WOMEN AND ACTIVISM PROJECT

September 20, 1999

The women's movement has depended upon the efforts of women and men organized for change. Groups that work on behalf of women are of many types: volunteer, governmet, religious, political, single-issue, multi-issue, short-lived, firmly institutionalized. Some groups form around the interests of women with a particular career, interest or problem. Your first step is to identify several groups that might be of interest to you, that you are already a member of, or that share your concerns. As a class we will pool our resources so that all of us have a number of choices available. Ultimately, each student should research one, different group, and as a class, we should cover a broad range of organizations.

Section I Orientation

The Internet is fast becoming a useful and primary resource for information of all kinds. This class proposes to instruct you in how to use a browser application and how to find sites of importance to you. But any fool can put up a web site -- I'm working on one myself. It is important that we also learn to evaluate the information we find.

Our work in class will be based on the Web Resources site, put together by Helen McCullough, A-V Specialist at Pelletier Library. There are numerous online sites that will help you think critically about World Wide Web resources. Allegheny College Library has put together a site called Evaluating Resources: A Brief Guide. Visit this site for the complete text.

Every question we ask about an individual source of printed information should be asked of every website: what is its purpose? who created it?

In-Class Information:

Be able to answer the following questions:

Practice Exercise

Visit one of the websites listed below. Can you identify an author or producer of each site? What is the purpose of this web site and what does it contain?
  1. http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/GovernmentPolitics/index-govt.html
  2. http://www.ivillage.com/
  3. http://www.lambdalegal.org/

Section III RESEARCHING YOUR TOPIC:

This assignment is due in class September 27, 1999. If you are able, you may submit it electronically.
  1. Identify five different organizations that are currently working on behalf of women and/or women's issues. In your meeting with the professor, you will explore some groups potentially interesting to you. If you are stuck for ideas, try looking at the Women's Resources Page.
  2. What information about these groups is available online? Does the group have its own website?
  3. What information about these organizations is available in the library?
Return to Top

Back to WS 100 Page

Return to Amelia Carr's Home Page

http://merlin.alleg.edu/employee/a/acarr/ws/netone.html
Posted September 20, 1999