The elements which will affect the outcome of this reformation are the typical patterns of gender interaction, the elastic capabilities of digital artistry, and new interpretations of the most basic components in electronic communications and language. Feminist theory is expanding and stretching these traditional concepts into new directions which were not previously anticipated. These elusive twists are beginning to have a global impact beyond the borders of Cyberspace-changes so profound that there is the possibility of culture shock as women's Cyberspace experiences reverberate in real life.

Women's role in Cyberspace slithers and changes depending upon the media presenting the image. The modern incarnation of Pandora, powerful bitch/goddess, is popular in novels, such a William Gibson's Neuromancer, and films, such as Melanie Griffith's role in Cherry 2000. Both fantasies are sexy, aloof, and tough; women to be feared as they wield their evil through technological power. Their opposite is portrayed in populist television broadcasts and newspaper articles of women as victims of cyberstalkers, rapists, and pornographic web sites. Reducing the portrayal of women to little more than their erotic value denys the reality of their multi-dimensional impact. Paterson asserted:

Cyberfeminism as a philosophy has the potential to create a poetic, passionate, political identity and unity without relying on a logic and language of exclusion or appropriation. It offers a route for reconstructing feminist politics through theory and practice with a focus on the implications of new technology rather than on factors which are divisive. It rejects the trend toward carefully crafted descriptions of people which rely on more than a few adjectives. At issue is not whether a woman can be accurately described as a lesbian-separatist, pacifist, woman of colour, but rather, whether we can recognize and address the personal and political impact which new electronic technologies and media have on daily life. New electronic technologies are currently utilized to manipulate and define our experiences. Cyberfeminism does not accept as inevitable current applications of new technologies which impose and maintain specific cultural, political and sexual stereotypes. Empowerment of women in the field of new electronic media can only result from the demystification of technology, and the appropriation of access to these tools.

Gibson is credited with having introduced the word "Cyberspace" into popular culture, in his novel Neuromancer (1984), defining it as a "consensual hallucination." Cyberspace is dissolving more than the conventional concepts of time and space. Individuals and cultures are suffering a crisis of identity as traditional gender related mores shift and reform as fast as the flickering images upon the computer screen. It is the new magic circle upon which the practitioner of illusions can perform brilliantly. Virtual Reality (VR) and Cyberspace are the technologies for living vicariously, and women are increasingly successful when they step inside the circle. Cyberfeminists are creating their own reality filled with newly constructed identities and ways of being in the world. Reshaping each other and redefining themselves, they are also reclaiming new electronic technologies for all women. Paterson continued:

Through Virtual Reality, deconstruction of gender is entering the realm of pop culture, and this link with new electronic technology has implications for the philosophy of cyberfeminism...The proof of the impact of such technologies (which have stretched and twisted our understanding of time and space as well as the limitations of our vulnerable, physical, human bodies) may be measured by the paranoia which they have inspired. Cyberspace has become a fertile breeding ground for multiple personalities, flaming, electronic stalking and gender-bending at the very least. The body, in virtual space, is no mere user-interface; VR offers the chance to trade-in, remodel, or even leave behind the physical nature with which we are, in reality, burdened.

Haraway (1991) elaborated on this theme in her discussion of dualistic thinking which is persistent in Western traditions. Used as logical rationale in the domination of women and others, these concepts include self/other, mind/body, culture/nature, male/female, civilized/primitive, reality/appearance, whole/part, agent/resource, maker/made, active/passive, right/wrong, truth/illusion, total/partial, God/man.... The culture of Cyberspace challenges these dualisms in intriguing ways. What is mind and what is body becomes unclear, as does the relationship between humans and machines. Haraway commented:

It gives me great pleasure to watch traditional male, white, Western philosophers suddenly identify with body, with animality, when they feel their human identity threatened by the decision procedures of computers. For them, to be human is now less mind than body, because machine seems to threaten mind in the late 20th century in the way it threatened body in the 19th. But I maintain that in so far as we know ourselves in both formal discourse (e.g., biology) and in daily practice, we find ourselves to be cyborgs, hybrids, mosaics, chimeras....I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess.

Her questions are beguiling. Should our bodies end at the skin or include, at best, other beings encapsulated by skin? Our bodies are maps of power and identity. Cyborgs become the same. Since the 17th century, machines could be animated--given ghostly souls to make them speak or move or to account for their orderly development and mental capacities. Cyborg imagery can suggest a way out of the maze of dualisms, a different dream of a common language, both building and destroying machines, identities, categories, relationships, spaces, stories.

The consequences of taking seriously the imagery of cyborgs is a profound change in our evaluation of gender driven identities. For women, intense pleasure in skill, machine skill, ceases to be a sin, becoming instead an aspect of embodiment. Up till now, female embodiment seemed to be given, organic, necessary; it seemed to mean skill in mothering and its metaphoric extensions. Cyborgs might be considered as a partial, fluid, and intermittent aspect of sex and sexual embodiment. Gender might not be global identity after all. (Haraway, 1991)

Of equal concern to the erotic portrayal is the characterization of women as technophobics. Often cited as a reason why men dominate the Internet, this line of reasoning is being aggressively challenged. The preferred emphasis is placed upon the positive aspects of women and computing. Sofoulis (1995) asserted, "Amidst the hype...anything less than uncritically enthusiastic embrace of new technologies is often interpreted psychologically as 'technofear', when arguably what is at issue is an ambivalence, a combination of positive interest in the particular technology coupled with an ironic and critical perspective on the whole technological trajectory it represents."

This shift of perspective moves away from technophobia, towards a more technophilic approach, redefining the relationships between technology and art. In a conventional humanistic framework the two may appear as opposites; in postmodernity, they are much more interconnected. (Braidotti,1997)

These arguments are sustained by statistics generated concerning gender related Internet usage. Statistics in 1996 reflected an increase of female usage to 40% of American Internet users, with a total of 40 million American Internet users. The Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing, 1997 survey revealed, "Female users still are flocking to the Internet, with 38.20% having gone online in the past year, compared to only 19.48% for males....Females with under 6 months experience has declined to 19.19% from 27.65%." While 85.46% of female respondents were from the US, all locations were more gender-balanced in this survey when compared to previous surveys.

A study conducted by ComQUEST Research, a subsidiary of BBM Bureau of Measurement, during Sept. 96 & 97 with 3,000 randomly selected Canadian adults (1,500 per study), found usage of the Web has jumped from 9.7% to 19.3% of Canadian adults during the past year. Among men, the increase in weekly Web usage was +70% from a year ago, while women's usage increased by 182% in the same period. Of equal import is the Georgia Institute of Technology finding that "Women are less likely than men to be in computer related fields (20.28% Female vs. 34.77% Male), but are equally likely to be in Management or Professional positions."

One deterrent for non-technical users is the perception of usefulness. Communications specialist Donna Zelzer compared women's use of the Internet to the automobile as expensive and mechanical, with certain dangers inherent. Men also make fun of women drivers, yet millions of women own cars and drive them every day because they see cars as useful and even necessary to their lifestyles. Concrete benefits of internet usage must be demonstrated to overcome a new user's reluctance to invest time and money in learning to telecommunicate. Network users often describe virtual community as a benefit; professionals and activists use it to gather, access, and disseminate information and viewpoints not readily available from mass media. (Truong,1993)

Most women, prior to logging online, receive their information about the Internet from the traditional forms of mass media. Rather than emphasize the benefits of Internet involvement, the media are more likely to portray the negative aspects, one of which is sexual harassment. A feminine first name can spark a large volume of sexually explicit messages, which prompts some women to use genderless online aliases. Many women who use Internet sites, electronic bulletin boards, or other on-line services report receiving invitations and messages of a sexually explicit nature in real-time chats or via e-mail. These messages are variously analogous to obscene phone calls or whistles in the street depending on their tone (Truong, 1993). Sexual harassment, which has been described as a systematic means of keeping women out of male territory, is the greatest single factor which prevents women from freely participating in the online community.

Glasscock discussed the power and impact of words in a medium where they are the only form of communication. She commented upon sexual hazing or harassment, which is as persistent in Cyberspace as it is in the workplace. "One may be virtual and the other sometimes verbal, sometimes physical, but, make no mistake about it, virtual harassment can be just as unpleasant and intimidating, sometimes really scary since the offender has the cloak of anonymity which emboldens him."

There is disagreement on this and not all women are as restrained in their response to the mass media portrayal of women as online victims of sexual crimes. McAdams argued:

Danger to my physical body does not exist online. I agree with Laura Miller that rape cannot take place in a realm I inhabit only with my mind (despite numerous opinions to the contrary). After stating the obvious -- that 'women's smaller, physically weaker bodies and lower social status make them subject to violation by men' -- Miller notes that 'there's a troubling notion in the real and virtual worlds that women's minds are also more vulnerable to invasion, degradation, and abuse.' This notion, reinforced by media reports about verbal harassment of women online, fuels the campaign to regulate and censor online communications -- the implication being, Miller says, that 'helpless' women desperately need protection.

Even though several respondents to Gladys We's survey sent her anecdotes about being harassed online: "...as one man said, 'try using a woman's handle online someday and see how many 'hello's' you get as compared to your regular handle (if you're a male, of course!)'...one woman reported, 'in response to my postings he sent e-mail calling me 'hairy legged feminazi'...and did lots of innuendoes about the probable deficits in my personal life,'" she concluded, "On the surface, it would seem that most people feel that Cyberspace tends to be friendly to women. It allows women to adopt more active personas, and to speak on a 'level-playing field' reduced of gender cues."

VR includes various chat lines, Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), listservs and newsgroups, all of which are accessed via electronic mail (email). Of this type, MUDs (Multi User Dimensions) are the most complex and comprehensively elaborate environment. Unlike the better-known chat line systems, in which individuals can only converse, players on MUDs are also objects; they have bodies that they can describe as simply, attractively or fantastically as the skill and imagination of the individual writer allows. On MUDs, it is possible to have conversations and make physical gestures. McRae (1995) described the MUD atmosphere, "Sometimes the sense of presence so vivid that you feel as if you really are touching, smelling, tasting, seeing whatever is around you, in a complex interchange of experience between a physical and an imaginary body. By their users, many of whom have been on them for years, MUDs are regarded as communities that allow for very real social and emotional engagement, political activism, and opportunities for collaborative work on various civic, technical or artistic projects."

Bruckman noted female MUDders report they are often "besieged with attention," including unwanted sexual advances.

Many people, both male and female, enjoy the attention paid to female characters. Male players will often log on as female characters and behave suggestively, further encouraging sexual advances. Pavel Curtis has noted that the most promiscuous and sexually aggressive women are usually played by men. If you meet a character named Fabulous HotBabe, she is almost certainly a he in real life.

In 1985, Lindsy Van Gelder published, in Ms. magazine, the case of "Joan," who appeared to be a disabled single older woman on Compuserve's "Between the Sexes" conference. Avoiding face to face contact, Joan developed intimate relationships with other women . After several years, Joan was discovered to be a middle-aged male psychiatrist, "Alex". His "cross-dressing" shook up the many women and men and led them to be more suspicious and wary of computerized interactions.

In the San Francisco Bay area, a newly created BBS opened a conference with a posting comparing women to pets that occasionally need to be put to sleep. This is typical of the demeaning posts aimed at women on BBSs and can be a disincentive to participate, especially if this is an initial or persistent on-line experience. "Flaming" is an element of BBSs and UseNet newsgroups. Since women tend to use language differently then men, these highly aggressive language patterns may be even more of a barrier to their participation. Styles of communication (sometimes referred to as "debate" and "relate" styles) often complicate messages. While debating and arguing an issue is the normal style for some people, others understand these debates as an attack on them, causing them to pull away from the discussion. Being sensitive to the style of communication can be as important as the actual message being conveyed. (Truong, 1993)

Tannen describes the difference in language use between the genders, identifying a less direct, more inclusive style, designed to avoid arguments and confrontation, as a more typically female method of communication: the "rapport" (cooperative, intimate style) versus "report" (information giving) styles of talk. Generally speaking, more women engage in the "rapport" style; more men the "report" style. This difference in style often allows men to dominate even in domains set up specifically for women's subjects. Shade found "In the unmoderated feminist newsgroups (alt.feminism and soc.women), approximately 80% of the messages are posted by men. In the moderated feminist group (soc. feminism), there is usually about a 50/50 balance between women and men."

The most striking sex-based disparity is the extent to which men participate more than women. Women's participation rate is significantly lower than their actual numerical representation. "Sexism" is a topic which is popular with women. However, on two separate lists where they constituted 36% and 42% of participants, only 30% of the messages in "sexism" discussions were from women and in "theoretical" discussions, the percentages dropped to 16%. The messages contributed by women were also shorter, averaging a single screen or less, while those of men averaged one and a half times longer in "sexism" discussions, and twice as long in "theoretical" discussions, with some messages ten screens or more in length. (Herring, 1992)

Evidence suggests women are discouraged from participating on the basis of the reactions to their posts. Multiple contributors can post messages more or less simultaneously. Gaining the attention of the group depends upon other participants acknowledgement and response to the postings. Women consistently receive fewer average responses than men. In one of the discussions on "sexism," 89% of men received an explicit response, as compared with only 70% of women. Both men and women responded more often to men. Women acknowledging other women's postings constitute the smallest portion of total responses, an implicit recognition, perhaps, of the more powerful status of men in the groups. Topics initiated by women become topics of discussion by the group as a whole less often. On rare occasions when women persist in posting on a given topic despite relative lack of response, the outcome may be even more discouraging. When the women's rate of posting increased gradually until it equaled 50% of the contributions for a period of one or two days, the reaction was virtually identical in three separate cases. A handful of men condemned the topic of discussion, while several threatened to cancel their subscription to the list. Various reasons were given, none of them citing women's participation directly: the tone was too "vituperative" or the topics were "inappropriate." These reactions are consistent with Spender's (1979) claim that women cannot contribute half of the talk in a discussion without making men feel uncomfortable or threatened. She found men (and to a lesser degree, women) perceive women as talking more than men when women talk only 30% of the time. This phenomenon is not limited to Spender's academic seminar data but rather is a feature of mixed-sex conversation in public settings more generally. (Herring, 1992)

The pattern of posting was significantly different between the genders. Men's posting tended to follow this order: issues > information > queries > personal while the order for women appeared to be: personal > queries > issues > information. Sixty-eight percent of women's messages contained one or more features of women's language, as compared with only 31% of men's messages. In contrast, 48% of men's messages contained features of only men's language, as compared with 18% of women's messages. Forty-six percent of women's messages combined a mixture of male and female rhetorical features, while only 14% of men's messages combined features. This supports the view that it is easier for men to maintain a distinct style (masculine, feminine, or neutral) than for women, who must employ some features of 'men's language' in order to be taken seriously as academics, and some features of 'women's language' in order not to be considered unpleasant or aggressive. List discussions tend to be dominated by a small minority of participants who abuse features of "men's language," such as gratuitous displays of knowledge, forceful assertions of one's views and elaborate put-downs of others with whom one disagrees. Seventy-three percent of respondents of both sexes felt intimidated and/or irritated by these adversarial posts. Male respondents appeared to react differently, however. One man remarked, "Actually, the barbs and arrows were entertaining, because of course they weren't aimed at me". By contrast, many women, expressed a deep aversion and a concern to avoid interactions of this type. (Herring, 1992)

The impact of these differences often results in women bypassing BBSs, chat rooms, and other forums where male discourse dominates. Specialized discussion lists and web sites are being developed which concentrate on the unique perspectives and concerns of women, and enforce more stringent "netiquette" standards. On-line services which stress community such as Seniornet and Echo attract higher numbers of women. Echo BBS uses affirmative action efforts, such as telecom tutorials, to create an environment where women would feel more comfortable. Stacy Horn, who manages Echo, brought the number of women users up to about 50 percent. Seniornet, an on-line network of senior citizens has about a 50-50 ratio of women to men.

Women banded together to support one another on Santa Monica PEN, a city system. This account is from an article called "Electronic Democracy: What's Really Happening in Santa Monica" by Pamela Varley: "PENners quickly discover[ed] that they must contend with people who feel entitled to hector mercilessly those with whom they disagree....When the system started up, women -- who were greatly outnumbered by men -- had problems with harassment....By the summer of 1989, the few women on line were fed up and ready to drop out." "In response to harassment,...the women on PEN banded together in July 1989 to form a support group called PEN Femmes. The group makes a point of welcoming women when they begin to participate in PEN conferences. Harassment has subsided as more women have become active in conferences." (Truong, 1993)

Borg, founder of systers, a large female-only mailing list, discussed why female only lists are not discriminatory:

The existence of exclusively female forums is controversial and legitimately so. Exclusive forums such as male-only or white-only or Christian-only clubs have been used to exclude other groups from information and power sharing....[Yet] exclusively female forums, such as systers, are a particularly effective way to connect women in our field with each other....Until systers came into existence, the notion of a global "community of women in computer science" did not exist...

A primary function of women-only interaction is mentoring. Without the perception of help or input from men, this serves to bolster self esteem and independence. Many open forums whose focus is women's issues suffer from the common problem of discussions frequently being dominated by disagreements between men and women about what the issues are rather than how to deal with them. Not a problem with all men, it is, nevertheless, a problem with almost all such open forums. Women often share common ground that allows them to move beyond defining issues into constructing solutions. Discussion among women is different from that of women while with men. The style of a mixed conversation tends to be in the style of male-dominated discussions. Borg noted women-only forums prepare women for better interaction in mixed discussions:

As women understand more clearly what those differences are and what professional discourse is like on our own, we will be better able to bring our voice to open forums. It behooves whoever runs such a forum to realize that women who have experienced civilized, productive communication on systers will be for the most part uninterested in participating in a wide open free-for-all. The commonly applied list-management principle "if you can't take the heat, get off of the list" will not work....It is not the reluctance of women nor our participation in forums like systers that limits communication and joint problem solving with men. It is the sexism in our society, our field and our consciousness that limits us all. If men work together with women in an open forum and are seriously interested in hearing what women have to say, rather than in telling us what we need, then such a forum could be a fruitful and productive sibling for systers.

"Critique of the politics of separation is often centered around the idea that 'ghettoization' will not lead to change. Studio D founder (the feminist production unit of the National Film Board) Kathleen Shannon responds to this kind of critique: "Some people will make dire predictions about 'ghettos.' No one ever has referred to an all-white, all-male project as a ghetto. Ignore 'ghetto'" (Herizons,1995:28). Complete separatism is not advocated here - the importance of transforming the Internet in general has been noted - but if women had patiently waited for the mainstream to change they would not have come as far as they have. There is a need to get alternative information out 'immediately' to provide support and empowerment to feminist communities (Steiner, 1992:132). Feminist media are often highly specialized and consciously so because the more specialized a cultural space is, "the more adherents have the physical and psychological space for experimenting in building the architectures in which they feel most comfortable" (Steiner,1992: 133)."

Women Organizing for Change (WOC) began as an online newsletter designed to promote political activism in the United States. It's focus is on national legislation. Within months of its establishment, their impact was great enough for the Clinton White House to inquire about their membership base, stating 5,000 emails had been received in one day concerning a piece of legislation mentioned in their newsletter. WOC has now expanded their web site to include discussions lists and other means of communication for their members.

This political activism is moving to a global front. On the Global Knowledge Development list, sponsored by the United Nations, Ginger McCarthy wrote, "One application for both language and ITC is its usefulness in communicating one's preferences by directly petitioning those charged with the responsibility of administering the public trust. Last month, a petition was circulated through the Internet from Women of the World, Ôhorrified at the levels of violence witnessed during this century.' The petition, directed to each of our world's independent governments, requests that each year, for the next five years, at least 5% of each of the nations' resources currently expended for military purposes would be redirected, instead, to promote developments in health, education and employment, releasing up to one-half billion dollars each day, to improve living standards and to reduce the likelihood of violence to resolve conflict. The petition, which hopes to represent women as half of the world's population, takes advantage of the use of electronic mail to distribute this information."

On a more personal level, many women perceive the Internet as an impersonal morass of undifferentiated information with little relevance to their everyday lives. Relationships are important to women, and this is just as true on the Internet. Software, discussion lists, and web sites are being developed which cater to this need. Mirabilis's ICQ Products is one example of a web site which seeks to profit from women's needs for community, offering a means of establishing and maintaining connections between a self-selected group of people who communicate online via telephony, chat rooms, email, and pop-up messaging. This usage transforms the impersonal feeling of online contact to a personal one, where the participant's daily experiences can be discussed, celebrations shared, advice obtained, and support received.

Other sites include Advancing Women, Amazon City and Women's Wire , all of which offer women oriented content, contacts, and online forums for discussion. "As the first to serve women on the Web, we fully understand the diversity of their interests," said Ellen Pack, vice president and founder of Wire Networks, Inc. "As we expand our offerings, we wanted to create a single, convenient location where people can reach all of our dynamic content and community destinations." Her press release claimed Wired Women "brings the company's more than 1.5 million visitors the most comprehensive and easiest access to targeted, interactive and original information on the Web." Aimed at advertisers, the release also said their new programs "illuminate the breadth and depth of content across Wire Networks' destination sites; create a home for aggregated sites, offering partners enhanced recognition and targeted traffic and valuable demographics; enable advertisers to buy across the network, effectively reaching the company's targeted demographics and the most powerful market segment today -- women."

The Women's Forum bills itself as the premier advertising network of leading destinations for women: targeting, plain and simple. This site is part of a trend; advertisers are taking serious note of the influx of women to the Web. Bunn wrote:

It won't be long before the boys' clubs will be forced to go co-ed. Though women comprise only 30 percent of the Web's traffic, their rising presence and sheer buying power have suddenly caught the eye of online advertisers and sparked the creation of new content networks tailored specifically to the female persuasion. There's good reason Web advertisers have gotten hip to the fairer sex: Their overwhelming power in traditional markets is suddenly making an appearance online. Women are the primary decision-makers in 75-90 percent of all consumer households, doing the majority of purchasing and information-gathering.

Not all women or women's sites are enthralled by this attention. Many do not want duplication of the control advertisers have over traditional women's print magazines. Tired of articles which are aimed at promoting the advertiser's products, some are refusing online advertising to protect their publishing freedom. Moondance: Celebrating Creative Women, published by Women Artists and Writers International, does not accept advertising lest it affect their choice of content, which focuses completely on creative expression. All staff and contributors are volunteers who have never met in real life. This publication is enabled by the inexpensive cost of publishing on the Internet, a fact which is encouraging to women in their efforts to be heard.

Cultural convergence, oft described as a merging of art and technology, is also happening on a cultural level and offering opportunities to break out of prescribed roles. With cyberfeminism, more than gender is up for grabs. Women's experiences have long been denied or undervalued, as have the attempts to move away from patriarchal contexts. Paterson (1997) commented, "Transgressing order and linear organization of information, cyberfeminists recognize the opportunity to redefine 'reality,' on our terms and in our interest and realize that the electronic communications infrastructure or 'matrix' may be the ideal instrument for a new breed of feminists to pick up and play."

Ironically, it is the chaos of the Web which allows women to achieve the power to define it to their own satisfaction. Broader society values, unequal as they are, influence the social perceptions of legitimate and powerful web sites in the online world. Businesses compete for web site hits, unique IP addresses requested, and "seals" of approval from the various award possibilities, all for the purpose of raising advertising revenue in a world where the effect of advertising is still unproven.

Surrounding and outnumbering the monied sites of big business are sites constructed by amateurs fast becoming adept social rebels. Women, while taking advantage of the "traditional" values which are important to the hierarchical thought, also incorporate values of their own by rejecting the status quo, and devising other methods of valuing web site content which are less able to be quantified by abstract formulas. (December, 1996) Personal or communal web sites reflect the interests of the women who own or maintain them. These sites may be hosted by a single woman or a group of women, many of which have never met in real life but maintain a shared interest. These sites typically address issues surrounding women's health, literature, or political subjects such as abortion.

McCarthy's web site , Resources For Women In The World, contains an important element which women seek, a comprehensive set of links to other sites. These links not only bring order to the online search for information affecting women but create the feeling of community women appreciate. Web rings, a circular linking of sites, is another means of achieving this community aura. The Women's Internet Conference, Ottawa, Canada, October, 1997, is an example of redefining community via the Internet. The conference, designed for individual women and women's groups engaged in equality work was promoted as as a powerful tool for sharing experience and knowledge. Sites such as these encourage both diversity and strength through collective unity. This site has embraced the "World Wide Web" as a graphic image featuring a spider's web connecting the various sites maintained by members. Women in general utilize the symbol of the spider web as one of inclusion and have rejected the term of "Webmaster" as sexist, preferring to use instead Webarchitect, Webdesigner, Webweaver, and even Webspinner. The last two strongly evoke images of the traditional women's activities of weaving and spinning, both of which create beauty and strength from threads, as do spiders when they create their webs from the fragile silk produced from within. Amazon City realized the power of this identification when they adopted the name "Spiderwoman" for their women oriented discussion list. (Brail, 1996)

Herring (1992) discussed the idea of inclusion:

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) neutralizes social status cues (accent, handwriting, voice quality, sex, appearance, etc.) that might otherwise be transmitted by the form of the message. While on the one hand these characteristics render the medium less personal, they also provide for the possibility that traditionally lower-status individuals can participate on the same terms as others --that is, more or less anonymously, with the emphasis being on the content, rather than on the form of the message or the identity of the sender. One of the greatest strengths of the Internet is its ability to break down socio-economic, racial, and other traditional barriers to the sharing and production of knowledge....We can simply communicate on the basis of our ideas, not on any preconceived notions of what should be expected (or not expected) from one.

Braidotti noted an increased ability for artistic liberty in information technology. The strict separation between the technical and the creative has been blurred by digital images and the skills required by computer-aided design. "The new alliance between the previously segregated domains of the technical and the artistic marks a contemporary version of the post-humanistic reconstruction of a techno-culture whose aesthetics is equal to its technological sophistication."

Identity is made intelligible through the art of self-performance. The idea of 'self' in this realm is no longer fixed, having become as nimble as the imagination, unstable and infinitely "morphable." Identity, no matter how concrete the experience, is always constructed, never innate. (McAdams, 1996) Sofoulis noted "Women artists in technological media demonstrate that ambivalence and critical distance allow new technologies to be creatively appropriated for purposes, projects and meanings quite other than those for which they are designed, perhaps quite other than the agendas followed by people who feel entirely at home in these media."

The role of women in Cyberspace will hinge not only upon the potential of the Internet but also on the uses women make of it. It can easily be marginalized by discourse of an inherently negative relationship between women and technology or the success of sexual harassment as a means of limiting women's participation in this formerly male oriented domain. If women focus upon the drawbacks and problems, their contributions are in danger of being ignored. Women's reluctance to enter a sphere that can become just another forum where women are dominated, harassed or ignored as serious participants is definitely understandable. At the same time, women can not afford to simply give up or dismiss the Internet as a male-centered technology based on male values. (Mallon, 1997)

Increasingly recognized by female scholars as a tool for feminist empowerment, electronic networking is being embraced by many women who wish to create, as Ebben and Kramarae call it, "a Cyberspace of our own". (Shade, 1993) A broad range of issues are at the center of the computer revolution, as Spender noted, everything "from sexual harassment to questions of distribution of wealth and power" has come into play and will be ultimately settled on the Internet. It is vital for women to seize the opportunity to participate in writing the rules while the Web is in its formative stages. (Glasscock, 1996)

As a forum for the growth of feminist culture, the Internet offers great potential and allows production via feminist principles of communication. However, considering the differences in access between women and men, combined with experiences of censorship and intimidation, the Internet cannot be viewed as the ultimate means to a feminist utopia. Although it is not a completely democratic sphere of communication, the Internet is still of major importance to the future of women's empowerment and allows for creative communication strategies. (Mallon,1997) As Shade wrote:

The new "electronic frontier" is unfortunately still a very masculine dominated space, one in which many women may feel uncomfortable at the best of times. Ensuring equitable gender access to the Internet should be a prerogative of this information age. This means that we must pay close attention to the metaphors that people will use and see in this new world, so that they won't exclude women, or include them in undesirable ways. It means making the Internet easily accessible to all people; making networking an attractive communications tool for women, by creating tangible and viable information and resources; and by encouraging young girls and women to become involved in the development and deployment of the technology. It also means creating a friendly online environment, one that allows women to speak their thoughts without having to hide their gender. The world of Cyberspace is one which is being shaped daily by the millions of interactions on it, and women can contribute much to these exchanges.

The Internet is intimately involved in new dimensions of social and cultural change. On the one hand, the apparent anarchy of the Internet stands in the way of a sense of community which women desire. On the other hand, this chaos is the vehicle for creative expression to flourish. Keeping the Internet free of the ingrained models of hierarchical control is necessary for women to establish their community and artistic styles in the domain of Cyberspace. The hierarchal style of organization is not conducive to women's participation nor to feminism and feminist principles of communication. (Mallon, 1997)

With a strong potential for generating wealth and power, Cyberspace is not only where the future of commerce, entertainment, and education are headed; it is where new communities are being formed which will shape the future in each of these areas. Women need not wait to be invited. Realizing they no longer have to wait for the patriarchies and the power structures to allow access, the Internet has become a catalyst of networking power and is allowing women to create their own structures of importance and relevancy. No longer asking if they can join the game, women have routed around men and started their own game. (Glasscock, 1996)

Women can go on functioning 'as if' Woman was still their location but are not limited to it as a fixed or compulsory standard. They can treat femininity as an option: a set of available poses, costumes rich in history and social power relations. In Cyberspace, they can simultaneously assert and deconstruct Woman as a signifying practice, thus creating the new by revisiting and burning up the old. Braidotti recognized this potential for confusing upheaval and its effects upon society as a whole. "We rather need more complexity, multiplicity, simultaneity and we need to rethink gender, class and race in the pursuit of these multiple, complex differences. We also need gentleness, compassion and humour to pull through the ruptures and raptures of our times."

Borg, Anita. (1993). The rationale for a closed electronic forum. Position paper for "Gender Issues in Computers and Telecommunications" panel delivered to Third Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, Burlingame, CA, March 1993.

Braidotti, Rosi, Cyberfeminism with a difference. Internet essay, Universiteit Utrecht.

Brail, Stephanie (1996) What's in a Name: The Webmaster Dilemma. Internet essay.

Bruckman, Amy. (1993). Gender swapping on the Internet. [available via anonymous FTP]

Bunn, Austin, (1997) Pitching to the female persuasion. Internet essay, Wired.

Comquest Research, (1997) Internet Survey. Vancouver, B.C: BBM BUREAU OF MEASUREMENT.

Curtis, Pavel. (1992). MUDding: Social phenomena in text-based virtual realities. Proceedings of DIAC 92. [Available via anonymous FTP].

December, John (1996). The last link. CMC Magazine, March 1, 1996.

Ebben, Maureen; Kramarae, Cheris. (1993). Women and information technologies: creating a cyberspace of our own. Women, Information Technology, & Scholarship, pp.15-27, ed. Taylor, Kramarae, Ebben. Urbana, Il: WITS Colloquium. Center for Advanced Study.

Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing, Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center, (1997). GVU 7th www survey. General Demographics, Web and Internet Usage. Atlanta, GA.

Gibson, William. (1984). Neuromancer. New York, NY: Ace Books. p. 25 and 51

Glasscock, Gretchen (1996). Women on the net: Routing around the power structure. Internet essay, Career.

Haraway, Donna (1991). A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge.

Herizons. 'D' is for Dilemma. Summer, 24-29. (no author).

Herring, Susan C. (1993). Gender and democracy in computer-mediated communication. Electronic Journal of Communication, v.3, n.2.

Mallon, Bridget (1997). Women making meaning: Moving through the cracks, Internet essay.

McAdams, Mindy (1996). Gender without bodies, CMC Magazine, March 1,1996.

McCarthy, Ginger (1997). Women of the world: Global collaboration for peace, health, education. Global Knowledge discussion email message.

McRae, Shannon (1995). Coming apart at the seams: Sex, text and the virtual body. Internet essay.

Pack, Ellen (1997), Press Release by Wire Networks, Inc., Business Wire.

Paterson, Nancy (1997). Cyberfeminism. Internet essay on Echo BBS, Culture reference work.

Shade, Leslie Regan (1993). Gender issues in computer networking. Speech given at: Community Networking: the International Free-Net Conference, Carleton University, Ottawa, CANADA.

Sofoulis, Zoe (1995). Cyberfeminism: The world, the flesh, and the woman-machine relationship. Excerpt from a paper presented at the 1995 conference of the Australian Council for Computers in Education, Perth, July 9-13.

Spender, Dale (1995) Nattering on the net: Women, power, and cyberspace. Australia: Spinifex Press

Steiner, Linda. 1992. The history and structure of women's alternative media. Women Making Meaning: New Feminist Directions in Communication, Lana Rakow (ed.). 121-143. New York and London: Routledge.

Tannen, Deborah. (1990). You Just Don't Understand. N.Y.:Ballantine.

Truong, Hoai-An. (1993, March). Gender issues in online communication. Paper presented at Third Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, Burlingame, CA, March 1993. [In conjunction with BAWIT-Bay Area Women in Telecommunications] [Available via ftp]

Pamela Varley (1991) Electronic democracy: What's really happening in Santa Monica. Technology Review. Nov.-Dec. 1991: 42

Van Gelder, Lindsy. (1991). The strange case of the electronic lover. Computerization and Controversy: Value conflicts and social choices, ed. Charles Dunlop and Rob Kling. Academic Press: 364-375.

We, Gladys. (1993) Cross-gender communication in cyberspace. Unpublished ms., Simon Fraser University.

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