Keywords: Strategy, Online Activism, Social Networks, Online Safety
“Through this toolkit we hope that campaigners will acquire the following skills: An understanding of why and how information and communications technologies (ICTs) can be appropriated by women’s rights and human rights groups in their advocacy skills through their use of online tools, including networking and mobile tools for advovacy and campaigning; The ability to develop an advocacy/communication strategy; Knowing what social networking is and the various spaces and tools they could use in their online activism; An understanding of online privacy issues relevant to building their online activism.”
Author: Association for Progressive Communications and Violence is not our Culture, 2011
“While this toolkit has been designed primarily for the local partners and activists of the VNC campaign, this can be a resource, too, for human rights activists who are keen to develop their online activism and want to know where and how to start.”
This toolkit is informed by the feminist standpoint on ICTs and draws its inpiration from gender-sensitive practices and approaches introduced by women’s groups at the forefront of this critique. Essentially, these approaches involve:
An analysis of women’s and men’s different roles in society, specifically the multiple “burdens” of women’s experience in society and their access (or non-access) to resources to supporte their multiple roles and “burdens”.
An understanding of these gender-based roles and their impact on how women and men experience technologies – their access to ICTs and how this access translates into how much “voice” and therefore “power” they have in society.
Taking a clear stand to address the gender inequality in society, including the field of ICT through women’s empowerment.