About Us
Tel: (011) 429-0000, email: women@womensnet.org.za
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Women’sNet works to advance gender equality and justice in South Africa through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by providing training and facilitating content dissemination and creation that supports women, girls, and women’s and gender organisations and networks to take control of their own content and ICT use.
Recognising that ICTs are a gendered tool, Women’sNet seeks to address gender imbalances in the access and meaningful use of ICTs through research and advocacy for gender aware ICT programmes and policies at all levels of society. Women’sNet builds women’s organisational capacity to use technology strategically to find the people, resources, tools and content they need for social action.
Women’sNet History
The Women’sNet Approach
Women’sNet Strategic Priorities
Women'sNet Services
Women'sNet Staff & Board (with contact email addresses)
Our Contact Details, office hours and a map
Women’sNet History
Women’sNet was launched in March 1998, as a joint initiative of South African Non-Governmental Organisation Network (SANGONeT) and the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE). This collaboration was born out of a desire to develop a network that would facilitate the promotion of gender equality in South Africa by using new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
The launch was the result of work done in 1997, where women from NGOs, statutory bodies, and academia came together to set out their vision for Women'sNet as an organisation. Says Jennifer Radloff - who was there : "It was a powerful, interactive and valuable opportunity for women and gender activists at that time in our herstory as South Africans, as activists and as women aware of the need to harness ICTs." (Read "Women'sNet and me: my feminist fix with a tech mix" by Jennifer Radloff in Women'sNet's September 2006 newsletter here
Women’sNet was publicly launched in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg. The Durban launch took place at the Commission for Gender Equality and South African Department of Justice conference on the prevention of violence against women in the SADC region. In Cape Town, Women’sNet was launched in Parliament at a high profile lunch hosted by the Parliamentary Women’s Group. The Johannesburg launch took place in the SANGONeT offices and was attended by more that 40 women from NGOs and government agencies throughout Gauteng. Approximately 300 people together attended all three launches.
For 1998 – October 2002, Women’sNet operated as a project of SANGONeT, and was located within and operated as part SANGONeT. In light of restructuring plans with in SANGONeT, Women’sNet was granted approval by the SANGONeT Board to set itself up as an independent organisation. Women’sNet moved offices in November 2002, and became formally registered as a Section 21 company (a not-for profit organisation, in terms of South African company law) in January 2003.
Women'sNet is a member of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and the APC Women's Networking Support Programme (WNSP)
Read more about the 1997 Workshop that made it all happen here , to read about how the Women'sNet website was born, click here . Our Newsletter, Intersections- Feminism in Action (vol 1, issue3) highlights our HerITage! (this is a link to a pdf document)
The Women’sNet Approach
The Women’sNet model rests on three pillars, information/content generation linked to networking and capacity building. Examples of how content development has gone hand-in-hand with capacity development of women’s organisations include the work done in preparation of the Violence Against Women site, the human rights site, and the governance site. In the context of building networks for action, this is a tried and tested developmental model for ICT work, and has underpinned all Women’sNet capacity development and content generation activities.
This model ensures Women’sNet’s sustainability and the sustainability of South African women’s organisations in the long term. Without the engagement with women’s organisations and efforts to build their capacity, content flow to the Women’sNet site will be impeded. As it is, most women’s organisations lack the capacity and resources to use and engage with ICTs without some facilitation by Women’sNet. Furthermore, without women’s organisations’ active participation in content generation, Women’sNet loses its authenticity and uniqueness.
Women'sNet is a feminist orgnisation and has developed a regional and international profile and reputation as a project that both disseminates relevant information and supports other gender-aware organisations in their work to advance gender equality. Much of this profile rests on our networking and capacity development activities. Women’sNet is an active partner within an Africa-wide network of women in ICTs that have taken on the challenge of promoting ICTs for social development and gender transformation.
Women’sNet has been a key participant in regional gender and ICT advocacy and training through its membership within APC Africa Women and the global network, APC WNSP. Where ICT circles would not normally include gender issues, Women’sNet has been identified as a gender and ICT advocate and invited to these fora to make presentations. Women’sNet is active in advocating for principles and action areas for the information society that are both gender-inclusive and sensitive to the specificities of Africa contexts.
Since its inception, Women’sNet has successfully implemented a number of projects as part of its mandate to support South African women in harnessing ICTs to facilitate women’s empowerment through networking and special projects.
Women’sNet Strategic Priorities
The following strategic priorities were set out by participants from the women’s movement in the first Brain-Storming Workshop in 1997, at the birth of Women’sNet.
- Making ICTs accessible to women, particularly disadvantaged women
- Providing responsive gender-sensitive training and support to use the internet more strategically
- Linking projects, people, tools and resources through the empowerment and support of technology planning processes within women’s civil society organisations, and though the exploration of and awareness raising for free and open source software solutions (FOSS)
- Creating a platform for women's voices and issues though the Women’sNet website and though capacity development
- Facilitating the dissemination of information in formats accessible to women who are not directly linked to the Internet
- Facilitating collaborative web site development and the strengthening of women's networks
Women'sNet offers a number of services to NGOs and other institutions on using ICTs strategically to achieve their goals. We offer both stand alone courses and tailor made-training.
Our services include:
- Technology Planning:
Many Women’s organisations’ very important work is undermined by their lack of information, structures and support with regard to ICTs. They are unable to communicate with each other, with policy makers and with global movements as well as their constituencies. We offer services to women’s NGOs to assist them to make strategic technology decisions to support their goals and activities. This includes activities to create awareness of free and open source software solutions (FOSS).
- Training:
Training at Women’sNet focuses on strategic use of technology to meet the real needs of women. We held the first workshop for women on free and open source technology in Africa in 2004. We conduct training on producing audio files for community radio and the internet, on using the internet and email effectively, on advocacy and lobbying online and other tailor made courses.
- Women's Technology Training Centre:
We have a training centre at our offices in Newtown with 18 computers, using an open source software platform. We welcome groups from gender and women’s organisations to drop by, practice, do research or just play – call us to make a booking!
- Website Planning and Development:
Women’sNet assists organisations to plan their websites - from purpose to structure to content and maintenance, making the website work. We also help organisations to revive older websites.
- Communication and Networking Support:
Women'sNet can help your organisation's campaign or project make the best use of technology. We can advise you on managing and facilitating email lists, buying technology tools, which software is most appropriate for your needs, using internet tools for advocacy and much more.
For a quote or advice call us on: (011) 429-0000 or email women@womensnet.org.za
We are located in Newtown, Johannesburg.