A new website has been launched aimed directly at women in rural Alberta.
The website, www.ruralwomen.ca, was launched with the click of a mouse March 16 after a survey of more than 600 rural women said they needed a way to feel connected.
“We want to reduce the isolation of rural women,” said Joan Gregorwich who spent months planning and designing the website.
She hopes the website will be a daily ritual for women, just like their morning cup of coffee, where they can get updated information, share recipes and join discussion forums.
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“All the links are things that come from the survey. These are all the things women wanted to see on a site,” said Gregorwich. She received the first recipe from a reader only hours after the website launch.
The survey of women in east-central Alberta, released in January, identified a long list of needs for rural women, including more money, more career choices, better access to government programs, improved child care and better access to the internet.
For many rural residents who rely on dial-up service on old telephone lines, accessing the internet is an exercise in frustration rather than a pleasant experience.
Having only access to a dial-up service herself, Gregorwich designed the website to be compatible with slow rural internet service. She made the file sizes as small as possible to load quickly and made the website rural friendly.
“I tried to be extremely careful,” said Gregorwich of Kelsey, Alta.
Almost 90 percent of the farm women surveyed said they used the internet as a way to feel connected.
“That’s how they try to reduce the isolation for themselves,” she said.
The website includes information on finances, fitness, communication, quality of life, mentoring, gardening, recipes, travel and laughs.
“The website has a lot of possibilities,” said Gregorwich. It was launched with government funding, but Gregorwich, a former U.S. newspaper advertising salesperson, plans to sell banner ads to keep the site active.
