by Elisabeth Reinhardt

This article was published in Chrysalis, Fall 1979. 635 S. Westlake Ave., Los Angeles, California 90057. U.S.A.

A resume by ISIS

it wasn't such a long time ago that to the average person the computer seemed like an exotic species able to survive only in the remote regions of business, industry, and government. Today these creatures have invaded our daily life. The evidence is all around us: computers that process our payroll checks and bank statements, grocery-store checkout machines that record purchases by electronically reading codes on package labels, computerized systems that handle airline-ticket and rental-car bookings — not to mention computers in university library circulation departments and now even in retail stores, where they're used to record transactions while simultaneously
deducting the purchased items from inventory and adding your name to the store's mailing list for promotional mailing. Now it's time for us feminists to get into the act - to
apply computer technology to our lives, our work, and our projects in order to advance our cause and our vision.

First of all, why do we as feminists need computer technology?

Computers are the primary tool for handling information; there is no alternative to the computer for the effective gathering and processing of data. Just as women have developed our own publishing, health, and self-defense resources to record and document our women's culture as it evolves as well as to collect and update information we have unearthed about our history. In the past, women's contributions to culture — and particularly to the advancement of women — have generally not "made i t " into the history books and have been erased all too easily because of the lack of alternative documentation. We cannot let that happen anymore: We must collect, secure, and communicate the facts and stories about our culture and our lives as they happen (and that includes what we've learned from our failures as well as our successes).

Utilizing computer technology for the task will do more than merely help us stay abreast of our information. It will allow us to evaluate and process our data on a higher level. Large-scale comparisons and correlations, numerous options for reorganization and re-arrangement — which are impossible tasks manually - lead to new perspectives and new insights. This is, in fact, the real advantage of a computerized data base over a conventional archive; it represents a quantum leap forward.

There is also the very practical fact that we can now employ computers for most tiring, repetitive tasks, leaving ourselves freer to do creative work. At Chrysalis, for example, we have a mailing list that keeps changing from one day to the next as we get new subscriptions, gift subscriptions, renewals, expirations, and changes of address....

After more than two years of burdening our staff with this deadly routine, we have turned it over to a computer - sparing ourselves aggravation and saving money as well. Now we can get automatic circulation reports telling us how many subscribers are up for renewal with the next issue, etc. — a task that used to require hours of laborious counting through our mailing-list card files. Renewal notices and invoices will go out automatically without someone's having to individually type names and addresses on each invoice form. And that's just the beginning. For the future we envision automated bookkeeping and financial accounting and even word processing for preparation
of manuscripts.

What about the mystification of the computer? Won't that be an obstacle for women?

This is an area where women could have an enormously positive impact on computer technology. In many ways the computer is simpler than a stereo system, but you'd never know it because of the tendency in the computer industry to foster the mystique of the computer. People in the field (overwhelmingly men) tend to treat computers as complicated toys that only the initiated few (namely themselves) can fully understand. Thus the human interface — where the user comes into direct contact with the computer system, as with printouts and display terminals - has generally functioned to keep the average person out (and the specialist in). We must challenge and change the design of the human interface to make the computer accessible to anybody who needs to use i t , without the intervention of experts or the necessity for years of training.

How is this possible? Simple by getting rid of the need for artificial languages, which are the real stumbling block for the layperson. This has served as one of the real challenges for me in working with computers. By programming a computer with our knowledge of the grammar of natural (human) languages, we have overcome this block. When I worked at Siemens (a large data-processing company in Germany), we successfully developed a vocabulary and a procedure by which a layperson couW program a computer. Anyone can learn this method in a matter of days. There is no need for years of math or advanced calculus. All it takes is common sense and clear thinking.

So what it the Feminist Computer Technology Project (FCTP), and what will it do?

After meeting at the National Women's Studies Association conference last June, five women — Dana Densmore, Helen Eisen-Rotkopf, Mary Fillmore, Marcia Pabo, and Norma Pecora — joined me in forming the FCTP. As an immediate goal, we want to make the tools of today's computer technology available to indivklual women as well as to the feminist movement by facilitating the creatkin of regional computing centers. These centers would provide computer services such as those I've just described in addition to provkling education and skills to women in the field of computing (Ultimately I can imaginehavingeven local centers on the same basis as we now have other local feminist resources, such as newspapers, health centers, rape crisis lines, etc.).

Eventually these computer centers could also become regional information exchanges, gathering and disseminating information about our culture and our world as they evolve. Each regional center could carry up-to-date information on local women's resources and businesses. Additionally, each center could specialize in developing information in areas of general interest such as women's legal rights, medical information, employment opportunities, women's studies, and so on. These regional information banks (data banks) could hook up with each other "on-line" (via telecommunication) to request or exchange information not available locally — like an interlibrary loan.

Wouldn't one central feminist data bank be easier and cheaper to maintain than several regional centers?

Actually, the opposite is probably the case. One central facility would cost a minimum of $100,000 to hold all the needed information. Furthermore, I believe that women would be more committed to keeping a regronal/local information bank up-to-date than if they were simply delivering information to a central facility. A regional facility would give women more control over the information collected. Then there's the security factor. Decentralization is an important measure against illegal or unauthorized access to information. And finally, since a major goal of the FCTP is to make computer technology available to women by providing training and equipment, regional centers will reach far more women and enable them to employ the computer as a tool in their everyday tasks.

But isn't it risky to accumulate so much information about our movement In one place?

Couldn't that information be used by those who oppose our cause?

Of course that's always a possibility. We can't really control who uses the information.... The advantages of having resources and information about our culture readily accessible to us vastly outweigh the risk that somebody might use that information against us. I agree with that.

We cannot allow vague fears to inhibit our progress and keep us from the enormous power we can gain through developing and managing our information...

ELECTRONICS WORKERS HEALTH CENTER

Workshop participants at the Working Women's Health Fair heard plans for a unk^ue health center now operating every Monday evening at Gardnet Clinic, 325 Willow Street In San Jose. (408) 998-2264.

Coordinator Heidi Perlmutter explained the wholistic philosophy behind the center. "Health arKi other consulting agencies aren't presently geared to look at the impact of work on men's and women's physical and mental health, thus making it difficult to provide proper care and preventative counseling". The Center will address the question of how to incorporate specific and non-specific work related problems into a medk:al needs assessment program.

The Electronics Workers' Health Center is being established to deal with industry related health problems and to provide other services to workers. Long range goals are to offer all the services of a primary care center. Each evening's clinic will offer one of the three types of services.

1. Medical screening including pap smears, pregnancy tests, sperm counts, blood pressure checks, health history evaluations, blood tests and urinalysis.

2. A preventive medicine clinic which will Include Immunization for children, information regarding on the job health and safety precautions, home safety in regard to  children, how to evaluate home emergiencies, and a discussion group for women.

3. An occupational medical clinic to evaluate work related illness and injuries, and to gather data on these problems; give legal advice; provkJe information; make referrals as needed

For more informatwn contact Heidi Perlmutter at 295-5503.

Plowshare Press, Volume 5 number 6 Nov .-Dec. 1980 page 5. Mid - Peninsula Conversion Project 867 W. Dana, no. 203 Mountain View, CA 94041 US