Feed aggregator

An interview with Helen Nyinakiiza, who has recently joined Association for Progressive Communication as an individual member. Helen is a passionate digital security trainer, and in this interview she talks about the use of technology and internet rights in Uganda, the digital divide around gender and region, and how she does her trainings.

Helen Nyinakiiza (right), aside from being a digital security trainer, also works in an education project for orphans in Iganga district in Eastern Uganda.

Feminist talk

read more

An interview with Helen Nyinakiiza, who has recently joined Association for Progressive Communication as an individual member. Helen is a passionate digital security trainer, and in this interview she talks about the use of technology and internet rights in Uganda, the digital divide around gender and region, and how she does her trainings.

Helen Nyinakiiza (right), aside from being a digital security trainer, also works in an education project for orphans in Iganga district in Eastern Uganda.

Feminist talk

read more

Online harassment has taken various forms on the internet, including doxxing, intimate violence, stalking and so on. In this article, Part 2 of the series, Maya Ganesh explores a different way of thinking through this contemporary phenomenon by using an approach that emphasises 'design-thinking'. Possibilities that are explored include whether the system or platform can predict or respond to interactions that are escalating. However we also need to acknowledge that design, no matter how good, cannot solve social problems or harassment, but can be part of how we deal with it.

Collage with statute La Pensadora (Thinking Woman) by José Luis Fernández in Spain

The ‘Architectures of Online Harassment’ was the first in a two-part post that described the context and motivations of Tactical Tech’s work addressing the problem of online harassment through the lens of interface design. In this second post, I describe the results and outcomes of the workshop developed by Caroline Sinders and myself.

Feminist talk

read more

Online harassment has taken various forms on the internet, including doxxing, intimate violence, stalking and so on. In this article, Part 2 of the series, Maya Ganesh explores a different way of thinking through this contemporary phenomenon by using an approach that emphasises 'design-thinking'. Possibilities that are explored include whether the system or platform can predict or respond to interactions that are escalating. However we also need to acknowledge that design, no matter how good, cannot solve social problems or harassment, but can be part of how we deal with it.

Collage with statute La Pensadora (Thinking Woman) by José Luis Fernández in Spain

The ‘Architectures of Online Harassment’ was the first in a two-part post that described the context and motivations of Tactical Tech’s work addressing the problem of online harassment through the lens of interface design. In this second post, I describe the results and outcomes of the workshop developed by Caroline Sinders and myself.

Feminist talk

read more

We can no longer ignore the pervasive datafication of our lives - the ways in which our habits, illness, abilities, relations are abstracted, and our bodies made into data by an intersecting range of institutions and processes. In this article, the gendered, sexualised and racialised nature of surveillance is unpacked, so we maintain a focus on the power relations involved. Surveillance affects racialised groups, the gender non-conforming, people with disabilities, and other marginalised populations disproportionately.

Original design by Paru Ramesh

The work of caring and writing about sexual surveillance elicits occasional productive puzzlement over its precise meaning. Questions usually boil down to versions of —

• What is sexual surveillance?
• What is sexual about surveillance?
• We are all under surveillance, why make it about _______?
  • ◻ sex?
  • ◻ gender?

Feminist talk

read more

We can no longer ignore the pervasive datafication of our lives - the ways in which our habits, illness, abilities, relations are abstracted, and our bodies made into data by an intersecting range of institutions and processes. In this article, the gendered, sexualised and racialised nature of surveillance is unpacked, so we maintain a focus on the power relations involved. Surveillance affects racialised groups, the gender non-conforming, people with disabilities, and other marginalised populations disproportionately.

Original design by Paru Ramesh

The work of caring and writing about sexual surveillance elicits occasional productive puzzlement over its precise meaning. Questions usually boil down to versions of —

• What is sexual surveillance?
• What is sexual about surveillance?
• We are all under surveillance, why make it about _______?
  • ◻ sex?
  • ◻ gender?

Feminist talk

read more

El acceso a internet marca una gran diferencia entre quienes forman parte de la revolución digital y quienes se quedan atrás, una brecha que también nos aleja más a unas mujeres de otras. La importancia del acceso debe entenderse desde la concepción de internet como un espacio político y público que puede convertirse en una herramienta de empoderamiento de las mujeres.

Vivimos en un mundo altamente tecnologizado. Somos testigos de la abrumadora velocidad en que los microprocesadores y las memorias se hacen más eficientes y con ello las capacidades de cómputo, de análisis de datos, y de almacenamiento de información avanzan vertiginosamente. Es una época importante para preguntarnos sobre las cualidades de nuestras comunicaciones, sin duda, y esto implica entrar en terrenos pantanosos que circulan en el afuera de la red de redes.

Feminist talk

read more

El acceso a internet marca una gran diferencia entre quienes forman parte de la revolución digital y quienes se quedan atrás, una brecha que también nos aleja más a unas mujeres de otras. La importancia del acceso debe entenderse desde la concepción de internet como un espacio político y público que puede convertirse en una herramienta de empoderamiento de las mujeres.

Vivimos en un mundo altamente tecnologizado. Somos testigos de la abrumadora velocidad en que los microprocesadores y las memorias se hacen más eficientes y con ello las capacidades de cómputo, de análisis de datos, y de almacenamiento de información avanzan vertiginosamente. Es una época importante para preguntarnos sobre las cualidades de nuestras comunicaciones, sin duda, y esto implica entrar en terrenos pantanosos que circulan en el afuera de la red de redes.

Feminist talk

read more

Este 8 de marzo, vamos a escuchar esos discursos muy bonitos: “las mujeres son lo más bello de la creación”, “a la mujer no se le toca ni con el pétalo de una rosa”, “la mujer como la cabeza de la familia”. ¡Por favor no me cuenten que somos lo mejor y no salgan con sus discursos patriarcales! ¡En pleno siglo XXI las mujeres tienen que seguir defendiendo sus derechos!

Eran apenas las 9 de la noche, salí tarde de la oficina y estaba muy estresada como para querer llegar a casa. Camine de la oficina a una tienda de pasteles. Me merecía algo con chocolate, pagué y caminé hasta mi casa, no eran más de 15 minutos. La noche caía, no entiendo por qué las luminarias son tan malas, el último tramo siempre es complicado, son dos cuadras muy largas, un lote baldío, un contenedor de basura y poca iluminación, no veía ni mi sombra, empecé a caminar rápido. Faltaba muy poco para llegar y en algún momento alguien se incorporo al eco de mis pasos.

Feminist talk

read more

Este 8 de marzo, vamos a escuchar esos discursos muy bonitos: “las mujeres son lo más bello de la creación”, “a la mujer no se le toca ni con el pétalo de una rosa”, “la mujer como la cabeza de la familia”. ¡Por favor no me cuenten que somos lo mejor y no salgan con sus discursos patriarcales! ¡En pleno siglo XXI las mujeres tienen que seguir defendiendo sus derechos!

Eran apenas las 9 de la noche, salí tarde de la oficina y estaba muy estresada como para querer llegar a casa. Camine de la oficina a una tienda de pasteles. Me merecía algo con chocolate, pagué y caminé hasta mi casa, no eran más de 15 minutos. La noche caía, no entiendo por qué las luminarias son tan malas, el último tramo siempre es complicado, son dos cuadras muy largas, un lote baldío, un contenedor de basura y poca iluminación, no veía ni mi sombra, empecé a caminar rápido. Faltaba muy poco para llegar y en algún momento alguien se incorporo al eco de mis pasos.

Feminist talk

read more

Judith Owigar speaks about her journey entering into tech spaces, and also about their work with Akirachix in Kenya helping other women along the same journey marked by trials, exclusions and success. While speaking about the barriers of education in science and technology (STEM), she says that what inspires her work in many forums around women in tech in Africa, is that eventually a woman should have the space to make her own choices.

Image source: Akirachix

Judith Owigar is a coder, a blogger and a tech enthusiast. She has worked with Akirachix, a revolution for African women and technology. She is a native of Kenya, a country off the coast of East Africa, one of its 40 million inhabitants.

Namita Aavriti: Tell us a bit about yourself, what you are doing now, what motivates you.

Judith Owigar: I studied computer science out of curiosity initially.

Feminist talk

read more

Judith Owigar speaks about her journey entering into tech spaces, and also about their work with Akirachix in Kenya helping other women along the same journey marked by trials, exclusions and success. While speaking about the barriers of education in science and technology (STEM), she says that what inspires her work in many forums around women in tech in Africa, is that eventually a woman should have the space to make her own choices.

Image source: Akirachix

Judith Owigar is a coder, a blogger and a tech enthusiast. She has worked with Akirachix, a revolution for African women and technology. She is a native of Kenya, a country off the coast of East Africa, one of its 40 million inhabitants.

Namita Aavriti: Tell us a bit about yourself, what you are doing now, what motivates you.

Judith Owigar: I studied computer science out of curiosity initially.

Feminist talk

read more

Photograph by Carsten ten Brink. Title: The women work. Image source

read more

We face a problem when arguing for the economic value of women’s work through discourses of empowerment, inclusion or equality, and this problem is deeper than how it is framed in most development and access to technology discourse. It is based on the fact that only the kind of work done in spaces outside the home are considered to be real work.

read more

El 23 de febrero estamos frente a un paro inusual: las mujeres que trabajan en las empresas de tecnología de información y comunicación decidieron decir basta a la discriminación salarial y laboral, al menosprecio de sus capacidades en el mundo de la alta tecnología, al acoso laboral y sexual que muchas de ellas soportan en un ambiente que pretende regirse por reglas de poder masculino.

El 23 de febrero estamos frente a un paro inusual: las mujeres que trabajan en las empresas de tecnología de información y comunicación decidieron decir basta a la discriminación salarial y laboral, al menosprecio de sus capacidades en el mundo de la alta tecnología, al acoso laboral y sexual que muchas de ellas soportan en un ambiente que pretende regirse por reglas de poder masculino.

Feminist talk

read more

El 23 de febrero estamos frente a un paro inusual: las mujeres que trabajan en las empresas de tecnología de información y comunicación decidieron decir basta a la discriminación salarial y laboral, al menosprecio de sus capacidades en el mundo de la alta tecnología, al acoso laboral y sexual que muchas de ellas soportan en un ambiente que pretende regirse por reglas de poder masculino.

El 23 de febrero estamos frente a un paro inusual: las mujeres que trabajan en las empresas de tecnología de información y comunicación decidieron decir basta a la discriminación salarial y laboral, al menosprecio de sus capacidades en el mundo de la alta tecnología, al acoso laboral y sexual que muchas de ellas soportan en un ambiente que pretende regirse por reglas de poder masculino.

Feminist talk

read more

The Distributed Denial of Women strike borrows the metaphor of the DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack as a radical and subversive tool by activists, but currently DDOS attacks powered by zombie-bots are part of the anarcho-capitalist economies of the internet. Ganesh in their article unpacks the many levels at which gendered labour is extracted, and while positing feminist autonomous infrastructures as an alternative, points to the flaws and the contradictions in the movement and civil society as well.

Guy Fawkes Mask Collage
Article triggered by Ganesh

«Stand up for women and non-binary people in tech.
Join the general strike on February 23, 2017.
Pledge to stay home from work, stay offline, and/or publicly protest.»

The Distributed Denial of Women (DDoW) strike is an international call in protest to unequal conditions of women and genderfluid/queer in technology.

read more

The Distributed Denial of Women strike borrows the metaphor of the DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack as a radical and subversive tool by activists, but currently DDOS attacks powered by zombie-bots are part of the anarcho-capitalist economies of the internet. Ganesh in their article unpacks the many levels at which gendered labour is extracted, and while positing feminist autonomous infrastructures as an alternative, points to the flaws and the contradictions in the movement and civil society as well.

Guy Fawkes Mask Collage
Article triggered by Ganesh

«Stand up for women and non-binary people in tech.
Join the general strike on February 23, 2017.
Pledge to stay home from work, stay offline, and/or publicly protest.»

The Distributed Denial of Women (DDoW) strike is an international call in protest to unequal conditions of women and genderfluid/queer in technology.

read more

The Distributed Denial of Women strike borrows the metaphor of the DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack as a radical and subversive tool by activists, but currently DDOS attacks powered by zombie-bots are part of the anarcho-capitalist economies of the internet. Ganesh in their article unpacks the many levels at which gendered labour is extracted, and while positing feminist autonomous infrastructures as an alternative, points to the flaws and the contradictions in the movement and civil society as well.

Guy Fawkes Mask Collage
Article triggered by Ganesh

«Stand up for women and non-binary people in tech.
Join the general strike on February 23, 2017.
Pledge to stay home from work, stay offline, and/or publicly protest.»

The Distributed Denial of Women (DDoW) strike is an international call in protest to unequal conditions of women and genderfluid/queer in technology.

read more

Multinational companies often put in place a policy for diversity and inclusiveness at the workplace, but does this guarantee the everyday, actual practice of accepting people from marginalized communities, and especially women from such communities. In this article, Christina Thomas Dhanaraj, examines what it means to be Dalit in corporate India - the continued invisibilising of caste, sexism and gender inequity and the effectiveness (or not) of diversity policies.

Original image source

“I strongly believe in the movements run by women. If they are truly taken in to confidence, they may change the present picture of society which is very miserable. In the past, they have played a significant role in improving the condition of weaker sections and classes.”
Dr B.R. Ambedkar

Before I delve into my article, I want to provide some context into why and how this is my story.

Feminist talk

read more