Gender Indicators

This article explores the use of gender-sensitive indicators in the context of information and communication technology (ICT) programmes, organisations, thinking, and the like.

Indicators are "pointers, numbers, facts, opinions or perceptions that look into and measure changes of specific conditions or situations". Good indicators can be described as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound). Gender-sensitive indicators measure the achievement of gender equality, helping reveal in what ways a project affects gender roles and addresses or disregards gender discrimination. The central question these indicators attempt to answer is: "Is it life changing?" Some indicators are quantitative; others are qualitative. The authors claim that use of the latter can foster participation by clarifying and promoting women's own indicators of development.

The following set of guidelines are meant to stimulate indicator development:

• Indicators change during the process of implementation
• Indicators should reflect specific realities and experiences (i.e., evaluators should be aware of personal factors that affect women's performance in and responses to projects and initiatives)
• "Indicators should be able to point out if ICTs contribute to empowering or marginalizing women or if ICTs reproduce or transform gender roles"
• Access Indicators ("The more significant indicators are often qualitative in nature. These include the quality of access to information that is useful, empowering and relevant for women. It also includes information for women who are not literate and in the appropriate languages. Other important indicators are those that reveal the amount of power and control women have over these resources and knowledge.")
• ICTs strengthen networking ("a useful indicator of success could be how ICTs helps link women and groups with similar interests who might otherwise not be in contact or how ICTs bring together networks of individuals or groups for promotion and action.")
• ICTs support advocacy (ICT tools make a difference to the extent that they 1) generate discussion and support for women's concerns and issues, and 2) catalyse more action)
• ICTs should promote a non-hierachical and empowering organisational culture
• ICTs should promote democratic communication. Indicators that have been developed in this area include:
  
  • Expanded public and private dialogue and debate
  • Increased accuracy of the information that women share in the dialogue/debate, with a focus on the quality rather than the volume or quantity of information generated as an indicator
  • Increased leadership and agenda setting role by women on the issues of concern

The authors suggest that indicators should be:

• developed in a participatory fashion
• relevant to the needs of the user, and at a level that the user can understand
• sex-disaggregated
• qualitative and quantitative
• easy to use and understand
• clearly defined
• small in number
• technically sound
• measure trends over time
• ultimately focussed be on outcome

They propose this set of questions to define indicators:

• Activities: who does what, when? Are the roles productive or reproductive?
• Resources: who has access or control over the resources?
• Benefits: what factors (e.g., social, political, cultural, economic) control access to benefits?
• Participation: how and when do women and men participate in realising the benefits that they may or may not have in control?

This article concludes with an excerpt from the African gender and ICT checklist developed as a recommendation of a research conducted by The Association for Progressive Communication Women's Networking Support Programme (APCWNSP) and FEMNET to take stock of women's gains in ICTs.

Click here to access the full article on the GEM site.