Information On Politics And The Economy 3 example essay topic

I. Introduction II. Identity and Goals A. WLO 1. Advocacy group a) "WLO is the first and largest women's advocacy group created on the Internet, seeking to build a network of one million women (and sympathetic men) to empower women in politics, society, the economy, the media, and cyberspace. WLO is a non-partisan, non-profit organization founded in 1995" ("WLO"). 2. Goal to change society a) They want to "share ideas and strategies for social, political, and economic change" ("WLO").

Women Leaders Online: Women Organizing for Change web 1. I. Identity and goals - - Change society i. Our interactive email discussion list is meant to "share ideas and strategies for social, political, and economic change". ii. "Organizing non-partisan grassroots lobbying, encouraging pro-woman candidates and voter education" . Provide access to U.S. government 1. "Facilitating e-mail access to your U. S Senators & Representatives" iv. encourage women to vote - Educate / Inform i.

Links to feminist resources ii. Provides news related to women's issues - Empower women i. "empowering women in politics, media, society, the economy and cyberspace". - Get people to join or donate to organization - Working on an international scale i. Fights for international peace and freedom - Works for women's and human rights i. Everything is against discrimination - Supports women emotionally - Unites women and men to work together for a common goal II. Types of feminism that characterizes the Web site Liberal feminism Includes both women and human rights movements.

Who controls use of the Web site Polly Rothstein is the President of WLO-also Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion president (pro-choice "a countrywide non-partisan advocacy and political organization") Bob Fertil is the treasure-co-publisher of Political Women hotline Lisa Castagnozzi - Program and Research Specialist. Jeanne Clark- Executive Director-feminist grass roots activism background. IV. Policies that guides its use Have to be a member (give money) in order participate in discussion groups and subscriptions to special members only newsletters. Anyone can look at page, but only people who pay money get certain access. V. Intended audience or interactive participant Audience is people with money - Say they are for: We " re mostly women, but also some men... asian, black, latina, native american, and white... young, middle-aged, and old... atheist, catholic, jewish, protestant, muslim, and wiccan... straight, lesbian, bi, and trans... doctors, lawyers, homemakers, students, professors, engineers, web designers, journalists, businesswomen, nurses, teachers, union members, elected officials, and retirees". - Seem to be more for white upper class people who will donate money - want people to get information, give money, and then do their own thing i. educate themselves! - use this statement as an enticement to make people are for all these people i. seem to be fighting for white people's human rights ii.

Gives links to the international Web sites, but they do not promote them. more interested in the politics 1. political arm of the WLO 2. grassroots lobbying 3. voting for pro-woman candidates 4. abortion 5. Intended for audience if not a member Intended for interactive participant if you are a member 2. Does it provide relevant and useful information? - provides links to other Web sites, other organizations, conferences, International sites, human rights sites, third world sites, government sites - provides access to places they can go to educate themselves - relevant and useful but not helpful - doesn't provide solution - wants to transfer you to other places but doesn't really take care of your needs on the site itself VI. Emphasizes communication or information? - Emphasizes communication i. Email list ii.

The links they provide. Promote empowerment through communication with other people 1. don't tell who these people are 2. use education to empower-communication - emphasizes information i. wants to educate 3. Does it provide a safe place - No i. Can only give thoughts if you are a member, but there's no filtering on who can join ii. Risk 1. could have public gaze a. anybody can find out if you are on the list i. can rent the list if you are a "pro woman candidate" - Advertising i. Not prominent-but it's there 1.

Awards a. CNN Interactive b. Look Smart 2. Sponsors a. Family Planning Advocates of NYS b. Feminist Majority Foundation c.

Electra Pages d. Planned Parenthood Federation of America e. Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion f. Ann Rose's Ultimate Birth Control Links g. Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press - It doesn't promote feminism as a lifestyle i. Promotes women's role in politics 4.

VII. Boundaries of the Web site - Excludes / limits people who do not have money to donate - Contradictory because it is supposed to include everyone (all ethnicities, races, etc.) - Conscious-raising dimension i. Yes 1. wants to raise awareness of empowering women 2. People might visit Web site because of name 3. Use red, white and blue in banner a.

Imperialistic tendencies - Assumes that consciousness has already been raised i. Not introducing problems but showing more information about the problems. - Boundaries on knowledge and perspectives i. Shows the liberal side ii. Focuses on politics and not on real life - Fixed identity for woman or feminist i. Allows for multiplicity of identities but not perspectives (only allows political perspective) ii.

Fixed identity 1. need to be pro-choice 2. need to be activist 5. Interactivity- only if they are on the discussion list Positionality-no-don't feel like a concrete participant Connectivity- possibly if they are on the discussion list Provide no solutions Just inform people of problems Want money but don't tell what they are fighting for or what they will use the money for 6. Articles-written by someone in charge at WLO V. Unstated Biases "WLO / WOC members are among the most active, best informed, and smartest women (and men) in the world". - might mean it's biased towards middle to upper class women - higher level participants IX. Assume a higher level of education from audience - understanding of academic language - understanding of complicated issues i. scholarly issues 1. economy 2. government / politics 7. place-based activism - yes i. want participants to organize grassroots movements ii. wants to empower women. wants to build bridge between place-based activism directed towards social change-we can't tell if it is successful because we don't have full access 1. might be more successful to members 2. not as effective towards non-members 3. not as effective towards less educated women / men 1. Identity of Website- to promote third wave feminism - base everything around third wave - want activism - want to inform / educate people Underlying vision and goals - Our goal is to promote justice for women and men. This site focuses on acceptance of difference, multiple positional ities, and multiculturalism.

It embraces women's sexual self-esteem and expression and looks at the unstable economy, and the power of oppression in the media-saturated global economy. We combine the work of second wave and post-feminists, and we promote activism, understanding, and education concerning women's issues. Who controls use of Web site - we do - we control content - non profit - control discussion list not based on content i. limit harassment ii. limit oppression Policies that guide the use - must register to use the discussion list - can donate if they want i. send money to third world people ii. Interactive Audience - man and women - all races and ethnicities - people who look for justice in the socio political economic sphere - Interactive through the discussion list-bulletin board format - Chat room - listserv i. have topics such as politics, economy, job market - make people sign up and get their own names i. can create their own identity and gender - can give any message - no flaming or harassing - monitored - will not post email address i. will not give out personal information 2.

Relevant and Useful Information - updated frequently - can give suggestions on what they want covered i. email webmaster - information about technologies i. information on how to use it so they don't feel threatened by it - all third wave related Emphasizes Information and communication - we provide information and communication i. discussion board, listserv, chat room ii. provide info on third wave topics. allow people to discuss these topics iv. updated information on politics and the economy 3. Safe place - have to register in order to participate in discussion - Webmaster reserves the right to suspend or kick out people who say offensive comments - Policy against racial discrimination or any sort of oppression i. Anyone against this policy is kicked out - Recognize the right to free speech but also sets boundaries in order to maintain a safe environment - Let people choose screen names i. Can change identity or gender if they choose ii. anonymous Will not be commercialized Will market it as politics and not as a lifestyle - discuss political information 4. Boundaries - Third Wave - Include a brief explanation and FAQs about third wave feminism, political information, economics, etc. - Exclude commercialism (shopping links), candidate endorsements, history of feminism or the achievements of feminist activists (focus on third wave), imperialism Attempts to have a consciousness-raising dimension - raising issues and topics - keeps people informs - promotes discussion Claims open - embraces third wave ideals i. pluralism ii. multiple perspectives. provide information and education, but also the participants' feedback is valuable to us because we can also learn from them iv. show different perspectives on issues 5.

Interactivity - allow people to discuss Positionality - participants can feel like they are there i. can have live discussions through chat rooms Connectivity - know each other as social beings - connected through the same vision of justice - reject prejudice and social stereotypes i. that's why they are on the Web site 6. Recognize differences - third wave - against stereotypes and biases recognize inequality among women - try to give money to provide women all over the world with access to technology Medium-level of language - neither academic or simple - no complex terminology - no slang - if don't understand, can email webmaster or discuss - educates and informs i. can't just use simple language or educated people won't learn anything ii. Can't use all academic language or uneducated won't understand. Go in the middle 7. Place-based activism - we keep them informed and updated about issues that effect their everyday lives (politics, economy, technology) - goal is to make women participate in cyberspace and set their own agenda in cyberspace - can apply justice and equality to their everyday lives - cyber feminism is strongly related to third wave feminism Define third wave Make personal political - helping women to overcome problems by making their private matters political - affect society to take this under consideration that personal is always political in women's lives in our contemporary society pop culture - multi cultural politics - acceptance of different points of views - your own voice - - power choices (power to make own choices, feel good about yourself) - Madonna - Represent sexuality and be feminist - Make own choices regardless of patriarchy gender - identity - celebrate differences multi-cultural ism On main page put place where you can donate money to third world - technology i. men and women can access Internet ii. give computers and training.