WORLD WIDE WOMEN.

Catchy phrases describe a situation newly prominent in the computer age: the "digital divide" or the "gender gap", for example. But coining alliterative composites does not by itself alleviate the problems. As women's groups now increasingly make their way into cyberspace, they are using the new medium not only for information distribution and gathering, but also for communication and community-building.

At the United Nations "Beijing+5" meeting that took place in June 2000 in New York, a new Web site was introduced to assist women in their struggle for gender-equality. GAINS (z (www.un-instraw-gains.org) stands for Gender Awareness Information and Networking System and was set up by the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW).

Complicated though these UN acronyms sound, the idea is straightforward: provide a platform that not only links different women's organizations, but also opens channels for communication about gender-related issues.

Eleni Stamiris, Director of INSTRAW, enthusiastically described their efforts as a way to "pull women up from the boot straps and put them into the information society."

And the information society; by all indicators, gains form. Worldwide Internet access has been in a barely controlled explosion, growing from 143 million users in 1998 to an expected 700 million next year. But women are still a minority. According to Ms. Stamiris, of the users in the United States, 38 per cent are female. In Brazil, the number is 25 per cent; in Japan, 17 per cent; and in Russia, 16 per cent. A recent United Nations report, "The World's Women 2000: Trends and Statistics" has warned that lack of access to the new technologies "may broaden existing gaps between men and women" even more.

As one strategy to close these gaps, GAINS is meant not only to encourage women to gain Internet literacy, but should also serve as a forum for systematic research into gender issues. INSTRAW plans to feature video-conferencing, chat rooms and a virtual reading room where dissertations and other scientific material can be made available.

Based on her own work on the site, Ms. Stamiris offers some personal encouragement for women around the globe: When we started in December 1999, we did not know anything about computers. But as you can see: it is not so difficult." The group has set up the basic structure of the homepage itself, and only for the graphic works did an external professional agency jump in.

Strong material support for the project was given by private organizations that donated, for example, the entire computer infrastructure in the Dominican Republic, where INSTRAW is based. At the same time, countries also provided significant financial help for the project. Ms. Stamiris stressed that the Government of Spain tripled its regular contribution to INSTRAW.

The GAINS Web site operates in close collaboration with another United Nations site, Womenwatch (http://www.un.org/womenwatch). More of a pure information and reference site, Womenwatch monitors the United Nations and world gender-policies. By contrast, GAINS stresses communication and community-building.

Not everyone though shares the enthusiasm about the liberating forces of the electronic world. Eva Quistorp, of UNIFEM Gennany and a former member of the European Parliament, criticized the wide sponsoring of UN on-line activities by private companies: "If the women's movement gets it all as presents from Bill Gates, that does not automatically mean social justice." She said that today's problems need "more adequate answers than simply the Internet". Ms. Quistorp fears that the concentration on setting up Internet sites might distract attention from important issues such as longterm debt and the arms trade.

The World's Women 2000, released in May, cites data showing that in many countries women's share of Internet use is growing. Another indicator showing a strong trend towards female users can also be found in the report: 70 per cent of on-line advertising is now targeted at women. Obviously, in the dynamic digital world that is saturated by dot-coins, decade-old gender roles persist. Even on the "information highway", progress must still be measured in small steps.