Females Online

Female networkers, artists and educators have established thousands of active discussion forums, mailing lists, websites and virtual worlds, forming on-line communities that express every variety of female concern, with a primary goal to maintain relationships and connectivity (Cherny, L. 1996. Wired Women. Seal Press). The numbers of women on-line have evolved enormously since the 1990s, rapidly closing the gender gap in computer mediated communications.

Global communication, and the art of networking. means something different for women, who gather on¬line to support. inform and discuss rather than to establish status. Female Net.communities are social bodies that employ gender difference as a strategy to link real personalities and interest groups side by side with information about technological developments, educational concerns, and teleworking concepts (Sudweeks, F. 1998. Network and Netplay. MIT Press). Mailing lists have become an easy to use, easy to set up organizing tool for women.

‘Females on-line’ will examine several notable international projects where women connect with each other over issues like feminism, cyber-feminism, and grrl behavior. It will also address the relationship between face to face events (where discourse is a physical reality) and on-line connectivity, demonstrated in the project Face Settings.