Introduction to Citizen Journalism

If you sit back and ponder, Web 2.0 allows us all to have a voice, a global woman's voice. A few short years ago, the early 90's during my college days, computers were still fresh on the scene and I still went to the college library to type up assignments. Now Web 2.0 has made a tremendous, vast amount of knowledge available to anyone who can use a computer. Recently I just completed my Master's Degree online. Learning, communicating and even gossip is all at our fingertips.

What does Web 2.0 mean for the global women's empowerment movement? Women have not always been heard. Many of us still feel like our voices are not important, not wanted. We now have the power to network, and learn from each other. We hear of terrible things that are still happening to women that we would not know if we did not have this tool. Whether we are stay-at-home moms, working professional women/moms, we now have this combined voice. We are together. Our voices are powerful. We have opinions, and ideas that are screaming and clawing to get out. Now these screams are rising to the surface and like molten magma are bursting through as hot lava. These combined voices are streaming everywhere and for all to hear.

In my personal experiences, the Web 2.0 has impacted my life greatly. With the birth of my oldest during the last year of college, I gave up going to Graduate School. I always intended on going but 4 more children later, and it was beginning to look like an impossibility. I began to be depressed. Certain circumstances made me feel that I was not the woman I wanted to be, not the wife I should be. I hit a wall of fog that I call depression. I was stuck in this fog for a long time. Eventuallly, I hit addictions and bipolar disorder. I almost lost my beautiful children as a result of my poor decisions. I suddenly realized there was more to me. I struggled but I climbed out of this fog. When I broke free of it, I had this burning desire to help women that were having the same issues as I was. I don't want any woman to think that they are only on this earth for one purpose....to be a wife/Mom. Wives and Moms have voices, it is okay to be a "live wire". We are powerful creatures amzing beings. I completed my Masters and am moving forward into my phd for Psychology so I can help other women learn to free their inner dragons, embrace our lioness, wear it proud.

I now have a voice, a powerful, glorious female voice that is free. Together we can be heard. We are women...we were born to be heard....hear us world.

Missyann Rose