"VOF Week One: (Women's Social Mobility & Change)"

We believe we have come a long way in women’s empowerment & liberation, which is no exaggeration. However, it is of the utmost importance to keep in the forefront of our minds that we hear, read, see & so know what we retrieve in large part from the mass media. The situation of women in the Developing countries is still nowhere near ideal, let alone the more evolved, but still not ideal situations that woman in highly “modernized” societies in “First World” nations too struggle with.

If a woman is not “allowed” to leave her house as is the case in many rural parts of for e.g Pakistan it does not necessarily follow that the families in question are completely “backwards” in every way. As I have seen myself, where satellite dishes started popping up on the roofs on the unlikeliest shacks in villages, computers have now started also making appearances. Like television it is a portal into other worlds & lives, unlike television it is interactive. The woman, who must for whatever reason stay at home, even if it is a housewife in a suburb of Connecticut, can use this computer, as a tool for emancipation. She can be exposed to new ideas beyond her four walls, she can start thinking about her world view differently, perhaps even develop a real voice. This is what Web 2.0 means.

Mexico’s Zapatista movement was one of the first to use the internet to propel a local struggle onto an international stage. It originated a new kind of social movement, one that pushes beyond group identities around which social movements have traditionally organized and into the realm of network identity

In the Web 2.0 World, women gain mobility be it geographical, political, social, or economic to become more active in the world & be heard & represented. They can create platforms from which to organize the mechanics of change for issues that require the woman they affect to speak out in order to create the impetus for transformation.

The first step towards change is raising awareness. Web 2.0 is a shining, living stream of human awareness & knowledge that women have for centuries been denied of. With the evolution of the concepts of Web 2.0 women can grow, gathering power, for that is what knowledge is.

One empowered woman can empower other women to create a chain purely of the volition of women. Many empowered women can work side-by-side with men finally filling in the gaps that have been hanging in every spectrum of life, due to the inability of women to project their voice & will. The idea that a tool such as Web 2.0 that can make these things possible exists inspires me, which is a powerful energy.