Gender issues, the digital divide and the WSIS

 One of the key elements of concern over the digital divide is recognition that women within developing countries are in the deepest part of this divide, further removed from the information age than the men whose poverty they share. In China, for example, women ICT users comprise a mere 7% of users (UNIFEM, May 2001). There is an increasing consensus in the international development community that this gap is a major source of gender inequality and one of the major obstacles to mainstreaming a gender perspective in development. Despite basic agreement on its existence, there is a wide divergence of perspectives on the causes and manifestations of and solutions to the gender digital divide.
 Among gender and communication activists and organisations both the North and South, approaches to the divide range from a Marxist perspective that sees technology as an expression of male power and capitalist domination, to a postmodern approach in which both technology and gender are cultural processes subject to negotiation, contestation and, ultimately, transformation. Multi-lateral and bi-lateral agencies and governments have tended to focus on women’s exclusion from technology with increased access and further equal opportunities policies as appropriate solutions.
 Women’s access to and control of ICTs has featured prominently in both the theory and practice of the gender digital divide. Women’s access to and control of ICTs is dependent on factors such as gender discrimination in jobs and education, social class, illiteracy and geographic location – factors that mean that the great majority of the world’s women have no access to ICTs. Despite the emphasis of policy makers on getting women connected, many civil society actors have argued that the issues of access and control are more complex than just connectivity.
 Policy makers tend to think that by bringing connectivity to a country, its benefits will reach everybody without further intervention, yet the practical and daily constraints to women’s access to and control over new ICTs are well known. The high cost of computers and connectivity keep them far beyond the reach of most women. ICT infrastructure is largely urban-centred. Internet content is overwhelmingly in English. Insufficient attention is paid to use of the Internet for women with low levels of literacy and gender roles and other cultural factors often mean that women have less time to make use of ICTs
 While there is a great deal of effort and investment to expand access to ICTs for women by multi-lateral and government agencies, far less attention is being paid to the extent to which gender concerns are shaping the regulatory and policy environments that will ultimately determine the utility and relevance of these technologies. Whether at global or national levels, women are under-represented in all ICT decision-making structures including policy and regulatory institutions, ministries responsible for ICTs, and senior management of private ICT companies. The main problem is that decision-making in ICTs is generally treated as a purely technical area where civil society viewpoints are given little or no space, rather than as a political domain. Most ICT policy currently rests on the assumption that women must adapt to suit technologies, rather than that ICT policy should be adapted to meet the interests of a diverse range of women.
 Bridging the digital divide, and particularly the gender digital divide, has become an issue which every organisation and government wants to tackle. There have been numerous and varied initiatives for bridging the gap, yet the gender digital divide seems to be increasing, rather than decreasing. It is clear that without active intervention by gender advocates, new ICTs are unlikely to make the kinds of positive contributions to gender equality, sustainable development and democratisation that have been called for.Anna Turley is Women and Media Programme Officer and Editor of the bi-annual publication Media and Gender Monitor at the London office of the World Association for Christian Communication.