Agents of change : women creating web pages

MacGregor, Fiona M. (1999) Agents of change : women creating web pages. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The Internet as a social phenomenon has only just begun to affect the everyday lives of individuals. Studies of women's use of personal computers suggest that women may be less likely than men to engage in Internet usage. Various surveys support the fact that there are currently more men than women using the Internet. While there are women who do not use the Internet there are also women who have become intensely engaged in it. Women who make intensive use of the Internet have been labelled as grrrls and their presence is particularly visible on the World Wide Web (WWW). -- In an attempt to understand how the 1980s view of women as hesitant computer users gave way to the technologically competent grrrl image, this thesis examines the experiences of some of the women who create web pages, and the world of women web page designers. Findings address who these women are, how they learned to create web pages, and their experiences as WWW page designers. -- Clement and Shade's (1996) access rainbow, which addresses the social and technical factors needed to access the Internet, and actor network theory which looks at the translation of power between humans and non-humans (e.g. machines), provide a theoretical and political context for the investigation. -- Perceptions about the visibility of gender on the Internet emerged from the sixty-seven participant responses to an on-line survey. These perceptions have been categorized as women as agents of inequality (women who see gender as inescapable on the Internet) and women as agents of choice (women who see gender as an individual choice on the Internet). Results suggest that these perceptions might be related to age.

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