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Global Indymedia Women's Proposal
This is a proposal that is circulating through the Indymedia Network. It was conceived on the global IMC Women's listserv, which has over 100 women active in Indymedia on it.
The Proposal
sent to imc-process om Oct 14, 03
Proposal for New-IMC Process
The imc-women-list exists since summer 2001 and consists of women active in indymedias in Latin America, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Since two years, we have discussed in many facets the depressing situation of patriarchal repression in society which unfortunately doesn't stop at the doorstep of leftist groups.
Many concrete situations came up, in which women felt discriminated against in their local group. In most cases we were able to support the women emotionally and to give advice. But we feel that this is not enough.
Women are a small minority within many indymedia groups, some groups only consist of men. This may be due to the fact that people perceive indymedia mainly as a website and don't realize how much work needs to be done concerning building political relationships, outreach, editorial work etc. Therefore indymedia attracts relatively more people who are interested in computing than people who are not. Accordingly, the underrepresention of women within indymedia reflects the underrepresentation of women in Information Technology related fields.
However, only some incidents in which women felt discriminated against within their groups were tech related. Several complained about being silenced in meetings, some had experienced open sexist behavior, many stated that there was a general atmosphere that made it hard for women to work within their indymedia group.
This means that gender discrimination is not only due to the fact that techies have an important role within indymedia and techies tend to be male. It is apparent, that non-tech as well as tech males discriminate against women.
Many of our male co-activists have taken an active stance against gender discrimination within indymedia. And we hope they will keep up this stance as we don't perceive our struggle as females versus males but as a general cause.
However, the discrimination by individual men and the patriarchal atmosphere in some groups has reached such a degree that we believe action needs to be taken.
Furthermore we believe that similar mechanisms that minimize women's involvement also work against the participation of ethnic and sexual minorities and maintain a homogeneous class structure.
We talked about different measures to change this situation. As a result of our discussions, we would like to propose that these issues be addressed during the process which new imcs undertake.
Proposal:
We propose that the following questions be incorporated in the application form:
A. How does the makeup of your collective reflect the diversity of the local community (e.g. in realtion to gender-, sexual-, spiritual-, and/or cultural-identity)?
B. If your group currently does not represent the diversity of the local community, particularly in relation to groups who are underrepresented in mainstream society and denied access to vehicles of expression, what steps will be taken to address this on an ongoing basis?
C. What steps will be taken to involve individuals in workfields new to them? What measures will be taken to overcome a gendered work division?
sent to imc-process om Oct 14, 03
Proposal for New-IMC Process
The imc-women-list exists since summer 2001 and consists of women active in indymedias in Latin America, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Since two years, we have discussed in many facets the depressing situation of patriarchal repression in society which unfortunately doesn't stop at the doorstep of leftist groups.
Many concrete situations came up, in which women felt discriminated against in their local group. In most cases we were able to support the women emotionally and to give advice. But we feel that this is not enough.
Women are a small minority within many indymedia groups, some groups only consist of men. This may be due to the fact that people perceive indymedia mainly as a website and don't realize how much work needs to be done concerning building political relationships, outreach, editorial work etc. Therefore indymedia attracts relatively more people who are interested in computing than people who are not. Accordingly, the underrepresention of women within indymedia reflects the underrepresentation of women in Information Technology related fields.
However, only some incidents in which women felt discriminated against within their groups were tech related. Several complained about being silenced in meetings, some had experienced open sexist behavior, many stated that there was a general atmosphere that made it hard for women to work within their indymedia group.
This means that gender discrimination is not only due to the fact that techies have an important role within indymedia and techies tend to be male. It is apparent, that non-tech as well as tech males discriminate against women.
Many of our male co-activists have taken an active stance against gender discrimination within indymedia. And we hope they will keep up this stance as we don't perceive our struggle as females versus males but as a general cause.
However, the discrimination by individual men and the patriarchal atmosphere in some groups has reached such a degree that we believe action needs to be taken.
Furthermore we believe that similar mechanisms that minimize women's involvement also work against the participation of ethnic and sexual minorities and maintain a homogeneous class structure.
We talked about different measures to change this situation. As a result of our discussions, we would like to propose that these issues be addressed during the process which new imcs undertake.
Proposal:
We propose that the following questions be incorporated in the application form:
A. How does the makeup of your collective reflect the diversity of the local community (e.g. in realtion to gender-, sexual-, spiritual-, and/or cultural-identity)?
B. If your group currently does not represent the diversity of the local community, particularly in relation to groups who are underrepresented in mainstream society and denied access to vehicles of expression, what steps will be taken to address this on an ongoing basis?
C. What steps will be taken to involve individuals in workfields new to them? What measures will be taken to overcome a gendered work division?
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this is a new thread for people to discuss the proposal, and how we can keep more women involved in indymedia. no personal attacks or allegations will be allowed in this thread. thanks.
One thing that is a little strange is that the statement is mainly about gender descrimination, while the proposal is about diversity in general. Perhaps it should be called the Diversity Proposal from the Women's Collective.
While the proposal sounds good, I wonder how it can be enforced. Will it only apply to new collectives? How does one prevent a group from lying about diversity or tokenizing people who ocassionally help but have little power in the collective.
While the proposal sounds good, I wonder how it can be enforced. Will it only apply to new collectives? How does one prevent a group from lying about diversity or tokenizing people who ocassionally help but have little power in the collective.
this is a good idea. more ameliorative actions will need to be taken. however, i think we also need to reflect on the structural causes of this problem and other related problems of representation in indymedia.
the DIY culture that indymedia emerged out of has always favored more assertive people who from a very young age have been socialized to feel that what they have to say is vitally important (i.e. males). It also favors people who are well-educated and come from a position of privilige (i.e. whites). DIY culture is flexible enough so that women, people of color and working class individuals are also able to participate. however, these structural barriers are always there and it seems this is what indymedia is bumping up against.
as a white male, i don't want to be demonized. but, i do think it's more than fair to expect someone like myself to be conscious of the social dynamics that are limiting the participation of large numbers of people in this project and to act on that knowledge accordingly.
the DIY culture that indymedia emerged out of has always favored more assertive people who from a very young age have been socialized to feel that what they have to say is vitally important (i.e. males). It also favors people who are well-educated and come from a position of privilige (i.e. whites). DIY culture is flexible enough so that women, people of color and working class individuals are also able to participate. however, these structural barriers are always there and it seems this is what indymedia is bumping up against.
as a white male, i don't want to be demonized. but, i do think it's more than fair to expect someone like myself to be conscious of the social dynamics that are limiting the participation of large numbers of people in this project and to act on that knowledge accordingly.
I exchanged emails last year with a IMC founder. that lives in Eastern Canada. Basically I complained about the fact that women and more precisely women of colour (dark skinned women), have no say or way of participating on IMC. I asked about the piossibility of some tech tutorial etc. The response that I got was that I had to do the work myself. There is no one out there interested in getting non white females involved in media or indy media work.
When I go to the events and I see who are involved... there ain't no one from my hood. Just white girls!
When I go to the events and I see who are involved... there ain't no one from my hood. Just white girls!
See:
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/12/1668182_comment.php#1668202
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/12/1668182_comment.php#1668202
Men do not have any list nor site in Indymedia.
¿Why?
Do you think that women are vetoed in Indymedia?
Women struggle must be freedomseeker people struggles.
Greets, health and social revolution.
¿Why?
Do you think that women are vetoed in Indymedia?
Women struggle must be freedomseeker people struggles.
Greets, health and social revolution.
No offense to women out there but you really don't belong out during protests. I am Moslem and believe protesting should be kept to males only. It is better for women this way that way they don't get caught up in things they shouldn't get caught up in. It is not sexist but it is the truth. Women make poor protesters because they are too soft, submissive, and don't have a high enough intelligence in my opinion.
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