Gender and technology in

developing countries:

opportunities and challenges

Nancy J. Hafkin, Ph.D.Boston University, ‘73Retired, United Nations

Gender equality & information and

communications technology (ICT)

– ICT offer flexibility of time and space, end isolation, access to knowledge and productive resources.

– Women suffer most from limited time availability, social isolation, and lack of access to knowledge and productive resources.

• ICTs to empower women and promote gender equality• Connection between ICTs and poverty alleviation

Overall aims of gender and ICTs

• Ensure that women as well as men, at all social levels and in all countries, can access and use emerging information technologies

• Full inclusion of women in all aspects of ICT

• Possibility of more women globally to be technological innovators

Cinderella

• Works in the basement of the knowledge society (if she works in it at all)– little opportunity to reap

its benefits. – waits for "her prince" to

decide the benefits she will receive.

CyberellaFluent in the uses of technologyFluent in the uses of technologyComfortable using & designing Comfortable using & designing computers, technology, communication computers, technology, communication equipment, software,working in virtual equipment, software,working in virtual spaces spaces Devises innovative uses for Devises innovative uses for technologiestechnologiesFinds information and knowledge to Finds information and knowledge to improve her life and expand choices improve her life and expand choices Active knowledge creator and Active knowledge creator and disseminator disseminator

More than a user, designs information More than a user, designs information and knowledge systems to improve all and knowledge systems to improve all aspects of her lifaspects of her life.e.

Constraints to women’s full use of information technology

Access

• Physical access related to gender: more women live where infrastructure is weak

• Less disposable income to access facilities• Difficulties posed by culture, gendered

division of labor in accessing public access facilities

• Difficulties in mobility• Women’s hours and skills levels need to be

addressed in providing access• Losing out, even in the classroom

Content

• Little content available to meet women’s information needs in developing countries

• Available content may not be in usable form• Language/literacy barriers• Need for tools to handle illiteracy, non-Latin

scripts

Technical skills

• Women have less access to education, to scientific and technical education

• Leaky pipeline prevents women from tertiary-level S&T education

• Support needed for women in IT skills development

The leaky pipeline in S&T education

• Gender gap widens ascending the educational ladder

• More girls now in secondary and tertiary education, but few in S&T

• Attitudes about what is appropriate for girls

• Girls’ lack of comfort or interest in S&T

What we know about women, S&T• Girls do not pursue science and technical studies at the same rate

as boys– Most pronounced in physics, engineering, technology– Representation of women declines at successive stages of

scientific and technological careers• Parents’ attitudes towards boys’ and girls’ abilities a factor- lack of

family commitment to girls’ education• Few differences between girls and boys on standardized measures

of math and science achievement• Most recent (2010) research shows:

– Specific domains of gender inequities are responsible for gender gaps in math.

– Gender equity in school enrollment, women’s share of research jobs, and women’s parliamentary representation were the most powerful predictors of cross-national variability in gender gaps in math. This highlights the significance of increasing girls’ and women’s agency cross-nationally.

Technology policy constraints• Absence to

mentions of gender in policy

• If mentioned, lip service rather than substance

• Belief that all technology is gender neutral

•Policy makers lack awareness of gender issues in technical matters

•Gender advocates lack knowledge on technology policy issues

Gender aspects of technology issuesICT issue Gender aspect

Technology choice Is the choice affordable to many women? It is user-friendly, especially for neo-literates?

Regulation Who provides what service and under what conditions? Does it provide for universal access and affordable services?

Sector liberalization Competition can bring in needed investment and force down end user prices to make access more affordable to women.

Infrastructure Will the infrastructure be deployed in areas where women predominate?

• Trafficking of women through the Internet• Pornography• Sexual harassment/bullying• Use of Internet to perpetuate violence against

women• Women need secure spaces online• Delicate balance: protecting women’s rights

without instituting censorship

Sexual exploitation of women on the Internet

Gender and information technology data

• Comprehensive gender ICT data across a number of countries do not exist

• Without data there is no visibility; without visibility there is no priority (UNDP)

Gender and ICTs: what statistics show

• Women’s participation generally lags behind that of men

• Gender divide more pronounced in developing countries

• Few reliable statistics available from developing countries (e.g. no ITU stats on India)

• Even countries with high ICT development have gender inequalities in use

• The gender divide and the overall digital divide do NOT move in tandem

• Disputes argument that you don’t have to take care of gender; it will take care of itself.

• Specific attention must be paid to gender to achieve gender-positive results.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Internet penetration % female

Source: ITU, World Telecommunication Indicators 2004 and selected national sources

Relationship between Internet penetrationRelationship between Internet penetrationand proportion female Internet usersand proportion female Internet users

Examining Gender and IT projects: the myth of gender neutrality

Looking at:• Projects with a gender focus• Projects intended to benefit men and women equally• Projects without gender issues• Projects that aimed to be gender transformational• Questions:

– Did the project impact men and women differently?– Was your access to resources and benefits different if you

were a man or a woman?

Project examples:Cisco networking training for African

women – ECA

– Single sex training helped, as well as management and gender awareness, exposure to development issues

– Need for follow up on return to help trainees overcome social and cultural obstacles

National Graduate Registry Panama

• Aim: a database for graduates with the expectation of increasing female employment at professional level (2/3s of grads are women)– CVs gave full names and marital

status– Project data not disaggregated by

sex– Employers retained sex role

stereotypes– No evidence that more women

got jobs

IT training at Kenyan center

• Spread over 2 weeks with breaks was more difficult for women from abroad than men

• Local women couldn’t practice in the evenings• Need to correct for different entry skill levels• No awareness of gender and cultural factors• Follow up to see that cultural factors do not

intervene, that women get to use training

Reform models for China Telecom sector

• Assumption: Macro-economic policy projects in technical areas are gender neutral– In applying gender lens, researcher and bureaucrats

became aware of gender issues, led to questioning of unstated assumptions (re e-commerce, decreased workload, educational opportunities)

– Realization that women’s special needs and interests needed to be covered in policy projects

– Need for gender analysis– Participation of women in the project does not

guarantee benefits for women

Information system for small producers: Peru

• Community information system defined for small producers and local officials– Assumption but lack of concern that “community”

was male– Already marginalized, women felt more marginalized

when technology services went to men– Realization that many small producers were women– Difficulties in training as many women were illiterate– In mixed-sex training, men mocked women’s abilities

India Health Care Providers: PDAs

• In Andra Pradesh PDAs were distributed to local health assistants, who were women

• Community and users were not involved in planning

• Local women had different health priorities that national and district level health offices

• Men workers protested when technology was distributed to women, demanded PDAs for themselves, regardless of work utility

Some lessons from projects• Access to and use of technology increased

women’s self esteem and their domestic and community status

• While technology empowers, it also affects and alters gender relations

• All projects have gender issues

More lessons . . .

• Technology is not gender neutral• Technology is socially embedded; it operates

in a socio-cultural context• Gender analysis and design is needed from

the beginning of projects Lack of consideration inevitably leads to problems

in the socio-cultural context Specific attention must be paid to gender in order

to achieve gender-positive results. “If you don’t ask for gender, you don’t get gender.”

Newer technologies: it’s mobile, baby

• Gender, Development, Technology focus has turned to cellular technology

• Enormous usage compared to Internet• Mobile broadband growing• Mobile networks coverage becoming near

universal• Technology developments:

– Falling costs of smart phones– Voice access to web– Supercedes mobile disadvantage of limitation to

known contacts

M-pesa (mobile money)

Cash transfersPhones as wallets

• Emphasis on women owning, not sharing, phones• Low cost phones, prepaid not contracts• Development of relevant content: life-saving services for

Bottom-of-the-Pyramid women• Technical training for women in phone use (beyond just calling)• Aim: women’s empowerment

Mobile phones: opportunities for women

Women farmers: market prices, secure inputs Increased security for women Health applications Women see it as increased freedom (especially in

business), decreased tolerance of domestic abuse But, reassertion of patriarchy: negative reactions of

men to women and cellphones

Positive impact on women’s employment (South Africa)Willingness of poor to spend large income % on communication

The Knowledge Society:Measuring women’s participation

Knowledge society: science, technology, innovation, entrepreneurship:

Examples of Philippines, Thailand

Philippines

• Women do well in ICT use, entrepreneurship, higher education, technical skills

• 58% Internet users women

• More new women entrepreneurs than men

• Increasingly more women becoming engineers

• High percentage of women researchers

• Closed gender gap in health and education (only Asian country to do so)

• But lack full economic equality– Women work

longer hours and for lower wages

– One of world’s highest workloads compared to men’s

Thailand

• Women rank high in science and technology achievement, use of the Internet, rate of entrepreneurship, particularly in innovative areas

• But, very low level of representation in government

Conclusion

Conclusion: Women would do even better in both Thailand and Philippines if there were more gender equality

. Knowledge Society: Measuring

Women’s Contributions Globally

• To provide a framework for data analysis to achieve inclusive knowledge society

• To encourage the mainstreaming of gender in data collection, statistics and indicators for the knowledge society so that gender issues can be taken into account in policy and action.Based on:

• Absence of integrated data on women and knowledge society• Concentration on developing countries where lack of data

most evident• Data needed

– For policy makers to make informed decisions towards competitive national knowledge society

– Taking full advantage of country’s human resources.

Basic assumptions• Knowledge not only for economic growth but to

empower and develop all sectors of society (e-inclusion)

• Knowledge, including S&T knowledge, is also generated from and transmitted outside formal education and institutions

• Aims:– not only women’s full participation in formal STI, but also

STI’s development and application of technologies for social development, including energy use, food production, clean water and sanitation

– Promotion of enterprise development and lifelong learning opportunities in all sectors of society

Need for composite index

• Existing indices do not cover necessary ground– ICT and STI frameworks do not address gender

issues or collect/utilize sex-disaggregated data– Gender equality indexes do not address ICT, STI,

knowledge society issues

Organizing the Framework

Input indicators(base conditions)

HealthSocial statusEconomic statusAccess to resourcesAgencyOpportunityPolicy environment

Outcome indicators(Participation and

benefits)

Participation in:KS decision makingKnowledge economyScience, technology and innovationLifelong learning

If you want to read more . . .

• Engendering the Knowledge Society: Measuring Women's Participation

• http://www.orbicom.uqam.ca/projects/knowledge_society2007/2007orbicom_eng_know_soc.pdf

• Thank you.