The Power of Information The History of Isis By Robertine Romeny ©

"When we started Isis International in 1974, we dreamt of a network of women and women's groups and organizations stretching around the world, from the South to the North and from the East to the West, sharing ideas, experiences, models for organization and action, and building links of support and solidarity," says Marilee Karl, one of the founders of Isis. This dream originated in a period when for the second time this century, masses of women all over the world joined forces to overcome discrimination and oppression. Women and women's groups everywhere came together independently to discuss and take action on mutual problems and issues. Increased contact would lead to solidarity, a better understanding of the situation in developing countries (especially for women) and narrowing of the gap between rich and poor and between the South and the North. By building and strengthening women's networks and canalizing the flow of information amongst women around the world, Isis has contributed and continues to contribute to realizing its original ideals.
The Isis centres receive information from, and disseminate it to all areas of the globe. Isis was initially based in Geneva and Rome. Its documentation material was later transferred to Chili, the Philippines and Uganda. The information and communication service is based on a network of over 10,000 contacts in 150 countries and three resource centres with thousands of documents. The information on Isis-WICCE serves to illustrate how the Isis philosophy is put into practice.

History

Isis was founded in October 1974 by three women; Marilee Karl, Jane Cottingham and Judy Sidden. "Previous to this," says Marilee Karl, "we had discussed the idea for Isis with women from different countries in both the North and the South. Together with our contacts in various countries and a small group of volunteers in Geneva and Rome, we began building up a collection of documentation and records of human resources and creating a data base using optical coincidence cards. We chose this system because we foresaw the possibility of computerizing these records in the future, when the technology would became available to women's groups. We were all working as volunteers from our homes. With the first Isis bulletin, Isis was launched in October 1976 at the International Tribunal Against Crimes Against Women in Brussels." "After this tribunal, the International Feminist Network (IFN) began", continues Juliet Were of Isis-WICCE in Kampala, Uganda. "In Brussels thousands of women met to speak out against and share their personal experiences of oppression. This revealed the extent of the atrocities perpetrated against women at an international level, and the continued silence around them. The network, which was initiated by Isis International, aimed to break through this silence and to mobilize support for women everywhere who find themselves victims of injustice or crimes.
When what was then called Isis International decided to extend its activities to developing countries, Isis-WICCE, a branch then remaining in Geneva which later moved to Uganda, continued to run the IFN and do so until this day."

Evolution

The fundamental objective of Isis is to empower women and to encourage their full participation in development processes by building networks and channels of communication and information. The original idea of Isis has basically remained the same, but it has evolved along with the rest of the international women's movement. In the beginning of the eighties, Isis decided to take the symbolic step of transferring the collections in the resource centres in Rome and Geneva to the South. Much of the information collected was from and on groups and organizations in the South and Isis felt uncomfortable that, as so often happens, valuable insights and material from the South were ending up in major capitals in the North.
"In 1984 the branch offices in Rome and Geneva became two separate independent organizations: Isis International and Isis-WICCE," adds Ximena Charnes of Isis International in Santiago, Chile. "Both offices were expanding rapidly and were developing many different programmes. Isis-WICCE decided to concentrate on the Women's Cross Cultural Exchange Programme (WICCE), whilst Isis International opted to focus on the development of its publications and resource and documentation centres and the opening of our office in Santiago. In 1991, the office in Rome was closed and all the documentation and programmes for Asia were transferred to Manila, the Philippines. In 1994 the Isis-WICCE office in Geneva closed and transferred its programmes to Uganda."

Isis International Chile

"The opening of the Santiago office in 1984 was the beginning of a process of decentralization, which was to give Isis more contact with the many women and groups in the region who would later become involved in programmes and networking activities. By giving Latin American and Caribbean women access to information from other regions of the world, Isis is realizing its objective of promoting South-to-South communication and North-to-South linkage and solidarity" (Women in Action,1991/1). "We now have contacts in almost every country in Latin America and the Caribbean," says Ximena Charnes (1998). "We receive material from numerous groups and organizations, including women's organizations, NGOs, government agencies, international organizations, academic institutions, etc. Many of these are partners in exchange agreements, some were traced after a period of active searching, others send us contributions for our publications or co-edit publications with us."
Isis-Santiago was mandated to be the coordinating point for information and communication in the "Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Network against Domestic and Sexual Violence. It also maintains an updated data base on information and documentation centres and libraries in Latin America and the Caribbean."

Isis International Manila

The transfer of Isis International from Rome to Manila in the Philippines in 1991 marked a new milestone in the organization's history. Isis-Manila provides a space - the House of Isis - for women's physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual rejuvenation and self-directed learning. The focal point of the House of Isis is the Isis resource centre.
An Isis International project which was initiated in 1995 in Manila aims to build a network of support and cooperation between women's information, documentation and resource centres in Asia and the Pacific. The project has been successful in bringing women in the region together in workshops. Isis has also visited and liaised with 55 women's centres from seven countries in the region and trained ten women to set up the Solomon Islands Women's Resource Centre. In 1998, Isis is breaking ground by publishing the book Living Collections that documents the work of 16 women's information centres in Asia and the Pacific.
The three Isis offices are currently autonomous and their primary orientation is regional. At the same time however, they are represented in each others boards and participate in each others activities as sister organizations. All three centres have retained the same original objective of facilitating communication between women and all those working towards women's empowerment. Marilee Karl is currently in the process of compiling a history of Isis for its 25th anniversary in 1999.

For questions or more information please contact: mapping@iiav.nl
Homepage