March 1998 Insights Issue #25

Back to "Gender agenda"

Double edge

The Net clearly offers new freedoms to women for whom the public sphere is constrained, both as an imaginary space of conversing voices but also as a real physical space dominated by patriarchal values and masculinist habits. These freedoms can sometimes produce contradictory outcomes.

In Kuwait and elsewhere in the Middle East, the Internet functions as a space relatively free of male control, precipitating debates about its appropriate use. Interestingly, research suggests that women who favour a more conservative religionist line use the Internet more than 'liberal'-minded women. Thus the Net can liberalise access to more open discourse but cannot tell people what to say and may actively disseminate conservative values.