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pret, and how to encourage women’s voices in the new electronic fron-
tier of which many of us find ourselves a part.

Notes

1. <http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user-surveys-09-1994/
html-paper/survey>
2. For more on the relationships between women and computers
see Spender (1995), Grundy (1996), Harcourt (1997), Chisholm (1996). Ex-
amples of relevant Web sites include: “Women Active on the Web” <http://
www.Web-publishing.com>, which showcases select home pages developed
by women; and “Virtual Sisterhood” (a site to help women get net active),
<http://www.igc.apc.org/vsister>.
3. <http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=vs&art_id=904318494&rel=tru>
4. Talero and Gaudette (1996, 2). For more surveys of women’s global
Internet usage patterns see <http://www.nua.ie/surveys>.
5. Conversation with Lourdes Arizpe, World Bank meeting in
Toronto, May 2, 1997.
6. For example, see Rheingold (1994), Heilemann (1997), Nye and
Owens (1996). Characteristic of this optimism is the claim that “Everyone
benefits, particularly the underdeveloped economies, which take advantage
of the leapfrog effect, adopting the newest, cheapest, best technology rather
than settling for obsolete junk” (Schwartz and Leyden 1997, 129). For argu-
ments regarding the positive social impact of the Internet on women’s lives,
see Ebben and Kramarae (1993).
7. These statistics were part of a display constructed by the company
at the Info World ’97 trade show, January 1997, in Mishrif, Kuwait.
8. Survey results published in The Star, 23 July 1998.
<http://star.arabia.com/980730/TE2.html>
9. CIA World Factbook, 1998. On-line version: <http://www.cia.gov/
cia/publications/factbook/ku.html>
10. Arab Times, 15 March 1997, p. 1.
11. Survey administered by Dr. Saif Abdal-Dehrab Abbas, Professor
of Political Science, Kuwait University. Results analyzed by the author.
This survey was administered by students in a Methodology course con-
ducted by Dr. Saif. The fact that it was conducted by Kuwaiti students on
Kuwaiti students increases the reliability of the results. Westerners who
have attempted to collect survey data in the Middle East have met many