Thank you for your comments and your participation in the Webgrrls community…We are often asked about the Webgrrls name and how it came about…

We started in April 1995 and when determining a name for our organization, an organization that would help chart the paths of many women who were at the forefront of the women’s movement on the Internet, Web Women sounded to old and boring for this exciting new technology and Webgirls sounded too young for the level of women who were participating. It was also right around the time that the grrl movement was brewing and the Webgrrls name just stuck…and we think it is fun.

Please rest assured that we are very serious about business, very serious about supporting each other and very serious about encouraging each other, but we also like to have a lot of fun.

See you online!

It was not always this way, however. This trend has happened as a direct result of outsourcing to countries which do not have the same cultural equalities that we enjoy here in the U.S. Men from the countries we outsource to have a much different view of women. We are considered 2nd class citizens. In the last few years, these men have been promoted to management positions. They get rid of or push out the most vulnerable people (women and minorities) and replace them with friends and relatives.

I had a hard time leaving, because my (H1 VISA) manager didn’t want me to leave. He tried to force me to stay–as if that’s possible. It was the last insult, as real push in leaving. he tried to prevent me from leaving gracefully, by trying to burn my bridges, but fortunately, in 12 years, I was able to gain a lot of respect.

Many of us have left our computer jobs to pursue careers where we do not have to deal with these cultures. Many of us have left to pursue careers where we can use our creative AND our technical abilities, such as interior design, architecture and graphic design.

The corporate software giants are hurting themselves by not realizing what they are losing. Many of us have both creative and technical skills–in my exerpience, not too many people in outsourced jobs can say that.

Viewing yourselves as, “Web Women”, versus, “Web ‘Girls’ (grrls)” is a start to leveling the playing field. If you don’t take yourselves seriously, why should anyone else?

Can ANYONE tell me?

How is it that, in most global societies, it is the chief task of women to raise male children, and…, having the majority of contact with these males in the male childs’ formative years, end up producing sons who are thoroughly sexist jerks??

Women have the ultimate power to change WORLD paradigms…”The hand that rocks the cradle”? I think we need to look in the mirror first, before we lament too much about these monstrous men from outer space who are enslaving us and keeping us down.

I view life a bit differently. I don’t disagree that there are some men out there that are some MAJOR jerks. So, in the paradigm that you ladies have expressed, you are placed in a subordinate role to them, they hold the keyes to the kingdom (in my paradigm, it would be a queendom) and they are playing a nasty game of keep away that forces you to leave the game.

I submit to you that we are entering a new area which is anyone’s game. When else in history has both a black man and a woman (“white” woman since this country’s history fails to stress that)are the sole Presidential candidates on a parties ticket?? If someone had told me that this would be the case 10 years ago, I would have said, ‘Nah, maybe in another 100 years.’

My point is that this information technology is a relatively new field of endeavor… a baby really. So much is occurring in such amazingly short spaces of time. To say that, “This is how it IS”, is extremely short sighted and pessimistic. It also does not take into account the “magic”, “tireless flexibility”, and “opportunity” which abounds within this industry. If you want to play, “The Great and Powerful Oz”, there are ways for you to strike out on your own, set-up your own web consulting firm, and NEVER let a soul know WHAT you have between your legs. And with that profit, YOU decide what paradigm you will exist in by creating greater opportunities for women, for blacks, for Samoans, for whomever.

Don’t limit yourselves, ladies. These men are only powerful because you make them so. Dare to dream, dare to act, dare to become, dare to set precedents, dare to create your own realities.