Women on the Web: A critical appraisal of a sample reflecting the range and content of women’s sites on the Internet, with particular reference to the support of women’s interaction and participation

This paper investigates the availability of women’s sites on the Internet in the light of the research that has been conducted into women, communications and technology. The paper draws upon a systematic evaluation of ten women’s sites, covering a range of sectors including general sites, business, health and technology. The evaluation reveals that such sites offer useful sources of information on a range of subjects of potential interest to women and that they are stable and accessible resources. The sites tend to be freely accessible and apparently reputable, with little evidence of commercialism. However, there are concerns about the lack of security on the sites and a poor provision of the kind of information that is necessary to measure their authority and reliability. While all sites offer some form of interactivity, they tend to offer in each case only a small proportion of the interactive functions that might be enabled and demonstrate little awareness of the significance of these in helping women to network effectively.