Gender Gap, Payment Gap, Work Gap and we can continue for quite long. There is something in common with these gaps: they regard women.
And even though there has been progress over the years, this progress is still very slow and when measuring outcomes in different sectors, women are always part of the most vulnerable groups, most at high risk and with the worst results.
We thought that with the promise of freedom offered by the World Wide Web (www) when it first came into our lives, women wouldn’t face these same inequalities but unfortunately, the situation looks familiar.
The theme of the United Nations 67th Commission on Status of Women was “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”. What the conference showed was not only how potentially technology could help women and girls to improve their lives, but even the existence of a Digital Gap or also known as the Digital divide, that is the unequal access to digital technology, including smartphones, tablets, laptops and the internet.
Studies show that women are less likely to leverage devices and Internet access to their full potential, even when they do use digital technologies.
To explain to you better, here are some data:
- Women and girls are 50% less likely to be online
- Women are 30-50% less likely to use the internet for economic and political empowerment
- 400 million adult women in low and middle-income countries do not own a mobile phone
Why are these data worrying? Because the digital divide can exacerbate gender inequalities, making women and girls not able to equally participate in the digital society. Particularly the digital divide:
- Reinforces the discriminatory social norms
- Highlights the lack of access for women and girls
- Increases the lack of confidence
- And created the possibility of harassment
With less access to digital technology, you have less voice and presence in very important aspects of the world such as economic, politics, education and the health sector.
Imagine not being able to read, write and share all the posts, articles, tweets and messages that you share every day?
So what are the actions to introduce?
- Looking at the gaps between the coverage and usage
- Introduce digital and technology literacy from primary school
- Create and/or increase capacity building
- Increase female representation
- Consider humanitarian disasters
- Localize resources and work with a local organization
- Implement a legal framework to improve higher education
- Provide mentorship
- Introduce girls and women to technology at a young age
- Collaborate with the private sector
All said above is not a job for one or few individuals. It is a multi-agency work of stakeholders that need to sit, metaphorically or even literally, at one table and analyze the causes of the digital divide and find solutions to address it. We can’t continue talking about freedom of education, speech and thoughts when a big part of the population can not participate. We need women and girls even in the technology world, now and ever.
The Feminist Health CIC 