Gender, Information Technology, & Developing Countries

Summary

Information and communication technology (IT) has become a potent forcefor transforming social, economic and political life globally. Yet, theuneven distribution of IT within societies and across the globe isresulting in a digital divide between those who have access totechnology and those who do not. Most women in developing countries arein the deepest part of the divide.

This report identifies some of the key barriers to women's access toinformation technology, as well as instances where women areparticipating in and benefiting from the use of information technology.

"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 decisionmaking structures in information technology in developing countries...

Read or download the report:click here for the report on the USAID site.

Contact: genderreach@dai.com