Liz Bailey is a freelance journalist who does work for the Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Guardian, Frank, Wallpaper*, Living Etc, New Media Creative and Government Computing.

In the first Opinion piece, Dale Spender argued that everybody should be given a computer. Click here to read it.

In the second Opinion, Theodore Roszak maintained that the computer contributes nothing essential to the life of the mind.

Liz Bailey, an American living in Britain, deplores the lack of e-zines created by British women. "Of all the fabulously funny grrl e-zines I’ve found... not one originates in the UK." Lack of attitude or lack of familiarity with the technology? What are the implications for British women in the workplace? "For most of them, tech hasn’t yet broken the cool barrier. But why?" she asks. Does anyone have the answer? Send us your Opinion!

Brillo, Wench, geekgirl, Breakup Girl... the Web is littered with grrl e-zines. Full of attitude, unapologetically feminine, resoundingly geeky. Except for the last, this could describe a large segment of British womanhood. And yet of all the fabulously funny grrl e-zines I’ve found... not one originates in the UK. No grrl.co.uk; no wenching, no rioting, no clicking.

Certainly there’s no shortage of e-zines in the UK (check http://www.yahoo.co.uk/Entertainment/News_and_Media/Magazines/ if you don’t believe me) - just of zines specifically by, and mainly for, women - though when you go into a Breakup Girl feature, you get "Dudes! A Disclaimer..." explaining why the content isn’t more co-ed (now, would a mainly male zine do that? but I digress...). Just nothing aimed at, or advertised for, the fairer sex.

What is out there for women is odious: fashionUK, which has about as much attitude as a former Spice Girl, and Cleome, more or less like an online New Woman or Cosmo. Nothing wrong with either - but they’re not remotely analogous to Maxi, riotgrrl, Smile and Act Nice or Purple Tights.

But why? It beggars belief that American women have more attitude (if that’s what you choose to call it) than British women. I ought to know: humour and irony are two of the reasons this Yank prefers to live here - and, let’s be honest, they’re both in fairly short supply in the United Stalks of Asparagus. No way are British women are less ready to discuss sex, politics, religion or indeed any other issue with abandon than are their sisters across the pond.

No, the answer seems far more likely to be that British women, to date, simply have less access to - and/or less interest in - technology. "Technology is what I do, it’s not what I am", Marcelle d’Argy Smith, former editor of Women’s Journal and Cosmo, recently told me. Probably a lot of women would agree with that. It’s just not considered to be desirable for women to own a G3 or a Pentium plus peripherals - for most women, tech hasn’t yet broken the cool barrier.

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