletin Board Service, the fourth structure Balka examined, was created by community activists in New York City. Anticipating that interested users might lack the technical knowledge required WBBS provides on-line, hard copy and personal help for users. WBBS is managed by a group rather than an individual and software geared toward group communication as much as possible was selected. New users to this group, rather than feeling attacked often commented on its friendly atmosphere (Balka, 1993:10).
Balka found that certain structures, communication protocols and software accommodate certain forms of communication. Further, network structure affected who generally had access, where they accessed from and even the content of messages. Briefly, Balka's results show that non-commercial, moderated, user-controlled structures were more conducive to women's access and discussions about feminism that were not aggressive and confrontational. In Femail and WBBS the content was more personal and women's contributions equaled or exceeded their numerical representation indicating that users felt more comfortable in these atmospheres. The Women's Issues Section on CompuServe in contrast, was short-lived and was eventually opened up to men because their were no women participating. The cost of using Compuserve is likely the responsible for problems retaining women as users (Balka, 1993:15). Women are also more likely to contribute from work if their job provides access to the Internet and more women contribute from university accounts than commercial services. Greater number of women are likely to participate if there is extensive on-line help, so that they understand the communication options available to them in each network structure and where the costs are lowest (17). The message style and tone established within a group affects the discussion of feminism. Women are more likely to contribute to groups like the Femail Mailing List, which is moderated and not aggressive. Balka notes that Femail "read like an on-line consciousness-raising groups. Composed mainly of narrative, stories, and questions and answers about feminist topics, the caring atmosphere of the Femail Mailing List was maintained in part by the moderator (who could refuse to include antagonistic messages in bundles of mail to group participants) (19).
Several factors facilitated the welcoming atmosphere of the Women's Bulletin Board System. One factor is that users were required to use their own identities and provide their name and telephone number before gaining access. Another is that to reduce conflict one area of the bulletin board was designated as a 'battleground' (Balka, 1993:20).
In her summary, Balka outlines several recommendations based on her findings that would improve women's access to and experiences of feminism on-line. Access to technical competence is a significant one. women must be able to understand what each structure offers them and what kinds of communication they offer (group, moderated, etc.) On-line, in person and hard copy help have been shown to facilitate Internet use by feminist organizations and individual women (Balka, 1993:24). This is something women who create discussion groups and feminist sites must think about. Finally, in order to create a feminist space, moderated and women-only sites are essential.
There are important way of transforming other sites within the Internet where communication is neither moderated nor women-centered. Attention needs to be focused in all areas, and not just discussions of feminism if women are to have more control over symbolic communication on the Internet. While alternative spaces are necessary so too is making the 'mainstream' of the Internet meet women needs. In order for this to happen women must also be involved in its evolution. An important issue in this area is dealing with the phenomenon of flaming. As Herring (1994) documents, men are more likely to consider flaming or aggressive styles of communication an acceptable, normal part of debate and essential to free speech (9). In her assessment, "further evidence that flaming is tolerated and justified within a system of male values is the content of written rules of network etiquette, or 'netiquette'" (10). In most cases the introductory messages to new members in discussions do not address flaming. And when it is mentioned, flaming is essentially authorized. In the list POLITICS for example, netiquette advises: "Do not insult or criticize third parties without giving them a chance to respond" which, as Herring explains "implicitly authorizes flames other than of a personal nature (for example, of someone's ideas or values) and insulting or criticizing third parties (provided you give them a chance to respond" (10).
A way to make the Internet a better place for women is through revisions of netiquette for every site to clarify that flaming is unacceptable, because at least for some women flaming is always personal and intimidating. Some groups may choose to leave their rules of interaction alone, without these revisions, because they want to maintain an unregulated structure but others may respond to these suggestions if they knew that women were being driven away. In the very least warnings posted in newsgroups that allow and prefer 'open' and unregulated debate would alert readers to the atmosphere they are about to enter. The responsibility for this kind of change rests with the individual user. To really address how men's communicative style affects women's participation these issues must be raised Net-wide. women and men must be willing to enter aggressive communication settings and risk hostile responses. It is possible though that such action would raise awareness of the exclusionary effects of the traditionally masculine style of communication some progress could be made. 'Some progress' can be classified as a few more spaces within the Internet that both men and women participate where women can feel comfortable, participate and maybe even stick around for a while.
While transforming spaces that are not conducive to women's participation must be part of the effort to increase women's presence, women-only and moderated spaces remain invaluable. When many of the people, situations and information one encounters are not based on the ideology and culture one is struggling to create, community and connection with like-minded individuals is like finding water is a desert. Critique of the of politics of separation is often centered around the idea that 'ghettoization' will not lead to change. Studio D founder (the feminist production unit of the National Film Board) Kathleen Shannon responds to this kind of critique: "Some people will make dire predictions about 'ghettos.' No one ever has referred to an all-white, all-male project as a ghetto. Ignore 'ghetto'" (Herizons, 1995:28). Complete separatism is not advocated here — the importance of transforming the Internet in general has been noted — but if women had patiently waited for the mainstream to change they would not have come as far as they have. There is a need to get alternative information out immediately to provide support and empowerment to feminist communities (Steiner, 1992:132). Feminist media are often highly specialized and consciously so because the more specialized a cultural space is, "the more adherents have the physical and psychological space for experimenting in building the architectures in which they feel most comfortable" (Steiner, 1992: 133). This experimentation and segregation are intimately involved in the cultural dimension of social change.
In light of the maneuverings of institutions that have traditionally controlled the flow of information in society (i.e. government, communication corporations), it is also important to keep the Internet free of the control, regulation and commercialization that they are demanding. The models of hierarchical control ingrained in these institutions are anathema to the Internet and the philosophy of alternative media. Such control would impose on the Internet a structure like those of mainstream mass media — centralized, filtered and ideologically packaged information. History has shown that this kind of organization is not conducive to women's participation nor to feminism and feminist principles of communication.
Just as the history of women and computers has been marginalized in part by the discourse of an inherently negative relationship between women and technology, the potential of the Internet as a means of feminist cultural change is in danger of being ignored if we focus only on the drawbacks and problems to women's participation. Women's reluctance to engage with technology and to enter a sphere that can become just another where women are dominated, harassed or ignored as serious participants are definitely understandable. But at the same time women can not afford to be completely marginalized within another sphere of communication by simply giving up or dismissing the Internet as male-cent red technology based on male values.
There is however, a significant limitation to the argument presented in this discussion that should be raised. It should be noted that while the Internet offers great potential as a feminist cultural space, one that allows production via feminist principles of communication, the Internet is still a fairly elite structure. There are more men than women on the Internet but there are also more well-educated, wealthier and I suspect white women on the Internet than there are women from lower economic backgrounds and women of colour (Balka, 1993:12). By now white women have learned that they do not speak for all women and that women who are marginalized along lines other than gender will have different experiences of communication — including technology and the Internet — and of culture. If it is predominantly white middle class women struggling for control over the means of symbolic production on the Internet, what is produced will reflect this limitation. It is important then to modify any claims made in this discussion that imply that the Internet offers the means of symbolic production to all women. Future efforts must be aimed at facilitating the access of all women.
Considering differential access between women and men and among women as a group, and combined with experiences of censorship and intimidation, it can not be argued that the Internet is the ultimate means to feminist utopia nor a completely democratic sphere of communication. But the Internet does not need to be either of these to be important. The women's movement has always relied on creative communication strategies and devices (Steiner, 1992:131). women have told their histories and created their own culture through means as diverse as hand-made quilts and graffiti on the bathroom wall. Certainly these are the margins of cultural production, but they are also the cracks, the means of resistance and of altering the social terrain. What is important is that women work to maintain those cracks, whether on the Internet or elsewhere, and continue to make meanings of their own design.
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