World Wide Woman (WWW)
Jan 21, 2015
First story
Shamsa
Somalia
Joined Mar 13, 2013
The Web 2.0 brought about by the internet revolution has marked one of the newest advancements of our time. The Web 2.0 has offered a space to connect the world together, provided a platform to have our voices heard and given rise to citizen journalism that aims to amplify grassroots movements and voices. This new emerging trend of global citizen journalists have been able to connect with each other and tell stories that rarely make it to mainstream media. The most exciting achievements of Web 2.0 is the transformation of power to local communities and citizens as well as the transfer of information among online audiences to offline communities through networking that has caused recent world changes such as the Arab Spring in countries like Tunisia and Egypt which has been dubbed the ‘digital revolution’ among other notable achievements such as Wikileaks which is working towards making our governments more transparent
The Web 2.0 in itself a global movement is making notable impacts in the women empowerments movement. Many have claimed that population of women in the world is more than the men therefore women should stop complaining of marginalization since we are the majority therefore if we want more seats in the parliament we should vote for each other. This kind of argument is flawed and a stereotype since even though women are the majority, men remain holders of power and women continue to be left out of power spaces. The Web 2.0 offers a platform for us women to agitate for our rights, make our voices heard, support each other’s causes, fight for recognition from men, tell our stories the way we want it to be told and collaborate, network, share with other women and coalesce into networks of change to bring an impact
The Web 2.0 tools are very helpful as they are easily accessible, and offer cheaper access to information. If it was not for Web 2.0 tools I would not be constantly reminded of the rape cases women have to go through in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I would be unaware of the achievements of Mama Hawa ‘Queen of Galkacyo’ of Somalia who won the Nansen Refugee Award for operating a center in the war torn country that assists women affected by Gender Based Violence, I would also not have been well informed of the resilience of Aung San Suu Kyi and the abuses that she had to undergo under the Myanmar regime and her recent successes in bringing her country towards the road of democracy neither would I have known of Eve Ensler’s ‘Vagina Monologue’ or the One Billion Rising campaign. It is for stories like these most of them made possible by the presence of Web 2.0 tools that empowers me to want to make an impact in my society, to want to act, to desire to catalyze my community for them to take action so that we can all win in this global movement towards the empowerment of the WOMAN.