Despite recent advances in technology usage, the digital divide still has a disproportionate impact on women. In today’s international and political climate, women in politics must be computer-literate in order to effectively access and disseminate information.
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.
According to Marcia J Bates, professor at UCLA, "Information behaviour is the currently preferred term used to describe the many ways in which human beings interact with information, in particular, the ways in which people seek and utilize information.” How do we find the information we need? How do we identify what it is we are lacking, and how do we go about obtaining it? What sources do we turn to, and how do we process, analyse and distribute knowledge? Though these may be common practices these are not the questions asked often enough by women in politics, but they are essential to the actualisation of (political) obligations and goals. Efficient and targeted information behaviour is invaluable to any political campaign, so how do women candidates and voters make the most of this?
This consolidated response will explore the use of new communication technologies along with detailing the difficulties women encounter in their information behaviour. It will also highlight some strategies that have been used to overcome these, focusing mainly on networking, civil society and education at large.
Technology defines our era. In the past few decades, numerous innovations—including ever-shrinking computers, mobile phones, and alternative energies—have been introduced in homes and workplaces, changing the way we live, how we work, and what we’re able to do. Bridging the Gender Divide: How Technology Can Advance Women Economically examines why technology is essential to women’s economic advancement and clarifies how it puts the process inmotion by showcasing technologies that have helped women in developing countries to ncrease their productivity, create new entrepreneurial ventures, or otherwise access new income-generating pursuits.
This paper builds on ICRW’s long-standing research and program work on the realities of what it takes to enable women to increase their resources and economic opportunities, and strengthen their ability to compete in market economies. Most important, it speaks to the growing number of actors driving innovation fromthe public, private, and social sectors with practical recommendations on how to improve the way technologies are developed and deployed so they benefit women and enable them to be more successful economic actors, stronger leaders, and greater contributors to their families, communities, and domestic economies.
