Forgot your password?
New user?
Document Actions
Gender and ICT
This page contains resources that focus on the broad sectors of gender and ICT4D. It includes resources that discuss the technological gap between women and men, gender relations in the information society, and the ways in which ICTs have reinforced existing power relations or promoted gender equality.
Resources include publications, toolkits, training materials, reports, research papers and collection of case studies examining initiatives that:
- Promote equal access to the benefits and opportunities made possible by ICTs.
- Address the needs of both women and men in ICT policies and strategies.
- Empower woemn by building their capacity to not only access and use technologies, but also to participate in their design, influence their content and shape their uses.
- Incorporate gender into ICT projects
Bridging the Gender Divide: How Technology Can Advance Women Economically
In this study, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) examines technology initiatives – ICT initiatives in particular - that have enabled women to develop their economic potential, become stronger leaders and more effective contributors to their families, communities and domestic economies. Specifically, these efforts helped women increase their productivity, create new entrepreneurial ventures and launch income-generating pursuits. The report also offers innovators practical recommendations on how to design and deploy technologies that are critical to women’s economic advancement.
ICTs and Gender
This report provides an overview of the gender distribution of ICT and ICT-related employment in OECD countries, and ICT employment patterns are contrasted with overall employment to highlight differences. The authors discuss participation in ICT-related education and training, and differences in ICT access and use by gender. In ICT-related employment, women have low shares of ICT-specialist employment and these shares rarely show an increase. Among ICT-using occupations women tend to have higher shares of office and secretarial occupations and lower shares in scientific and professional ones.
The Impact of the BBC World Service Trust's Afghan Woman's Hour: Results from a National Survey in Afghanistan
This report is an evaluation of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service Trust (WST) radio project Afghan Woman's Hour (AWH). Broadcast since January 2005, AWH seeks to empower women by broadcasting programming on gender issues in the two main languages of the region, Dari and Pashto. The report includes the results of a quantitative national survey conducted to measure the awareness and reach of AWH as well as to measure changes in knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported behaviours (practices) regarding key programme issues including gender equality, education, women and work, governance-related issues, and family life (e.g., forced marriage, domestic violence).
Recasting the Beijing Platform for Action through the Information Society Lens: A Conceptual and Action Framework
This paper aims to use the powerful lens of the 'information society' to defiine the emerging priorities for analysis and action towards gender justice.It offers a conceptual framework that takes from Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) the critical concerns articulated around issues of Media and Access to Technology. This paper also goes a step further to flag two more issues for women's empowerment (not grasped by Section J) - i) Violence Against Women, that the BPfA addressed as a central concern, and ii) Access to Knowledge, which at the time of Beijing, was not anticipated to transform so profoundly the very basis of power in society.
ICT awareness for women in rural villages: Amader Gram ICT4D project
The Amader Gram ICT4D project started its activities in 2001. These activities focused on 12 villages and many schools of Rampal upazila in Bagerhat district in the south west of Bangladesh. This project was targeting both women and their children through awareness-raising activities. It aims to eliminate the difference between city and village women through computer training. Armed with this knowledge, women’s opinions are getting higher priority when decisions are taken about their children.
Developing Women’s Entrepreneurship and E-business in Green Cooperatives in the Asian and Pacific Region
Through the formation of women’s cooperatives and development of their capacity in entrepreneurship, women can become better equipped to enter the market for green products and gain access to vital resources needed for businesses. With dramatic growth in ICT innovation, women’s green cooperatives in the region can benefit from the use of e-business practices. This guidebook provides policy makers and entrepreneurs with background information in this niche area, with guidelines on developing women’s cooperatives, entrepreneurship and e-business. Some good practice cases are illustrated that can be replicable in some countries.
Gender and ICT
This e-Primer looks at information and communications technology (ICT) for development through a gender lens. It provides a gender perspectives to issues of ICT policies; access and control; education, training and skill development; and content development, and introduces a framework to integrate gender in ICT for development and empower women.
Gender in the information Society: Emerging issues
This publication is a collection of 13 papers developed for a pre-World Summit on the Information Society seminar, developed in partnership with UNIFEM and IT for Change. It showcases perspectives that critique the engagement with new technologies in various development sectors such as the media, work and economy and governance. An edited video of the seminar was also produced.
Digital Dangers: Information & Communication Technologies and Trafficking in Women - APC Issue Paper
This paper asks if new technologies are re-shaping or facilitating trafficking, and/or if the use of ICTs in trafficking will change the way we understand other issues. For example, how should we think about the distribution of women’s images against their will; can we talk about trafficking in images, and what relation does this have to the debate about pornography? It explores government responses and the tension between the right to privacy and the right to freedom from violence in the context of ICTs.
Entrepreneurship and e-Business Development for Women
Competitiveness of businesses owned by women is usually constrained by limited access to information and resources to support the development and marketing of their products. e-Business can address this limiting factor. It promotes innovations by creating new products, new markets and even new industries. Moreover, it can help empower women by facilitating women’s entrepreneurship. This publication reports the outcomes of the International Workshop on Entrepreneurship and e-Business Development for Women that was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea on 3-8 July 2006. The Workshop was organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Asian Development Bank Institute, International Telecommunication Union and Asian Pacific Women’s Information Network Center.
Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) for Internet and ICTs: A learning tool for change and empowerment
GEM for ICTs and internet initiatives is an online guide for conducting gender evaluations of initiatives that use ICT for social change. The guide provides users with an overview of the evaluation process (including links to general evaluation resources) and outlines suggested strategies and methodologies for incorporating a gender analysis throughout the evaluation process. GEM is not simply an evaluation tool. It can also be used to ensure that gender concerns are integrated into a project planning process.
Women 2000 and beyond: Gender equality in information and communication technologies
This report provides a summary of critical gender equality issues related to ICT and development and outlines potential opportunities for women’s economic, social and political empowerment. Key strategies and tools to address the gender digital divide in national and international contexts are presented. Examples of good practice on gender equality and ICT are elaborated throughout the report.
Gender and ICTs for Development: A Global Sourcebook
This book is a collection of case studies about women and their communities in developing countries and how they have been influenced by information and communication technologies (ICTs). It notes that ICTs and policies to encourage their development can have profound implications for women and men in terms of employment, education, health, environmental sustainability and community development.
Gender Perspectives on the Information Society
The video provides snapshots of the critical issues discussed at the Gender Perspectives on the Information Society: South Asia Pre-WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) Seminar. This seminar took place in Bangalore on 18-19 April 2005. It was organized by IT for Change in partnership with Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era and Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, with support from UNDP's Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme and UNIFEM.
ICT Initiatives, Women and Work in Developing Countries: Reinforcing or Changing Gender Inequalities in South India?
This paper argues that ICTs as a form of new technology are socially deterministic, with varied implications for women in terms of employment and empowerment dependent on the context within which the ICTs are utilized. The paper presents findings from two ICT initiatives in South India showing significant impacts on women's employment, income and social roles. One ICT initiative - 'gender-blind' and pursued within the globalized, competitive context of an increased role for markets and 'flexibility' - has generally reinforced gender inequalities. By contrast, a gender-focused ICT initiative involving significant state intervention has brought about positive changes to livelihood outcomes and empowerment of poor women.
Gender Issues in the Information Society
In Section 1 the evolution of the international debate on gender and information technology is sketched out. Section 2 contrasts the impact of infrastructural and gender-specific constraints on women’s capacity to exploit the potential of the new information and communication technologies in different world regions. The cross-cutting role of gender in determining participation in the information society, and the issues this raises, are explored in Section 3. Strategies, initiatives and best practices aimed at addressing these issues, and at bridging the gender divide, are considered in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 puts forward a range of actions to be considered by the various stakeholders involved.
Engendering ICT Toolkit: Challenges and Opportunities for Gender-Equitable Development
The purpose of this toolkit is to identify opportunities, highlight innovative projects and activities, and suggest how development agencies can help realize the potential for gender equality. The toolkit can help these agencies assist developing countries in improving the efficiency and equity of their ICT policies and programmes by ensuring that they respond to the needs of both women and men. The toolkit is divided into 10 sections and it contains checklists, evaluation tools, examples of good practices, and resources that can be used to incorporate gender into ICT projects and project components. The toolkit has been designed for general distribution to researchers, educators, and development practitioners.
National ICT Policies and Gender Equality: Regional Perspective - Asia
This paper prepared for the Expert Group Meeting on “Information and communication technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women” in Seoul, Republic of Korea from 11 to 14 November 2002, contains suggestions from the Asian perspective about possible points of intervention from which to build up the gender and ICT agenda in the national policy terrain, including developing gender and ICT indicators, integrating gender analysis in national ICT policy frameworks and policies, building government’s commitment to the advancement of women for their ICT platform, and promoting gender responsive e-governance.
Resources for Women Trainers and Learners
This webpage offers links to resources specifically targeted at women. The resources are divided into two categories: general women- and gender-related training resources, and women-focused ICTs resources grouped by topics. Topics include strategic Internet use, online collaboration, web design and knowledge management.
Bonbudong, 3rd Floor Songdo Techno Park, 7-50 Songdo-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon City, Korea Telephone: +82 32 245 1700 to 2
Facsimile: +82 32 245 7712