This piece was originally published at GenderIT.org.
In this podcast, we invite you on a journey to explore stories by the voices of over 15 feminist tech activists from the global South! You will start by hearing how since the dial-up internet era the paths towards imagining and creating a feminist internet started, leading to building more inclusive, safe and queer feminist movements in the digital age – while having at the core of the process fun and care for people, the Earth and our feminist activism.
Here you can listen to some great stories of long-time feminist tech activists and savvy newbies from the APC Women's Rights Programme (WRP) and its expanded network. During our season together, we will get inspired by their memories and experiences, all connected by a common thread: making a feminist internet!
We will learn more about the Feminist Tech eXchange (FTX), a digital care curriculum that has been developed for years, connecting feminist tech trainers from around the world to exchange knowledge, strategies and care practices. These conversations explore their methodologies, experiences and the wisdom of alternative ways of being online.
So, hit play and join us in this five-episode season!
Episode 1: Dial-up to Beijing 1995: The women's communication tent
We start this podcast in the Huairou district in China, where the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) was part of a 40-women team who set up, in 1995, a communication centre during the UN 4th World Conference on Women. Run by women volunteers, the “women’s tent” – as it’s remembered – connected the diverse women from the conference to the rest of the world, plenty of them discovering the internet for the first time! In this episode, we hear from incredible women who were there and left their mark on feminist technology to this day.
Read the transcript of the podcast.
Episode 2: The beginnings of the FTX
In this episode, we answer: Why Feminist Tech eXchanges? Directly from the mouths of the digital care trainers who were part of the beginnings of the FTX and their personal journeys with feminism and technology. Talking about why holding space with a feminist lens and intersectionality matter, especially while figuring out technology.
Episode 3: This is a WE thing
Our guests start by sharing stories from the in-person FTX in 2008, totally led by women and hosted in Cape Town, South Africa. That was the start to building a community around digital safety and care, leading to the embodiment of the FTX: Safety reboot, which is both a learning curriculum and a community of feminist digital security trainers that keeps growing.
Episode 4: There is no security with a big S
This episode is filled with tips and strategies from different feminists on how to create alternative infrastructures of care and embed affection into digital security trainings and most importantly, their lives, communities and movements. It challenges the notions of a one-size-fits-all prescriptive curriculum and/or training and invites activists to reflect on what safety and care mean to them and their communities.
Episode 5: We are part of feminist movements
We finish this first season by listening to some new voices around the globe talking about how and why they have become trainers and some of their biggest challenges and joys as feminist digital security trainers. They share first-person experiences and tips on how to balance their work with digital and holistic care and personal life and activism, while dealing with patriarchy pressures, imposter syndrome and fatigue.
This podcast is an initiative from the Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Rights Programme (APC WRP) and Our Voices, Our Futures project, with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.