Women using the internet: Opportunities, barriers and strategies to enhance participation

Internet use is a necessity for many people, however more than half the world's population has never made a telephone call. The Internet is one of the most significant phenomena in the history of humankind, influencing the future of communication, employment, entertainment and information. Emerging business opportunities and industries will be created while others will change immensely or even cease to exist.

Current debate surrounding Internet use relates to divisions between the information rich and information poor. Many women have not yet ventured on to the Internet for a wide range of reasons and it is these barriers that are the focus of this research. The present research explores the responses, experiences and opinions of 100 women from around the world in relation to perceived barriers to women's Internet use and strategies for increasing women's Internet use. All women volunteered to complete a questionnaire which was posted on two women -only electronic discussion groups on the Internet.

The findings from the data were analysed in relation to a number of areas influencing women's Internet use including the perceived importance of their use, common barriers to their use, social implications for women's Internet use, and strategies for increasing Internet use by women. The main Internet uses identified were for work, information sourcing, communicating with others and networking. The main barriers identified were time, cost and difficulty in understanding the language associated with the medium.

The social implications for women's use and lack of use of the Internet is an extremely important element of this study. It is imperative that the Internet does not serve to promote and compound patriarchal practices and cultures. It is also important that the Internet not serve as a medium to suppress access to information to various socio-cultural groups through enabling greater unequitable access to information by the privileged and 'information elite'.