girls and the Web: opportunities for empowerment
by sandi tomlin-sutker

As girls use the Internet more, will they sit in front of the computer and play games all day, isolate themselves from friends and physical activities, or even find themselves stalked by predators in chat rooms? Or does the Web offer real opportunities for girls to build self-esteem, express themselves in new ways, learn to value their femaleness but not be limited by societal stereotypes, and even create real social change?

A recent study from Jupiter Communications* indicates the most dramatic growth in Web usage among girls was in the 12-17 year old age group—up 126.3% over the last year. "These teens are interested in teen-targeted fashion magazines, shopping, and music. They also seek to communicate with others and to make their opinions known: they are well represented among visitors to free e-mail site Gurlmail.com, teen community site Teen.com, and polling site freevote.com."

I was surprised to learn that young women ages 18-24 are the only female demographic to show a decline in Web usage. And when they do surf, they are most interested in sites related to education and college.

The other age group of girls, ages 2-11, represent 4% of overall Web usage. The sites they browse most often are related to television programming and related merchandise, plus music and learning sites.

Those statistics weren't very exciting to me in terms of girls' empowerment; in fact they seemed to reinforce the stereotype that girls are only interested in shopping, fashion and socially approved activities.

But as I looked further, I discovered an amazing variety of websites for girls. There were several resource sites with lists and links to sites related to almost everything girls might be interested in: one website chock full of resources: scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/girllist.html included 35 websites on the day I visited and is constantly being updated.

Some fascinating examples:
public.asu.edu/~lecroy/gogrrrls/gogrrrls.htm —"The Go Grrrls program is a research-based primary prevention program for adolescent girls. It was developed over eight years of research and experience in working with adolescent girls.

The Go Grrrls program is designed to help girls develop a lifelong perspective about living as a female in society and can provide a lasting base of information for girls transitioning from adolescent to adult life."

My personal favorite name for a resource was Adios Barbie:
“Welcome to AdiosBarbie.com, a body image site for every body. No matter what your size or background, we hope to inspire you to love your body through thick and thin!”

And lest you readers think we’re leaving out boys completely, this site features an interview with Chris Godsey about how body obsession is becoming an issue for men (and consequently, for boys.) He says: “After a long time believing I run, lift, bike, hike and try to “eat right” in the interest of being fit, I’ve realized my motivations are more superficial than healthy. Instead of seeking true mental and physical fitness, I worry about appearances—about what I’m convinced I should look like, based on magazines, movies and MTV....My head just about explodes trying to find a balance between what women want to see, what constitutes fitness, and how much (and why) I actually care.”

Other sites noted include: 4000 Years of Women in Science, Women of NASA webchat, Girls Incorporated ("a national youth organization dedicated to helping every girl become strong, smart and bold"), Cybergrll ("A useful, comic, and very practical listing of information on issues of concern to girls. Includes a search engine"), A Girl’s World Online Clubhouse ("Launched in June of 1996, it has among several goals: 'To encourage and empower 7-17 year old girls to become active contributors, not passive consumers of media and the Internet.'") I like that.

Another resource site is womensissues.about.com/od/girlsteens. They referenced some of the sites above and some others: The Engineer Girl website is part of the NAE’s Celebration of Women in Engineering project. "This project tries to bring national attention to the opportunity that engineering represents to all people at any age, but particularly to women and girls." Girls Go Tech is a site that "teaches girls that technology, math, and science are everywhere."

And yes, we all know that girls like to talk to each other. The Web provides a new means for them to do that in an even more powerful way: web logs (blogs, for short). "By 2004, 22 percent of teenage girls had started a blog, or online journal, versus 17 percent of boys."

More than half of teens using the Web posted photos, original stories, artwork, even videos. One incredible blog, called HerCity.org is moderated by Girls For a Change (girlsforachange.org), a national organization that "empowers girls to create social change. This is a place for girls and women to share, connect, and converse about social change and life in the InHer City. We are actively recruiting girls to serve as guest authors." If you know a girl who might be interested, please email them at inhercity@girlsforachange.org.

Two examples of inspiring conversations on this site are a young Latina woman writing about a recent Poetry Slam:
“This is so empowering to me because many of us (Mexicans) or any other Minorities (Cultures) don’t have the opportunity to even realize, that they have all this incredible potential inside themselves for anything they are passionate about. So, when I see someone on stage from my culture, being so powerful and expressing themselves in front of the public, it is like seeing family on stage! And, to see family on stage, makes me feel very proud of who I am and where I come from.” -Alicia

And another:
“We wrote RESPECT: A Girl’s Guide to Getting Respect and Dealing When Your Line Is Crossed to support girls in becoming strong and confident forces in their own lives and the world. When we were teens we struggled with lots of issues—negative body image or labels, doubts about our intelligence, seemingly “world-ending” mistakes, unhealthy relationships with guys and family members, and violence. We wanted to pass on to girls what we had finally learned: That respect is connected to everything. No matter what girls are going through or need, respect is the remedy.” -Courtney and Andrea (check out their website: respectgirls.com to see excerpts from this booklet)

Now I'm wondering how much girls access these "empowering" websites, and which girls have the most access. One study I found on teen violence and computer use (from the Division of School Psychology at Alfred University in Alfred, NY) found that good students, those that typically get the A's and B's, used the computer to access websites most often while those with C's and D's tended to play computer or video games. No surprise there, really, but which causes which?

Tapscott (1998)* claimed that "for the first time in history, children are more comfortable, knowledgeable, and literate than their parents about an innovation central to society’s functioning. These children and youngsters, members of the “Net-Generation”, will use digital media to develop and impose the digital culture on the rest of society. Indeed, the penetration of digital media has been greatest among households with children. Currently, about two out of three households with children in the US are using computers and about 40% have Internet connectivity." (cited in a study of Israeli students by Rafi Nachmias, David Mioduser & Anat Shemla)
What this all seems to mean is that the computer, the Web and email will continue to grow in importance. As today's younger generation grows up, they will be more and more comfortable with new technologies. They will likely find healthy and not-so-healthy uses for the technologies, depending on the environment where the technology exists.

Girls, growing into future leaders, can utilize the web to reinforce current stereotypes, or they can do what teens (boy and girls) did in Chadera, Israel: they created The Living Weave, "a community-based project that sponsors intervillage chats between Arab and Israeli high-school students."*

As it always has, much of how the potential of this technology is realized depends on the adults leading this Net Generation forward. And how democratic and widespread the opportunities are depends on our political will—making sure access is universal.

*24 Hours in Cyberspace, Rick Smolan, QUE Macmillan, USA , 1996.