[IMC-bristol] Women's List Proposal [from imc archives]
Mike Tonks
mike at bettercode.com
Mon Jan 5 11:06:04 PST 2004
[IMC-Process] Intro Letter to proposal from womens list
*IMC-Women List* imc-women at indymedia.org
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/Mon Oct 13 20:05:33 PDT 2003/
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(apologies; this should have been the introduction to the proposal)
Hi,
Attached please find a proposal from the IMC-Women's list about how to
positively address issues of diversity (gender and otherwise) within
Indymedia. The proposal is specifically written to be incorporated as part
of the New IMC process. Therefore, this proposal is about making a
powerful amendment to the current process for new collectives joining the
network. We recognize that the already existing collectives also need to
address issues of gender and diversity and we hope that this proposal and
the following dialogue will encourage such discussions to happen locally.
The proposal is in text below and has also been posted to the internal
discussion website at: http://global.indymedia.org/front.php3?
article_id=1098&group=webcast
On this page, it's translated in en español, em português, deutsch,
italiano, francais.
Discussion should happen on imc-process and all liaisons are encouraged to
take the proposal back to their local IMC. We hope that individuals and
locals will use the link above to share comments and responses. Formal
responses from local IMCs should be posted to the imc-process list.
Thanks,
IMC Womens List
(a list of 105 women active in Indymedia)
>
> [IMC-Process] proposal from womens list
>
> *Discussion List for Women Involved in the IMC network* imc-women at
> lists.indymedia.org
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> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcWomyn
>
>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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