Gender and ICT
Reference documents / Articles and proposals / Experiencies / Links

"...All great technological transformations have a shining side - the one
turned towards its agonists- and a dark one,
facing the peoples that are left behind by changes,
in which they see a reflection of their own dependence
and backwardness and which cause an
aggravation of social inequalities and poverty".

Several authors. Uruguay hacia el 2000.
Desafíos y opciones.
Editorial Nueva Sociedad 1991. p.107.
(Uruguay circa 2000. Challenges and Options) 1st Edition.

The ILO report on employment in the world, entitled "Life at Work in the Information Economy", 2001, points out that "the development of information and communications technologies (ICTs) offers a great number of new opportunities for women. However, unless such possibilities are backed by the deliberate formulation of policies that may ensure women's participation, responsibilities, education and training in ICTs, as well as by family support policies at the workplaces where the information economy is deployed, old gender biases will persist".

The concept of "digital divide" refers precisely to the inequalities stemming from varying opportunities of access to and use of such technologies, which reflects the patterns of inequity that exist in society. New terms have emerged in that connection: the "techno rich" and the "techno poor". The former refers to those who have access to the infrastructure and education necessary to use ICTs productively. By contrast, the "techno poor" are those that for economic, educational, cultural and other reasons are excluded from their benefits.

As the ILO Director General has pointed out, the ICT revolution offers real possibilities, but also entails the danger that there may be "losers".

That is why it is necessary to broaden knowledge about both the potential opportunities ICTs may give to countries and their actual impacts and manifestations in different contexts and social groups.

The number of Internet users throughout the world towards the end of 2002 was 591 million, according to the 2003 Report on E-business and Development at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

That same report indicates that in the 2001-2002 period the number of users in Latin America grew by 35.5%. In actual figures, this meant going from 17.8 million in 2000 to 26.1 million in 2001 and 35.4 million in 2002.

Likewise, the Internet is no longer a scene where only men are prominent, as currently the number of women users is constantly growing, having reached about 45% of world totals, and 50% in the industrialised countries.

According to US figures 1 the number of women users of the Internet has been growing more rapidly than that of men. They nowadays lead growth in new connections.

Taking into account the projections of various organisations for the year 2003, Latin American women might be above men as users of the net. Researchers are still in their initial stages, consequently they do not know exactly how many there are, what they search for, how often they are connected. But it can be safely said that each day more women have access to information and communications technologies and the Internet. 2

The distance work possibilities offered by the ICTs (telework) help women reconcile labour with family activities. On the other hand, new jobs that have emerged in the services' sector as a result of technological development are creating new working opportunities for women. 3

ICTs have given women fresh opportunities for expanding their projects and the possibility of a social, political and cultural change. They offer them the possibility of accessing information and communications anywhere on the planet, which may alleviate the isolation of many women in their homes or remote places and facilitates all kinds of contacts (cultural, economic, political or social). 4

They also have high potential in the creation of nets and networking. It may be clearly seen how social movements (women's movements) are increasingly using their tools (web pages, e-mail, forums, etc.) to broaden their links and connections. Several of the initial studies in use of the Internet and e-mail by women have shown that they resort to the technology for networking among themselves, keeping up fluent communications with various contacts and realities, exchanging experiences and lessons learned, knowledge and experiences.

Despite such advances, ICTs are not neutral to gender. Inequality between men and women subsists in that respect and is significantly high in the less developed countries, which should be taken into account by all analyses of development possibilities. Such differences are barriers that widen the already existing gap.

Women have not been traditionally associated with technology and are attributed a passive attitude to it. Reality shows the existence of persistent barriers that may hinder access to and use of these new technologies by women. Such obstacles have to do with socialisation patterns, unequal access to education and training - that are usually less technology-oriented and frequently link up men's image to ICTs.

Illiteracy and low language training levels are obvious barriers for access to information. A predominance of contents in English is a great hurdle for Spanish- speaking women. Overcoming such obstacles calls for the development of applications like multilingual databases and graphic interfaces for illiterate women, and automatic translation programmes.

Another obstacle faced by women on entering the world of ICTs is their more limited access to financial resources for covering the costs of the equipment required.

Technological changes affect the quantity and quality of female work. The benefits afforded by the new technologies to employment come hand in hand with higher health and environmental costs. The employment problems of women that work with these technologies have more to do with their contractual terms, heavier workloads, wages, health and security. 5

Women's access to ICTs and their control of them is not the same as that of men. Access implies the possibility of making use of them, which means not just technology but also information and knowledge. Control means deciding how technologies are used and who is going to utilise them. Although increasing numbers of women are gaining access to jobs and training in ICTs, that is not the case in decision-making and control of resources.

Both at world and country level women are under-represented in all decision-making structures of ICTs. One of the problems is that at both those levels decision-making on ITCs is treated as a purely technical area for experts (men), where society's viewpoints are not readily accepted.

All this shows that although the new technologies have improved women's standard of living by offering them new opportunities, they may turn into a new element of discrimination and inequality, as many of the tasks performed by women are badly remunerated and call for little training. The examples of women that have managed to reach directive jobs are scarce. They mostly continue to carry out their traditional tasks together with the new ones.

Considering the opportunities and risks implied by ICTs - specially in unfavourable contexts, like those of Latin America - it is urgent and essential that the competent organisations take effective measures to prevent an increase of inequality between men and women. As the ILO Report says6 in conclusion "work in the information economy may be an effective tool for promoting social and gender equity, but only if there is before a direct intervention capable of eradicating existing disparities and protecting the rights of the women workers involved".

This Site intends to make a contribution to this effort by opening up a space for information, exchange and training for all those who share in this conviction. It also means to join the general efforts for generating knowledge in the framework of the global debates on the Society of Information.

This is included in (and an output of) our Co-operation Project with the Swiss Development Agency (COSUDE - Cinterfor/ILO). It results from the research carried out by Cinterfor/ILO in Spanish and English in the available literature and exchanges with the Proyecto Andalucía en e-igualdad (Andalucia e-equality Project) and Enred Consultores.

The space is structured as follows:

- Reference documents
- Articles and proposals
- Experiences in ICT access and gender
- Links with other websites on the subject

We are here submitting a first advance in the development of knowledge. We hope that it will grow with the help of all our readers.

1- Data from the following web page http://www.nielsennetratings.com/
2- Every day more women users of Internet. http://www.mujereshoy.com/secciones/1611.shtml
3- Women's image in the Information Society: new work prospects on the Internet.
Articles Andalucía en e-igualdad http://www.e-igualdad.org/
4- Conclusions. II Panel Andalucía en e-igualdad. Women in the Society of Information. Cádiz, June 2003. http://www.e-igualdad.org
5- Gender and Information and Communication Technology: Towards an Analytical Framework". http://www.apcwomen.org/resources/research/analytical-framework.html
6- Report on employment "Life at work in the Information Economy", ILO, 2001

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