Gender, Language and Culture on the Internet
Lesley Semmens and Lynette Willoughby
School of Computing, Leeds Metropolitan University
In this paper we wish to raise some issues about power and empowerment, inclusion and influence in the present and future development of the internet. A predominantly male history and present (which is true of the internet) will lead to a ‘male’ future unless there are conscious interventions to include the female half of the population. When we see that the internet’s future is not only about leisure and commerce but also increasingly about education and democracy that potentially male future is very worrying. Companies concerned about expanding their markets are beginning to take positive action to engage more women in commercial, leisure and social opportunities offered by the internet but there is little action or awareness (beyond stereotyped images) in the important areas of community, democracy and education.
We are not taking a biological determinist view point or assuming any essentially female or male characteristics. Real women and men have a wide variety of concerns and modes of interaction but the internet is predominantly located in arenas that can be considered traditionally male. Our concern is the exclusion that can follow from that, the implications of that and the knowledge and commitment necessary to avoid such exclusion.
The internet - email, email discussion lists, bulletin boards, multi-user domains, IRC chat lines and world wide web pages - provide a range of communication modes, some are immediate and approximate to conversation while others are more static approximating to books. We all see later what the differences are.
The history of the ‘net as an American baby born of the military and academia and developed within certain technologically literate sub-cultures means that is has certain cultures and languages. Specifically, the predominant language is English. There are implications in this beyond the obvious one of access for the non-English speaking world. One is visibility, as ‘minority’ cultures become even less visible in a mono-linguistic electronic world. The are also the embedded assumptions, belief systems and social constructions that are invisible to users who are steeped in those cultures but easily exclude those from other cultures. When constructing technological micro-worlds we need to be able to step outside of our own norms and be aware of and respect other cultures both within our own societies and in quite different ones.
The language of the ‘net is often very male. The cover of Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century [Dery 1996] promises that the book 'explores the high-tech subcultures ..... cyberpunks, cyber-hippies, techno-pagans, metal machine musicians and rogue technologists to name but a few'. The gendered nature of the language [Spender 1985] used in this selection and naming is very male. Of course the book will emphasise these 'sexy' subcultures, and that in itself is part of the culture we are discussing.
The numbers world-wide using the internet have been regularly surveyed by the GVU (GVU 1994-8). Table 1 shows the percentages of women participants over the period January 1994 to October 1998. The early figures show a very low participation rate. The world-wide rate stabilised at about 30% but is now rising again. This is dominated by the US where the numbers are greatest. The figures for Europe are more worrying where it is still only between 15% and 20%. (we use these figures as an illustration - we are not doing detailed statistical analysis here).
|
Europe |
US |
All |
|
|
Jan. 94 |
5 |
||
|
Oct. 94 |
10 |
||
|
April 95 |
7 |
17 |
15 |
|
Oct. 95 |
10 |
33 |
29 |
|
Apr. 96 |
15 |
34 |
31 |
|
Oct. 96 |
20 |
32 |
31 |
|
Apr. 97 |
15 |
33 |
31 |
|
Oct. 97 |
22 |
40 |
38 |
|
Apr. 98 |
16 |
41 |
39 |
Figure 1: Women as Percentage of Users (GVU Survey)
There are some obvious factors affecting European women’s participation. Many people access the internet from work and men are more often in the jobs which give access - employment is gendered [Grundy 1996].Women’s average income is still well below that of men. Computers have become men’s toys - research on computer use in schools show it is the boys who dominate computer clubs where computer games are the main focus; the readership of computing magazines (which is massively increasing) is predominantly male ( 90%) [Grundy 1996]; and the decline in the numbers of women studying computing and computer science in universities [Wright in Lander and Adam 1997].
The internet as a medium provides for a variety of forms of communication and can be related to written and spoken forms. WWW pages are generally more akin to books in that they provide information where the author has considered what to write and taken time to compose and present it. The reader of a book expects it to be self-contained (or at least to provide references to sources of clarification). Clarification directly from the author is rarely expected while the authors of WWW have a choice: they can choose to allow for interaction with their readers, privately via email or publicly on their WWW pages. There is however one major difference. You do not have to find a publisher to get your work onto the WWW. It is cheaper than printing and distributing copies of your work. But readers must beware, the information may not be correct, no one but the author need have checked it!
Email is nearer to letter or memo writing but is apparently immediate. In fact there are indeterminate time lags due to the technology. Conversations get jumbled as a result. Often we read and reply in immediate/conversation mode not taking into account later messages and other peoples replies. Delays make clarification a problem, particularly on email lists where several people may reply all having misunderstood the original message. People make assumptions about technology, such as believing everyone uses one particular email program and so have the same look and facilities. Letters and memos are generally exchanged by people who either know each other or have a business relationship where certain conventions apply. Often with email it is strangers who are communicating and the conventions are only gradually evolving. Whereas letters and memos are usually considered pieces of writing email is often dashed off almost in conversational style but without the body-language and tone of voice clues available in that mode.
On-line interaction e.g. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and MUDs (Multi-User Domains/Dungeons) are immediate, often anonymous and have been reported to remove inhibition and social control. Again the conventions are evolving. These are the media where most flaming and abuse is reported [Spender 1995; Stoll 1996; Dery 1994]. They are nearer to conversation than the other media but again lack the clues of body-language and tone of voice.
We are subject to continuous hype about the ‘net. The extremes and contradictions of eulogy and despair describe it as variously:
The issue of pornography is certainly there and news reports claim 80% of ‘net use is for pornography. A search using the keyword women on Lycos resulted in 84% pornography and ‘brides for sale’ whereas Infoseek gave 90% information and networking. Using the keywords women and internet resulted in 75% - 100% information and networking. While it might be acceptable for parents to utilise current blocking software to protect their children we would question it being done invisibly by service providers. Ensuring accessibility, protection and personal control requires more sophisticated means.
The proliferation of sites has led to information overload with many searches resulting in millions of ‘hits’. The search facilities while they might have been adequate three or four years ago, are now inadequate to cope with the amount of material now present [Slatalla 1998].
The figures showing the male dominance of the internet raise questions about access. Some [Plant 1997] claim that this is not an issue as the necessary equipment can be purchased for a few hundred pounds and some "service providers" are now offering email and WWW access free (except for the cost of phone calls). However access to only the basic software without the ubiquitous "plug-ins" (with large memory and speed requirements) increasingly limits some users - relative information poverty is real.
In the past many initiatives to encourage women to enter technological education and careers have implicitly assumed that women are at fault, that it was their own attitudes and approaches that excluded them and it was the women who had to change rather than the technological culture. We would challenge this approach and argue that the developers of technology, particularly those aiming at openness, access and community, have the responsibility to ensure real accessibility. This must be based on research and information rather than stereotypes, narrow assumptions or self-perpetuating sub-cultures.
Dery M (ed.) (1994) Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture, Duke University Press, Durham and London
Dery M (1996) Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century, Hodder and Stoughton, London
Grundy F (1996) Women and Computers, Intellect, Exeter
Lander R and Adam A (1997) Women in Computing, Intellect, Exeter
Plant S (1997) Zeros and Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture, Fourth Estate, London
Slatalla M (09/28/98) In Sex Role Tangle, A Woman’s Search, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/06/circuits/computing/18comp.html
Spender D (1985) Man Made Language, (2e), Routledge, Keegan & Paul
Spender D (1995) Nattering on the Net: Women, Power and Cyberspace, Spinifex, Melbourne
Stoll C (1996) Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway, Pan, London