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Rural Women's Empowerment in a Communication Technology Project: Some contradictory effects
June Lennie
Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Service Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane QLD
Abstract
This paper presents selected findings from the evaluation of a feminist action research project that aimed to enhance Queensland rural women's access to interactive communication technologies (ICT's).
Project activities aimed to be empowering and inclusive. They included online conversation groups, workshops and audio conferences. A model of women's empowerment is used that comprises social, technological, political and psychological forms of empowerment.
The evaluation results suggest that many participants experienced each of these forms of empowerment. The online group welink (women's electronic link) was considered particularly important in facilitating women's empowerment. However, the analysis also indicated various disempowering effects of participating in the project. Case studies of two participants illustrate these contradictory effects.
These results suggest that enhancing rural women's technological empowerment is urgently required, given that use of ICT's is becoming increasingly important to their leadership and participation in community development. Strategies for enhancing rural women's empowerment are suggested.
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