[UgaBYTES] Gender and ICTs

[Mwathi Francis]

The development of information and communications technologies (ICTs) offers
a great number of new opportunities for men and women. However, unless such
possibilities are backed by the deliberate formulation of policies that may
ensure equal gender participation, responsibilities, education and training
in ICTs, as well as by family support policies at the workplaces where the
information economy is deployed, old gender biases will persist.

The number of Internet users throughout the world towards the end of 2002
was 591 million, according to the 2003 Report on E-business and Development
at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Likewise, the Internet is no longer a scene where only men are prominent, as
currently the number of women users is constantly growing, having reached
about 45% of world totals, and 50% in the industrialised countries.

Despite such advances, ICTs are not neutral to gender. Inequality between
men and women subsists in that respect and is significantly high in the less
developed countries  which should be taken into account by all analyses of
development possibilities. Such differences are barriers that widen the
already existing gap.
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