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Sawf Anniversary - Nitila Natarajan I spent my early childhood in Mauritius, then Mumbai. Finished my graduation from Stella Maris College, Madras and went on to do an MBA from ESSEC, France. I worked for a year in London and my husband and I have recently returned to Mumbai where I am an investment banker. I have a great liking for books and music and like to do to the odd bit of writing, particularly relating to gender issues. My other interests include cooking, pot-painting, crosswords, scrabble, theatre, travelling, etc.

The cover story of Newsweek (April 3, 2000 international edition) is entitled "Rising Daughters" - a special report on how "In a Changing Japan, Women Take the Lead". Japan, albeit a developed nation, has continued to remain a somewhat traditional Asian society, where gender roles are clearly defined. Man is the breadwinner while the woman is the homemaker. Although some women have ventured into the workplace, this has been mainly for roles traditionally reserved for women such as nursing, teaching, etc. Some women did perhaps succeed in breaking past the glass ceiling; however economic recession resulted in the suppression of women's career in favour of men, on the logic that the onus of supporting the family falls on the male.

The Newsweek article, however, suggests that the emergence of the new economy has resulted in a changed scenario. Men continue to play roles that they are expected to be in, while women are breaking free from the traditional mould of "tea serving docile" housewives and are looking for new opportunities. Driven by the old fashioned mindset, young men continue to look for traditional jobs such as banking and seek lifetime employment. It is thus a struggle to find employment in the sluggish economy. Women, on the other hand, probably did not really expect to get these jobs and automatically look elsewhere. Not perceived as breadwinners of the family, they are ready to take risks and even prepared to test their entrepreneurial skills. Thus women are turning to new economy activities such as Internet related jobs and are even willing to try setting up their own companies. Further, women constitute more than 40% of Japan's Internet surfers, thus representing enormous e-commerce potential. It is therefore in the interest of women entrepreneurs to set up specific sites targeted at women and on women related subjects.

The Japanese scenario is perhaps equally reflective of the rest of Asia. Asian women tend to be able to adapt to changing situations more easily, as they are brought up to be mouldable. In addition, the new economy offers a certain amount of flexibility in terms of time and workplace. For instance, the design and management of websites and running e-based businesses can all be handled from home. This makes it easier to balance the traditional role of homemaker with an interesting career.

SAWF is one such standing example - a website created for South Asians by women. This month SAWF completes a year of existence. Over the past year, SAWF has evolved considerably, mostly in response to the input of its readers/contributors who have directed it towards its present form and content. However, where do we want to go from here? SAWF is not a website restricted exclusively to women - we welcome contributions from men equally and hope that our site will be read by men as much. On one hand, we wish to encourage creativity and provide an e-zine where talent can be shared. On the other hand, we wish to create a forum where we address various issues relating to the evolution of woman's role in society. SAWF is also a forum to share ones experiences and we attempt to provide profiles of women who have been successful in various walks of life. The intention is to inspire other women to be creative and entrepreneurial, while highlighting some problems they may encounter and suggesting solutions.

Furthermore, SAWF is essentially meant to be a Forum, rather than merely an e-zine. The way we look at it is that it should encourage debate and discussion through its articles and, indeed, provide the platform for this polemic. Therefore what we are looking for is a much more active participation from our readers - in the form of comments posted with respect to articles, articles in response to views expressed on the site, initiation of discussions on the Forum as well as participation in existing discussions. This will go towards making SAWF the veritable forum that it is intended to be.

Looking forward to active participation from our readers, on behalf of the SAWF core team, until we connect again....