World Wide Web Review: Women and Women's Topics on the Internet - What's the Situation in Germany Today? An Annotated Selection of Women's Informational Sources

by Carolina Brauckmann and Helga Dickel; translation by Claudia Lupri

Since late 1998 we have been able to observe a true Internet boom in the German women's scene. Ever more networks, associations, and projects consider it important to have not only an email address, but if possible also a web-site. The reasons are obvious. The number of women in Germany using Internet and World Wide Web is visibly growing. The most recent survey by a Hamburg advertising agency (http://www.w3b.de) determined that during the survey period April to May 1999, 23.2 percent of users were women. These numbers are modest compared to the U.S. situation, but online communication was already matter-of-fact in the U.S. when no one here was even speaking about Internet yet.

Relatively recently a homepage was still considered avant-garde - at least in Germany. Today the attitude has fundamentally changed. It is now expected of nonprofit organizations - and thus also of women's organizations - to provide presentations of themselves on the network. People increasingly go online to find information on certain sub-jects, contacts, news. Organizations have in turn recognized that their self-portrayal on the World Wide Web has to be taken seriously as public relations work. This is not just a question of image-building, but also corresponds to the heightened expectations for information we can generally observe with the Internet boom. The database Frauennetze on CD-ROM (for more information see our Web page), which we first published in fall of 1996 and completely updated in spring of 1998, makes conclusions about the heightened Internet presence of women's organizations that is possible.

Of the 4,300 German women's associations and initiatives that we included on our database in 1996, only 0.6 percent had a Web address. One-and-a-half years later, already 6 percent had a website. We know that at the moment, in spring of 1999, the number of women's associations and initiatives with a website has rapidly grown again.

Content and Information Quality on the Websites of Women's Associations and Initiatives

The demand for information quality on websites has also increased. Originally many women's associations designed their homepages like printed leaflets. Thus they were satisfied with a short characterization and often did not adapt their information to a Web-appropriate display. Meanwhile site producers know that being up-to-date and providing information services are essential to an online presence. This recognition is not by any means being translated into action everywhere. At least in occupational women's networks and associations, though, the trend to a more professional Internet appearance is discernible (for example: Bundesverband der Frau im Freien Beruf und Management e.V.,1 National Association of Women in Free Professions and Management, at http://www.bfbm.de/ or Unternehmerinnen-Netz, Network of Business Women, at http://www.u-netz.de). At least basic information on the association and its goals, the way it is organized, its major focus, memberships, publications, deadlines, and upcoming events should be provided and maintained up-to-date, but this is not at all standard yet. Anything beyond that, for example, full texts and high-quality link collections, repre-sents added informational value. Often working without pay, most women in networks and associations do not have the time for this.

Women's Overview Pages, Communication, and Search Engines on the Internet

The first, oldest, and still very popular overview site is offered by wom@n. wom@n made a name for itself as sponsor of women in the new media and initiator of the first women's bulletin-board network in the mid-1990s. Women's bulletin-board networks represented the first virtual communication space exclusively for women. By way of modem, women's news was transferred to computers in Germany's major cities. To participate in discussions in the approximately eighty thematic bulletin boards, women did not require Internet access, but also did not have access to the World Wide Web. As the Internet began to play an ever-increasing role for communication and information, most bulletin-board computers were shut down again. Originally founded to develop women's bulletin-board net-works, since February 1999 wom@n has presented itself together with three other women's projects on a joint home-page. There are headings and further subheadings to edu-cation and science, art and culture, economy, and international topics. In addition, the site also offers a collection of private homepages, and recently started a search engine to women's pages in the Internet. Several German and inter-national publications can be called up in full text on the subject "Women and the Network." (http://www.woman.de)

Web for Women (W4W), the first women's Internet provider in Germany and sponsor of woman.de, frauennews.de, etc., offers news groups accessible only to women as "replacement" for women's bulletin boards. Personal registration and access by password guarantee women-only communication. This form of communication is not used very frequently, though. (Contact via: http://www.w4w.net) For mailing lists, the situation is somewhat different. In particular, the Webgrrls (German section) list is very active. The Frauen-Info-Service of die media provides a list of German-language mailing lists for women. (http://diemedia.de/f-info/maillist.htm)

A good source for news relevant to women in full text is Frauennews. Initiated and maintained by Jana Arakeljan from Hamburg, Frauennews was the first German-language electronic women's magazine (e-zine) to go online in March 1997. The opening page informs about topical subjects and current events. Under the headings national news, international news, special subjects, and archives, with subheadings by subject, users can call up news in full text as well as links to events and initiatives. Surfers will also find much information from the entertainment branch. (http://www. frauennews.de)

Besides current news, partially focused on Hamburg, and a guide to city events and projects, Frauen-Internet-Projekt Hamburg offers a useful links collection with an integrated internal search engine. (http://Internetfrauen.w4w.net/)

In view of the rapidly growing number of women's sites, we can no longer make claim to being exhaustive. Women's search engines have also become important. Since the beginning of 1999, there is Powercat - a search engine specifically for women's themes. Currently there are about 10,500 entries. The initiator is a very committed Web woman, who also put together a lively Hausfrauensite, by the way. (http://powercat.de and http://www.hausfrauenseite.de)

The German-language subject directory DINO has a heading for "Frauen." At the moment there are at least twenty subheadings on different topics (e.g., jobs, networks, feminism). (http://www.dino-online.de/seiten/go18frau.htm)

Universities and Scholarship

Fr@uen-Info-Netz is a project of the Interdisziplinäres Frauenforschungs-Zentrum (Interdisciplinary Women's Research Center), University of Bielefeld, and the women student initiative AG Frauen und Online. Here users will find information and links collections to women's research, contact addresses to women scholars, news from universities, and tips on research grants for women. This site offers the most current and comprehensive introduction to women's research to date. http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/IFF/frauenInfonet/ [revised link October 24, 2001: http://pan1.hrz.uni-bielefeld.de:80/IFF/fraueninfonetz/]

Websites by individual women's research centers at universities usually contain details about their founding history and courses. Further information services - as, for example, databases or full-text publications - are not yet a matter-of-course. Thus we would like to refer here to our links collection "Frauen an Hochschulen," which gives users some insight into gender studies at German universities. In this context, we also refer users to the women's research journals recorded within our center's listing of feminist and women's journals. (http://diemedia.de/f-info/wwwhs.htm) and (http://www.diemedia.de/f-info/wwwfempr.htm)

All German universities have a commissioner for women's issues. The page by the Bundeskonferenz der Frauenbeauftragten an Hochschulen (National Conference of Women's Delegates at Universities) lists all such contacts. The opening page offers information about their areas of responsibility and supplies guidelines to women's sponsorship at universities. (http://www.uni-bonn.de/Frauenbeauftragte/bukof.html) [revised link October 24, 2001: http://www.bukof.de/]

Feminist Literary Studies

As a database on women and gender research in feminist literary studies at the Englisches Seminar, University of Cologne, gender Inn provides excellent information. More than 6,000 titles can be researched in this database. Emphasis is on gender studies in English and American literature. Information texts and thesaurus can be called up in English as well. (http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/englisch/datenbank/ )

Women's History Studies

The pages from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft (AG) Frauenforschung (Work Group on Women's Studies) der Universität Bonn carry information on the subject "women and history." They are primarily about courses offered at the University of Bonn. Worth mentioning, though, is the links list on "women and the Middle Ages," with references to mailing lists, full texts, and a few links to homepages of convents. (http://www.uni-bonn.de/frauengeschichte/frauag/start.html)

One of the oldest autonomous (i.e. non-university), women's history projects with strong feminist roots came online only recently: the Kölner Frauengeschichtsverein e.V. (Cologne Women's History Society), founded in 1986. If you're planning a visit to the famous cathedral city, you should first look up the diverse women's history walking tours and Rhine cruises introduced on their website. There is a comprehensive bibliography on "women in Cologne." The link collection on historical women's research will be active at the time of publication and promises to be a treasure-trove. (http://www.k-frauengeschichtsverein.de/)

The Archiv der Deutschen Frauenbewegung, specializing in the history of women and women's movements between 1800 and 1950, informs first about its own comprehensive collections and literary bequests. On the site for their specialist journal ARIADNE, those with historical interest will find references to subjects treated in previous editions. Until now, the only full text article online is "Frauengeschichte im Internet" (1998) by Helga Dickel, providing useful information on traditional and virtual women's archives and libraries: (http://www.uni-kassel.de/frau-bib/links/dickel.htm) and http://www.uni-kassel.de/frau-bib/archiv.htm

Natural Sciences and Technology

The Verein Frauen in Naturwissenschaft und Technik NUT e.V. is a group of women who work or study in the natural sciences or technology. Their website has references to mailing lists, a small text archive, a bibliography, and links to other resources for women in the natural sciences and technology. (http://tal.cs.tu-berlin.de/~flnut/) [updated link Oct. 25, 2001: http://www.nut.de/]

One European initiative worthwhile mentioning in this area is the database of women experts in science, engineering, and technology: WITEC (English). The database contains biographical information on experts from industrial as well as academic branches. Information can be accessed through names, keywords, or regions. (http://cemu10.fmv.ulg.ac.be/WITEC/introde.htm) [Updated links October 25, 2001: http://www.setwomenexperts.org.uk/ and http://www.shu.ac.uk/services/bus_dev/witec/]

Culture

The website of the Frauenkulturbüro NRW e.V. offers comprehensive links collections to various aspects of culture. The Culture Bureau is an institution sponsored by the government of North Rhine-Westfalia and is committed to the networking and support of women artists in this area. Its site provides the following cultural categories with references to German and international organizations, archives, specialist journals, and individual women artists: visual arts, new media, film, literature, design, music, theater, and dance. Here you'll find links to women's museums, prizes for women artists, film festivals, and to several secondary databases (which have fees, however). (http://www.frauenkulturbuero-nrw.de)

The Internationale Komponistinnen-Bibliothek emerged from the Europäisches Frauenmusikarchiv Düsseldorf by Antje Olivier and a collection of the Cologne conductor and church musician Elke Mascha Blankenburg. The catalog provides access to about 3,000 works by women composers from eight centuries and from around the world. It is integrated into the website with a search engine. (http://www.inka-unna.de/) [updated link October 25, 2001: http://www.unna.de/stadt/41inkobi.htm]

Bildwechsel, an umbrella organization for women, media, and culture with its home in Hamburg, also offers information about women artists (English version as well). On the basis of the video collection of Bildwechsel, a virtual archive called Memovita was established. (http://internetfrauen.w4w.net/bildwechsel/memovita/index.html). Entries on experimental video artists can be researched by title, year, and author's name. (http://internetfrauen.w4w.net/bildwechsel/)

Women and Film in Europe, a working group within the European Coordination of Film Festivals, provides information (only in English) about women's film festivals in Europe. Further links refer to film journals, production sites, databases, etc., from the United States and elsewhere. (http://www.womenfilmnet.org)

Violence and Women's Rights

Gegenwehr is an Internet page for women who have been raped. Since the beginning of 1998, the initiator, herself a victim, has offered information on self-help, contact to other women victims, tips on literature, addresses of counseling centers, women's houses, and groups providing emergency-call services. In addition, she gives advice to survivors and their partners. Other subjects are prevention and genital mutilation. The link list on the whole subject complex "Sexualized Violence and Women's Rights" is very comprehensive. (http://www.Gegenwehr.de)

The organization Terre des Femmes e.V. has been committed to the rights of women since 1981. Its website covers the development of international women's rights, contains references to current campaigns, press releases, and links to publications and NGO's in the area of Human and Women's Rights. (http://www.terre-des-femmes.de/)

Lesbian Community

The Lesbennetz is a project to support the networking of lesbian political initiatives on the Internet. Here you'll find an annotated and systematic collection of links on various lesbian topics: politics, research, culture, leisure time, networking. (http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/IFF/lesben/index.html)

In comparison to the many and in part very professional sites of the gay community, German lesbian websites are rather rare. If you're looking for information, particularly on culture, leisure, and entertainment, you'll have success on Konnys Lesbenseiten. (http://www.homo.de/lesben/) [Updated link October 25, 2001: http://www.lesben.org/]

The site Lesben- und Schwulenverband Deutschland (German Lesbian and Gay Union) offers information on the political and legal situation of lesbians and gays. Particularly useful here are current and past press releases on the subject of homosexuality, which you can call up in full text. (http://www.lsvd.de)

NOTES

1. The e.V. stands for "engeschriebener Verein," a tag that means "registered association" and is something like the "Inc." on many business or association names in the U.S.

[Carolina Brauckmann is a historian/Germanist and feminist information expert who also writes and performs satirical lesbian songs. Helga Dickel is a sociologist, an Internet expert/trainer, and publishes on women and the Internet. Both are founders of "die media/she media - women information online," Cologne, 1995, and publishers of the CD-ROM Frauenennetze" (Women's Networks), next issue in Spring 2000.]

Mounted November 18, 1999. Links updated October 25, 2001.