Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX): Uniting feminist techies and the women’s movement
Montevideo, Aug 21
Ekaete Judith Umoh, director of the Family-Centred Initiative for Challenged Persons, is a polio survivor turned advocate for other women with disabilities. She was one of 100 women’s activists trained at the first Feminist Tech Exchange in Cape Town, South Africa late in 2008.
Ekaete Judith Umoh of Nigeria is a typical FTX participant. She is eager to use the internet and other technology to make a difference in her effectiveness. And she wants to understand how rights to information and communication connect with her specific advocacy area, equality for women and girls living with disabilities.
The FTX trains women’s rights advocates, particularly those like Ekaete who live in developing countries, in essential internet, audio and other technical skills and crucially, the FTX also looks at the politics and impact of technology on women’s lives.
“It is very strategic to devise a workshop centred on the issues regarding women and the feminist practice of technology. Often the tools training takes up all the space available at technical workshops and there is no opportunity for people to actually discuss the underlying policy issues or the impact on your context,” commented Margarita Salas, the thematic dialogue coordinator for the FTX and a member of Sulá Batsú, an APC member organisation in Costa Rica.
Trainers agree that it is rare for them to meet other “feminist techies” who are also advocates for both feminism and women’s rights and technology.
The first-ever FTX trained over 100 women’s rights advocates who were also attending the Association for Women’s Rights in Development Forum in South Africa in November 2008. It generated a demand for regional FTXs, and a smaller, Latin American version was offered after the 11th Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Gathering in early 2009.
Source: APC
