The extension of information and communication technologies is purported to provide great opportunities for women, with the potential for empowerment and feminist activism. This paper contributes to the debate about women and cyberspace through a focus on the role of the internet in the lives of a group of technologically proficient, socially advantaged white heterosexual new mothers. The internet played a central role in providing virtual social support and alternative information sources which increased these women's real sense of empowerment in the transition to motherhood. Simultaneously, however, very traditional stereotypes of mothering and gender roles persisted. A paradox is evident whereby the internet was both liberating and constraining: it played an important social role for some women while at the same time it encouraged restrictive and unequal gender stereotypes in this particular community of practice. An examination of new virtual parenting spaces therefore has a contribution to make in understanding changing parenting practices in the new millennium. Key words: Cyberspace, internet, mothers, empowerment. 3 Recent research suggests that the extension of ICT (information and communication technologies) into virtually every area of society provides great opportunities for women (Cherny and Weise 1996; Kennedy 2000) . It is claimed that ICT have the potential for empowering women, enabling feminist activism and resistance to male power (Harcourt 1999; Sutton and Pollock 2000; Youngs 2001) . Much has been made of the support, information exchange and political potential afforded to women through online community membership (Kramer and Kramarae 2000; Pudrovska and Ferree 2004; Vehvilainen 2001) and how ICT offer new opportunities for women to develop as entrepreneurs and innovators (Martin and Wright 2005) . Others suggest cyberspatial technologies can enable a radical renegotiation of gender relations and challenge patriarchal hegemony (Haraway 1985; Jenson et al. 2003; Travers 2003) . However, over zealous claims of the power of ICT for transforming women's lives are not without critics (Gajjala 2003; Gajjala and Mamidipudi 1999; Mitra 2001; Woolgar 2002) . Studies have shown how online discourses and practices continue to reflect and reinforce the unequal gender power relations present in onsite institutions and social conventions (Hocks 1999; Josok et al. 2003) and sexist practices abound (Cunneen and Stubbs 2000) . Moreover, while the gender gap with regard to internet use is narrowing, the majority of women on the internet still continue to be white academic professionals (Travers 2003) . The majority of participants on bulletin boards and listserves are also still men and men also dominate participation volumes and agenda setting even in feminist and mixed-gender cyberspaces (Gurak 2001) . Recent studies suggest that effective use of the internet to increase women's empowerment may be overshadowed by its commercialization (Shade 2003) and its role in affirming norms of femininity and consumerism (Pitts 2004) . These debates are couched within assessments of the significance of disembodiment for 'cyber-agency'. A number of scholars have suggested that the absence of the body online can result in greater freedom to perform different and often multiple identities (see Davies 2004 and Pitts 2004) . The online venue is a place where the tangible existence of the researcher is removed, so bodily presence (age, gender, ethnicity, hairstyle, clothes, accent) become invisible. The internet then promises a radical potential in representing new genders, new sexualities and de-essentialising fixed unitary subjectivity. Plant (2000: 335), for example, suggests: 'There is a virtual reality, an emergent process for which identity is not the goal but the enemy, precisely what has kept at bay the matrix of potentialities from which women have always downloaded their roles.' However, this 'net utopianism' of disembodiment has been challenged on several fronts. Seymour (2001) , for example, suggests that while the 'lived body' is invisible during virtual interactions, mannered behaviours, pre-interpreted meanings and unstated assumptions are clearly 'visible' during online conversations, influencing the nature of discourses and social interaction. This is precisely because we do not leave the body, and all its material inequalities, behind when we enter cyberspace. As Higgins et al. (1999: 111) suggest '…the electronic frontier has a history, geography and demography grounded firmly in non-virtual realities of gender, race, class and other cultural variables that impact on our experience of the technological.' Hardey (2002) also suggests that virtual interactions are inevitably shaped by, and grounded in, the social, bodily and cultural and experience of users. So often in practice there is a rigid adherence to gender norms in the virtual arena as it is increasingly recognised that online textual persona cannot be separated from the offline physical person who constructs them and they are commonly based on offline identities in any case (Valentine 2001: 56 (cf Phoenix et al. 1991: 6). In particular, the transition to motherhood can be fraught with difficulties with Figes (1998: 38) suggesting that women are probably more vulnerable to a crisis of identity when they become mothers than at any other life stage. Clearly then any research that can illuminate the possibilities of support and empowerment for new mothers is important. Indeed, the paucity of work on new mothers using the internet is unexpected since it is widely acknowledged that the use of the internet as a source of health information is increasing (Fogel 2004; Hardwick and MacKenzie 2003; Nettleton et al. 2004; Pandey et al. 2003) . This may be in part because the internet enables people to 'self-diagnose' and to 'discipline' their bodies (Parr 2002: 73). Indeed, parents form a high proportion of those who are using the internet to seek health care advice for self-diagnosis for themselves and their children, a trend reflected in the growth of the number of parenting websites (Sarkadi and Bremberg 2005) . Moreover, the benefits of using the internet for disseminating parenting skills have been recognised by health professionals, aware that the resources available for teaching new parents about the day-to-day aspects of child care are limited (Alder and Zarchin 2002; Hudson et al. 2003; Lamp and Howard 1999) . Parenting websites offer users the opportunity to join an online community based around a common interest, providing information, support and advice (Burrows et al. 2000) . Internet, focus on the types of activities performed online, and explore how these fit into the complexity of everyday life.' In addressing these issues the paper is structured into five parts. First, details of the virtual research process is outlined, followed in the second section by details of the online venue under study. In the third section an assessment is made of the role of the internet in providing support and information for new mothers. The fourth section examines the significance of anonymous interaction for creating 'safe' virtual 8 parenting places and challenging and/or upholding everyday place-based parenting cultures. Finally the conclusions assess the potential of the internet for increasing women's empowerment in the transition to motherhood and suggest important policy implications. This paper draws on the experience of an online research project entitled Cyberparents Following Gurak and Ebeltoft-Kraske's (1999: 147) plea for internet research to move away from generalisations towards studies situated in specific contexts and technologies, we decided to focus on one specific 'place' in the digital world. Babyworld (http://www.babyworld.co.uk) was selected as the case study site because it was the first UK-based parenting website, launched in 1996, and advertised as 'the mother of parenting websites'. At the time the research project was set up this website had a high profile amongst parents as it was advertised in the 'BountyGuide' parenting handbook distributed by hospitals to all new parents (Rodway 1997). Usage figures showed that babyworld was 9 the largest parenting site in the UK with 160,000 unique visits per month, generating 3 million page impressions (http://www.babyworld.co.uk/aboutus/press/press_office.asp Accessed April 2005). The research process was initiated through direct contact with the babyworld team and a face-to-face interview was conducted to get background information on the social production of the website, which was itself in its infancy. We found that the 'key players' in the website's production were all parents and so rapport developed based on our similar life experiences. While the babyworld team gave us no direct access to the website users, they did allow us to create a hotlink from the home page of the babyworld site to our cyberparents website (see Madge and O'Connor 2002 for details). It is significant to note that without the agreement and co-operation of the website providers to place this strategic hypertext link, it would have been much harder to recruit these specific online community members. In this case the significance of having the babyworld team 'on our side' cannot be underestimated but it must be stressed that the research project was at all times independent, with no connections what so ever between us and babyworld, other than a social empathy as new parents. This commonality of identity as new mothers also facilitated our mother-to-mother virtual interviews and we did not find that we were viewed as 'an unwelcome arbitrary intrusion' (Paccagnella 1997: 3) as other academics researching into online communities have been perceived. Perhaps this was because we were socialised and acclimatised into this specific online community as previous users of the website, but also because we were very clear about disclosing our identity as researchers when the project began. We were also mindful of issues of informed consent, confidentiality and sharing the results of our research from the outset, and so were not viewed as 'research paparazzi in cyberspace ' (cf Chen et al. 2004). Indeed, when the interviewees were 10 questioned about the virtual interview process, many positive responses were received (see extract 1). predominately by women (84%), the majority of whom were under 35 (76%) and lived in the UK (80%). Only 23% of the respondents were employed full-time, others defining 11 themselves as part-time workers (31%), 'houseperson' (28%), on maternity leave (6%) or 'other' (student, unemployed etc, 12%). Most women were white (81%), married (63%), and had at least one child (89%), most commonly under 2 years of age (81%). Our sample thus replicates the uneven social and spatial distribution of the internet (Warf 2001) and the specificity of this sample of women should be borne in mind when reading the paper. Any conclusions must be limited to this specific group of (predominately) technically proficient white women from the UK and care must be take not to project their concerns as universal: as Collins (1994) has highlighted, race and class continue to be key in differentiating women's mothering experiences. The second stage of the research process involved semi-structured synchronous virtual group interviews to gain more detailed understanding of the key themes emerging from the questionnaire data. These virtual group interviews were conducted using a software conferencing technique -Hotline Connect. The interviewees were of a similar age (22-36) and there was an even mix of 'full-time mums', part-time workers and full-time workers. All but one woman had one child only and most of these children were under one year (although the age ranged from 10 weeks to 3 years). Each interview lasted between one and two hours and was based on a semi-structured format recommended for investigating the '…personal significance of what has transpired in the lives of the respondents' (Coyne and Gottlieb 1996, 985 Sponsorship is also gained from a variety of commercial companies, as evidenced from the variety of advertisements populating the website. It must be noted however, that shopping was not considered an important reason for visiting babyworld in our study. Our online questionnaire revealed that only 6% of respondents used the website solely for shopping, compared to 16% for the discussion forums only. Shopping was also rarely mentioned as a reason for visiting the website by the interviewees, even when probed by the researchers. Much more important was the online support and information that could be gained from the website. The web-based questionnaire revealed the significance of using the internet for parenting advice for this sample of parents. Most (71%) respondents indicated that the internet was an important source of parenting information compared to their mother (69%), other mothers (51%), childminder (38%) and neighbours (15%). The most important reasons for using the babyworld website were knowledge (78%), support (76%), convenience (73%) and range of audience (73% Indeed, the advice and information interviewees tended to mention was provided not by 'experts' but by other mothers. This feeling of 'shared experience' was one the most important reasons for these mothers using the internet for parenting information. Information from other mothers was seen as a good supplement to information gained from books and health professionals (extract 3). was happening' (Jane). The fact that no appointment is necessary and that the website can be used 'at a time entirely suited to you and not someone else' (Jo) was considered significant. Another women stated that it was the fact you could not only access it when you wanted but also how often that was important to her: 'It could be three in the morning or the 10th time that day' (Elin). Healy (1997: 60) has underscored this observation: 'The networked citizen is never alone. Synchronously or asynchronously, the sun never sets on the virtual community.' In our study this virtual support was of particular significance for those women living away from their extended family (especially mother) or if close family members worked or if their mother had died. The online parenting community therefore played an increasingly significant role for those women who were geographically or socially isolated, where mothering could not be a 'locally' shared activity (extract 4) ii . Marianne: The info has been good so far. Indeed, generally, the significance of online support for this group of parents cannot be denied, with 66% of questionnaire respondents stating that using babyworld was like belonging to a virtual parent and toddler group and 36% agreeing that they had more in common with people visiting babyworld than they did with people from their local community. Online support was translated into feelings of empowerment by many of the women using babyworld. Several women noted this sense of empowerment through increased confidence and a greater sense of control. Elin stated: 'You can feel more in control and not feel you are pestering people.' Marianne said: 'I don't feel like an idiot asking questions I ought to know the answer to-… have had several daft questions answered on there so far!' The increased knowledge improved women's ability to make decisions and feel more in control of their lives as new parents. As one mother succinctly stated: 'I think the more information you can get the more informed decisions and choices you can make' (Elin). Although it must be noted that this empowerment in this self-selecting group is not surprising as those who felt alienated by babyworld would not have returned to the site or engaged in the online discussions, it cannot be denied that online self help communities encourage people to take an extremely responsible role in their own care through practical advice about coping, emotional support, technical medical information and online second Overall then, we would assess that these women felt that they had gained, in an empowering sense, from being members of this virtual parenting community through increased knowledge, non-judgemental support and the development of online friendships available exactly when the women needed them. As such, babyworld provided 19 companionship, informational and esteem support (Nettleton et al. 2002) . It was this far from an 'imagined community'; rather, it was a transient, contingent community catering for the immediate needs of this specific group of women at what can be a bewildering time as they adjusted to becoming a mother. In adjusting to motherhood babyworld itself represented a safe space for parents, usually mothers, to communicate. This is important for a new mother can easily feel isolated, incompetent and made to feel 'out of place' in the masculinist public realm (Davidson 2001: 295). In entering a community of (predominately) women who had all been through the experience of becoming a mother, most postings on babyworld were responded to positively and responses were invariably supportive and encouraging. This is a common feature of many women-centered sites (Correll 1995; Herring 1996; Savicki and Kelley 2000) . In general the practice of 'flaming' (making rude and abusive remarks to others) is not found in women dominated discussion groups (Sharf 1997: 76) Therefore although the internet is not always a 'safe' space, users of babyworld tended not to suffer the negative aspects experienced by some online self-help groups (Burrows et al. 2000; Cunneen and Stubbs 2000; Finn and Banach 2000) . This feeling of being 'in place' was possibly an outcome of the gendered nature of the social production of the website. Four of the six key members of the babyworld team were all women (all mothers themselves), including the editor, the operations director, the community editor 20 and the forums manager. All of the medical experts (doctor, midwives, antenatal teacher, breastfeeding expert, and health visitor) were women, although the fertility expert was male http://www.babyworld.co.uk/aboutus/meet_the_team.asp Accessed January 2003). Babyworld was a site produced by women for women with a commitment to helping new parents: 'Behind babyworld is a dedicated team, each of whom shares the belief that being a parent is one of the most important jobs that we will ever do and that information should be available to parents quickly and free of charge. In addition we believe that the online community is very important in offering vital support to parents' This level of anonymity was considered important to some of the women when using the website because it freed them from any judgemental expectations they felt health professionals might have of them because of their enquires. Cyberspace was therefore seen as advantageous in allowing the women some temporarily relief from the power dynamics played out between new mothers and medical experts in material space. As Parr (2002: 76, 22 92) notes, the increasing quantities of health information gained from the internet can facilitate new lay abilities to gain specialist medical knowledges which both enable bodily transformations in 'real space' but also may be used to resist traditional diagnostic authority and medical power. The anonymity of virtual space thus provided the women with an active route to by-pass dominant health discourses and power relations. In doing so the virtual realm was important as it enabled the women to temporarily transcend local moralities of mothering (Holloway 1998), in which the romanticised ideal of motherhood and the day-to-day reality of the conduct of motherhood were often divergent, leaving women feeling inadequate for not being the 'ideal mother' (Aitken 1999: 584) (extract 6). Marianne: I feel better askign BW than my health visitor as  But was this role confined to women or also true of new fathers? Uncovering gender differences is important for as Howard et al. (2002) and White (2001) have revealed, men and women approach and use the internet differently: for example, men are more likely to use the internet to get news, financial information and sport rather than to access health information. This was borne out in our study as few men used the babyworld website. Only 16% of questionnaire respondents were male and male discussion forums elicited a more limited number of respondents than the female forums. Indeed, interview questions about male partners using the internet for parenting advice and support were generally met with derision: '…definitely not for parenting advice! Music, humour etc etc etc but never baby related! (Jo)' 'My husband is definitely not interested in parenting…I mean using the internet for it' (Vanessa). Other male uses for the internet were noted including news, financial information, music, games and humour. Only in two cases did male partners use babyworld, one being: '…just a big a freak about it as I am. And he has actually been using BW more than me' (Jane) and the other '…had a little look at the Dad's bit, but he's not really that way inclined' (Marianne). Several reasons were given for this disinterest in the website including: '…he prefers reading the books -I think he thinks they're more authoritative for some reason...' The observation that women predominately use and contribute to babyworld is indicative of the fact that the culture and conduct of parenting are gendered processes (Valentine 1997) . In Britain today mothers are still generally held responsible for the care of their children (Bailey 1999: 337; Holloway 1999: 93) and despite movements towards more egalitarian parenting, in practice childrearing still remains predominately a female role (Family and Child Protection Group 1998: 18). In this example cyberspace was on the whole replicating these gender expectations, roles and stereotypes with the implicit view of childcare as a predominately female role, in a two person heterosexual relationship being the most common stereotype presented. A culture of mothering thus emerged which was generally speaking traditional and conservative. This was aptly summarised by the introductions made by the women at the start of the interviews (extract 7).
Nevertheless, the Internet does provide a variety of benefits for mothers: it is convenient, always available, there are a range of audiences and no appointment is necessary in order to seek advice REF .
Parenting gone wired: empowerment of new mothers on the internet?
Social & Cultural Geography
Sociology