Internet access has the power to expand social and economic opportunities, civic participation and activism, cultural understanding and the arts. However, men are much more likely to access the internet than women. A global gender gap in internet access reinforces inequalities in society and limits digital opportunity. This ultimately means that any policy or project to get more people online will fail unless it targets the gender gap specifically.
The first workshop in this series took place in Maputo, Mozambique on April , On this Girls in ICT Day , here are three takeaways from the Maputo eSkills4PolicyMakers workshop that consider how governments can prioritise gender-responsive policies in the fight for digital equality.
Many policies to connect the unconnected rest on the assumption that technology is gender neutral. This is a fault in the very first stage of policy making: problem definition. A lack of readily available official government data on the ICT gender gap masks the problem of the gender digital divide. In addition, gender advocates are rarely consulted as key stakeholders in ICT policy making spaces.
Addressing gender equality in policy is not a patchwork fix or a one-off consideration. It is a continuous exercise to ensure that down the line, no one is left behind. As such, gender-responsive policy making requires continual assessment, as well as monitoring and evaluation on the impact of policy measures on different groups in society. There is often an assumption that gender-responsive policy making implies de-prioritising other issues like ICT infrastructure , requires additional budget, or neglects men and boys.
Approaching gender need not be a stand-alone or separate process. Instead, stakeholders should ensure that all analysis conducted for the purposes of developing policies and plans integrate gender considerations, from network deployment analysis to universal access strategies and priorities. Policy options need to be holistic, addressing all aspects of the broader problem, including, among other things, to be gender-responsive.
