Web 2.0

Web 2.0 refers to a large range of Web applications and advancements within Internet technology. Encompassing a shift from earlier versions of the Web, where users went to the Internet simply to obtain information, Web 2.0 allows for users to engage in the creation and sharing of information. The term refers to Web applications that are user-centered and allow for information sharing and collaboration online. Examples include social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, blogs, wikis, and video-sharing sites such as YouTube. Web 2.0 has led to the advancement of women within the traditionally male-dominated world of technology.

Web 2.0 is of unique interest to those studying gender because of shifts in notions of the public and private spheres. Often it has been argued by academics that women's roles throughout history have been limited to the private sphere, whereas men operate within the public sphere. This separation between public and private has been detrimental to women's ability to obtain equality. Work done in the private sphere is often disregarded as less important than the work done by men in the public sphere. Cooking, cleaning, caring for children and other, most often unpaid, forms of labor are not valued as highly as work in the public sphere, such as the business world. Often denied a public voice in the male-dominated publishing world, women who have blogged online have discovered a voice in the public sphere. Women account for a large portion of active posting on blogging Websites. Blogging in many ways is similar to journal writing, which has historically been a site for feminist expression.

The focus on production within the Web 2.0 world challenges binaries directly related to gender, such as production/consumption and male/female. This provides unique and interesting opportunities for a future transgendered public sphere. Web 2.0 provides a challenge to the public/private dichotomy through its inherent changing of many dichotomous relations between production and consumption. As many feminist scholars have argued, the dichotomous relationship between male and female is fundamental to the oppression of women. Web 2.0 is making it possible for people to create new identities for themselves that expand our notions of a gender dichotomy. Participating in and generating content for spaces without having to identify oneself as physically female or male present unique opportunities. Through anonymity or the guise of a screen name, many people are contributing to and influencing new knowledge centers, such as Wikipedia.

As people increasingly put their private lives in the public domain through Web 2.0 technologies, the strict boundaries between a private sphere and a public sphere no longer hold. In some ways this change is positive, as seen through the increasing number of women who are publishing their work online and the ability for women to come together and support one another, as seen in pregnancy forums. Wikis offer tools for collaboration and editing that open doors for new forms of feminist collaboration. Wikis allow for the participation of [Page 432]women from different locations and positions to contribute equally to the creation and distribution of information.

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