When I first founded ‘Mothers for Mothers’ nine years ago, organizing community conferences to introduce mothers to the idea of working at home, I was met with lots of laughter and ridicule when I sought sponsorships from the corporate sector. Whoever heard of mothers sitting in conferences? Mothers should be in the kitchens cooking or changing diapers! Some senior women in high corporate places and women’s NGOs said the cruelest things to me because they perceived those who used the home as a social-economic platform as ‘backward’ women who returned feminism back to the dark ages. There was much misconception about gender and ICT, and creative income-generation options with ICT.

A senior male manager was kind enough to explain to me, “You are not sexy to us! We want to reach men, youth and children, not housewives! Governments ask us to help the rural poor, they don’t ask us to help housewives!”

Several years later after these harsh assessments, ‘Mothers for Mothers’ turned into ‘eHomemakers’, an urban-based e-community comprising mostly women homepreneurs, teleworkers, homeworkers in the informal sector and urban poor disadvantaged women who want to use ICT to better their lives.

Among the people I have met many times over the years in international ICT events, civil societies and companies, some still remember me with much amusement as, “Ya, that mother!”.

I am amused too. They ain't see nothing yet!

At an international ICT event, a funder’s representative told me frankly, “You have the wrong branding. You need to change the name of this digital divide group to something sexier for the funders!” It was then that I realized that in the West, the mere mention of ‘homemakers’ conjured up images of middle-class women driving children to school and watching soap operas whereas in developing countries, homemakers are often women who are unemployed and disadvantaged and those who are involved in contract work or piece work in the informal sector. Grandmothers and mothers have made clothes for shops from home and sold local cakes to neighbors for generations as a way to earn an income. They multi-task at home but their work is not valued by the society as real work. Here comes the North-South division in terminology interpretation. Consequently, a grassroots network like eHomemakers has to decide whether to keep its name for local women or change it to appeal for funds. Who should we please?

At the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, a senior government official told me that Asia needs multimillion dollar IT projects for business, rural development and youth education, not grassroots activities for the urban poor and women. I asked him why. He laughed, “Why do they need ICT? My wife should take good care of me instead of surfing the Internet!” He was amused. Would he still be amused, I wonder, if his wife learnt online banking?

At WSIS Tunis, I gave a short presentation to a small group of bankers from developing countries on using low cost ICT4D innovations for urban poor women to generate income. One politely said to me as he handed out dinner invitations, “We are interested in big projects for youth and the rural people.” I was the only woman in the group, the only one from the civil society, and needless to say, the only one who was not invited to the fancy dinner in a five-star hotel in North Tunis. That night, I had a plate of delicious lamb tajim for US$3 at a roadside restaurant in Tunis Central. It was full of friendly waiters who tried to teach me Arabic, and it was a perfect place for South-South cooperation because there was no class differentiation.

It is now nine months after WSIS Tunis, and, although I cannot remember what lamb tajim tastes like, I do remember the polite silence and the uneasiness in the air when I raised the plight of homeworkers and urban poor women. Why are they not ‘sexy’ for ICT4D assistance? I also remember many big words and big declarations. Are these so much ‘sexier’ than concrete actions to help those who have been invisible in the ICT4D arena?

The recent United Nations report, ‘State of the World's Cities 2006/07’, confirms that next year, for the first time in human history, more people will live in cities than in the rural areas. Developing countries will consequently be struggling with increasing urban poverty, unemployment and social instability. The poorest of the poor are still women and many are homeworkers in the informal sector. Some HIV/AIDS patients are involved in low-value home-based work because of the ease of entry. Homewokers in developing countries generally have little or no health or safety protection and are highly exploited. Some countries do not even recognize the informal sector let alone have any statistics regarding their numbers or status.

In the developing world, little research on homeworkers and their use of ICT has been conducted, let alone pro-poor information about them, Most work done in this area is related to quantitative information in sector-based homeworking. Although information on the use and spread of ICT tools in most developing countries is available, it does not give gender segregated information nor any data on homeworkers’ usage. Consequently, this digital divide group receives little attention.

 

Moving forward

My wishes on behalf of the millions of voiceless homeworkers for GKP III are:

1. Talk less, do more: the event needs to focus less on procedures such as declarations and speeches that have few follow-ups but should give more emphasis to practical activities that actually have an impact.
2. Highlight gender and ICT issues: women’s usage of ICT is still not an important agenda item among the majority of government delegations from developing countries because the power balance between men and women has not been addressed. Key UN and other world figures need to establish the importance of this balance in the minds of their respective delegations. NO more lip service.
3. Real digital divide groups – Under the general category of digital divide groups, give attention to sub-digital divide groups like ‘women’. Highlight the plight of urban poor homeworkers and homemakers (whose GDP contributions are not included in national accounting), and illegal migrants and refugees in transit countries such as Burmese women in South-east Asia who have been sold through the international slavery chain and sex trafficking business.
4. A coordinated approach for ICT4D for digital divide groups – Promote the conceptualizing of barriers and needs through the grassroots perspective to facilitate greater responsiveness for assistance from government and funders. The event should be used to get funders, governments and development agencies to be committed to a more deliberate, sector-wide approach to overcome women’s human poverty, especially in the face of globalization. This can be achieved through research, policy changes and a clear governance agenda.

Last but not least, I hope those who hold the power for decision-making will walk the talk, and join those with little power in decision-making at Kuala Lumpur’s roadside mamak stalls and kedai kopi for discussions on equal access to ICT!