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Digital Eve: IT solutions with a feminine touch

By on December 25, 2008

TF spoke to Chiharu Kawai, Media Coordinator for Digital Eve

Tell us about Digital Eve.
In June 2000, Digital Eve began when three women, Dana Jones, Diane Darling, and Judy Hawkins got together online to talk about starting a new international non-profit organization servicing women in their communities who were interested in online technology – as a tool, as a business, as a career field, as a viable and important community. Within 30 days, 40 women joined the group.

Why is it women focused?  
In those days in the late 1990s and around 2000, there was notable “digital divide” between men and women. Although an increasing number of women entered the IT field, overall, many of them were struggling to gain access to technical information. They needed to have their own women-focused tech-oriented group so that they could freely ask even “dumb” or basic questions without hesitation, without caring about male engineers’ ridicule.   

Why is your website in English?
Because we are a branch of an international organization and more than 60% of our members here in Japan are non-Japanese who may not be able to read Japanese, our common language is English. Our website is actually in both English and Japanese.

How does one become a member and what are the benefits?   
We use Yahoo! Group, so many people find us on Yahoo!. They search for an international IT group.  People know about us by word of mouth. When a member has a question or a problem, technical or non-technical, she can post it to our main list to seek help. Our members can usually provide exact answers sometimes based on their own experience. Furthermore, through these online postings and also face-to-face events, our members can network with many other members in many different fields.      

Do you have input from men too?

Yes. As a matter of fact, we have a very small number of male DEJ members. They are usually IT professionals and are very helpful, answering the questions or solving the problems with detailed information.

From a general perspective, how are working moms viewed in Japan?

Over the last decade or so, a lot of things have changed in Japanese society—particularly in terms of work and employment. The traditional life-time employment system has crumbled and companies began to lay off employees, we have more single-parent homes today, etc. Under these circumstances, households need more income to survive, hence women have to go out to work too. While on the one hand some segments of the labor market need women as potential workers, on the other hand, there are not enough day care centers for small children and the government does not do much to solve this problem. Therefore, it is still not easy for moms with small children to go out to work.      

How does Digital eve support moms who want to be a member but have little kids to look after?  
What is great about an organization like DEJ is that we are basically an online group.  So we welcome mothers online at home. Many once-working housewives want to go back to the workforce after staying home for several years. If they have problems with IT skills, we are happy to help them. 

 
What about Japanese moms who would like to join but can not speak English?
Our common language is English, but it is only because English-speaking members are usually more active. We are basically a bilingual group (that is why our monthly newsletters are in both languages). If they need help with the language, we always have volunteers to help them. 
    
Give us one compelling reason why women should join Digital Eve?
Despite the “mainly online” nature of the group, we function as a large support group in our members technical and social lives. As a member of the international community, DEJ helps its members by sharing and solving their problems. DEJ is also a great place to network with other like-minded people.

What roles are currently available to those who would like to join as a volunteer?

Event coordinators, workshop coordinators, workshop instructors, event speakers, media coordinators, newsletter editors. We have many new project ideas to do something good for society.  In order to make them happen, we need more volunteers.

For more information  www.digitalevejapan.org

 

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