Gender,Information Technology, and Developing Countries: An Analytic Study

By Nancy Hafkin and Nancy Taggart
Academy for Educational Development (AED)
For the Office of Women in Development Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support and Research.
United States Agency for International Development
June 2001

INTRODUCTION

Information technology (IT) has become a potent force in transforming social, economic, and political life globally. Without its incorporation into the information age, there is little chance for countries or regions to develop. More and more concern is being shown about the impact of those left on the other side of the digital divide- the division between the information "haves" and "have nots." Most women within
developing countries are in the deepest part of the divide further removed from the information age than the men whose poverty they share. If access to and use of these technologies is directly linked to social and economic development, then it is imperative to ensure that women in developing countries understand the significance of these technologies and use them. If not, they will become further marginalized from the mainstream of their countries and of the world. It is essential that gender issues be considered early in the process of the introduction of information technology in developing countries so that gender concerns can be incorporated from the beginning and not as a corrective afterwards. Many people dismiss the concernfor gender and IT in developing countries on the basis that development should deal with basic needs first. However, it is not a choice between one and the other. IT can be an important tool in meeting women's basic needs and can provide the access to resources to lead women out of poverty.

THE CURRENT SITUATION OF GENDER AND INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Getting reliable statistics on women's Internet use in developing countries is very difficult. The standard indicators are not disaggregated by sex, and the available data are not very reliable or comparable. However, it is clear that the numbers are small and the distribution limited. Most women Internet users in almost all developing countries are not representative of women in the country as a whole, but rather are part of a small, urban educated elite. In many developing countries, less than one percent of the population male or female has Internet access. By regions, women are 22 percent of all Internet users in Asia, 38 percent of those in
Latin America, and six percent of Middle Eastern users. No regional figures by sex are available for Africa.

USES

Most women in developing countries who use information technology use it at work. Except in upper-income enclaves, home access to a computer and the Internet is not a phenomenon. Users at work generally divide up between those who use it as a tool of production (routine office work, data entry, manufacturing, computer industry jobs, programming, and related work) and those who use it as a tool of communication (creating and exchanging information). As a tool of communication, the most prevalent application is networking for political advocacy on behalf of women. This came about because the nongovernmental organizations that promoted electronic networking and worked in political advocacy were the early adopters and are continuing users of the technology in developing countries. Also, developing country women have used electronic communication for networking to promote their business interests. This area is far less developed than that of politically activist networking, but it represents an interesting area with possibilities for further development. E-mail is the major information technology application that women's organizations and individual women in developing countries use. But, time constraints as well as bandwidth limitations make Web use difficult for women.
Few women are producers of information technology, whether as Internet content providers, programmers, designers, inventors, or fixers of computers. In addition, women are also conspicuously absent from decision making structures in information technology in developing countries.

OBSTACLES TO WOMEN'S ACCESS

A series of factors, including literacy and education, language, time, cost, geographical location of facilities, social and cultural norms, and women's computer and information search and dissemination skills constrain women's access to
information technology. Science and technology education is necessary for women to work in IT at the level of computer programmers, engineers, systems analysts, and designers. Women's low enrollment in science impedes this globally. In developing countries, there is a great deal of variation in the percentages of women in natural sciences, computer science, and engineers. There are indications that young women in developing countries are not as affected as U.S. women by attitudes that computer science is not an attractive field to enter. For example, women comprise between 30 and 50
percent of students in computer science and other natural sciences in a number of developing countries. Africa remains the area of greatest concern, however, as African women have the lowest participation rates in the world in science and technology education at all levels. more....
 

Information and communication technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women.

Report of the Expert Group Meeting
Seoul, Republic of Korea, 11 – 14 November 2002

The role of ICT as a tool for development has recently attracted the sustained attention of the United Nations. In 2000, the Economic and Social Council adopted a Ministerial Communiqué on the role of information technology in the context of a knowledge-based economy. Later that year, the Millennium Declaration underscored the urgency of ensuring that the benefits of new technologies, especially ICT, be available to all. A World Summit on the Information Society, with the ITU as lead organizing entity, will take place in 2003 (Geneva) and 2005 (Tunisia).

While the potential of ICT for stimulating economic growth, social development and political participation is recognized, the benefits are unevenly distributed between and within countries. This has been coined the “digital divide”, or “information poverty”, to describe the difference between those countries, regions, sectors and socio-economic groups which have the resources and capabilities to access knowledge through ICT, and use ICT for a multitude of purposes, and those lacking such access and capabilities.

Women are increasingly taking advantage of ICT in all spheres of life, thus confirming that ICT can be a tool to promote gender equality and enhance the economic, political and social empowerment of women. At the same time, a “gender divide” within the digital divide is apparent and reflected not only in the lower numbers of women users of ICT, compared to men, but also in the persistence of gender-specific structural inequalities that constitute barriers to access. ICT may also create new forms of inequality between women and men. more....