eHomemakers Network

Recognising that women in the digital divide groups such as homemakers and disadvantaged home-bound women tend to be left out of social development due to the lack of access to relevant information, eHomemakers brings together marginalised Malaysian women - and, increasingly, men - seeking to work from home. The thought is that, if these people could generate income from home and use ICTs to improve aspects of their family life, they could, in fact, actively participate in the information economy. ICTs, then, are a tool for providing workers in the informal sector with an avenue for self-development and economic opportunity - requiring little capital.

Initially, a static website was built to meet the needs of mothers and homemakers by providing them with a platform to access information and to network. The site was managed and maintained by a small group of volunteers. Over time, the network realised that the static website could not support the growing needs of members who wanted a more dynamic platform with interactive features. In November 2001, eHomemakers was awarded a one-year Demonstrator Application Grant from the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment to develop eHomemakers. The portal was created to link homemakers all over Malaysia into an e-community, bound together by common interests in parenthood, homemaking, and issues related to economic, social, family, and gender development. A year after the grant was over, eHomemakers managed to solicit corporate sponsorship and won other small grant awards to include homeworkers in the informal sector. The portal then began to enable homeworkers and homemakers to teletrade, network, and support each other through creative problem-solving and idea-sharing. It offers services such as a forum and a platform called Xchange for homemakers and home workers to market their products and services. All of these services are provided free of charge to members.

These e-activities are complemented by on-the-ground activities geared toward those who do not have easy access to ICTs. These initiatives include training sessions and conferences for life-long learning and community outreach, annual Mother's Day contests, and contests for home-based business ideas. Also, in 2004, eHomemakers began to research and embark on research and development of an integrated application that would allow more efficient coordination between the project team and disadvantaged women without access to computers and the internet. Product innovation was embarked on to allow a Fair Trade platform enabled by the ICT application called DWMA (Distributed Work Management System).

eHomemakers is actively involved in advocacy work to promote working from home as a means to balance work and family life. The network members are involved in cyber and ground activities to promote the concept of digital learning and use of ICTs at home as a tool for women's economic empowerment. Part of the purpose of this work is to help its members gain self-esteem through mutual support activities, in light of "public prejudice about useless housewives who did not contribute to society". For example, eHomemakers worked with the Malaysian Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development to get the cabinet to approve working at home as a viable option for women in 2005 and developed a guidebook on setting up a home office in 2007.

eHomemakers has carried out related research studies, published papers, and collaborated with academic researchers on various ICT for development (ICT4D) research.

Women, Gender, Economic Development.

Organisers explain that women who choose to work from home to balance family life and career are vulnerable to being exploited with low-paying assignments and little assistance for personal development.

Since 2003, eHomemakers notes, the concept of working from home has attracted men's interest as well. Today, the ratio of men to women e-members is almost 50:50, while the ground members comprise women without access to the internet.

eHomemakers' ECHO system won the 2012 Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF) Asia Award under the category "code for the common good". The ISIF Asia is a grants and awards programme that aims to stimulate creative solutions to ICT needs in the Asia Pacific region. Click here to learn more about ECHO and the award.