Digital Suffragists: Women, the Web, and the Future of Democracy

In this deeply researched if narrowly focused study, Tessier draws on her experience as a comment moderator for the New York Times to document “how women’s voices are derailed and disrupted online.” She cites a 2015 study showing that women were outnumbered three to one in news comments at the Times and other news websites, and connects this disparity to the underrepresentation of women in Congress and on public affairs TV programs; the overlooking of women’s voices and needs in the development of new technologies such as the Apple Health app, which didn’t include a period tracker in its first iteration; and the disproportionate amount of online harassment women receive. Tessier calls on institutions and businesses to “buil[d] diverse workforces that reflect a variety of life experiences ,” and documents how Stanford University’s Gendered Innovations program and other initiatives are helping to create user interfaces that appeal to women’s values and interests, which include social connections, safety, and “give-and-take conversations with other people in their communities.” Unfortunately, Tessier’s analysis does not take age and class differences into account, and she doesn’t examine her own assumption that commenting in the New York Times is a worthy goal in and of itself. Still, this a lucid and well-informed look at implicit biases in the digital world and the harms they cause. (Oct.)