[UgaBYTES] Gender and ICTs

[Mwathi Francis]

Hi Mr Kamau, Hi Jayalakshmi, Hi all.

Mr Kamau you have mentioned the use of Mobile money transfer as being
pivotal in promoting the use if ICTs by the common man (and woman),
this is very true. There are other initiatives private or government
initiated that have also spurned the growth of ICT use. For example
currently jobs can be applied for online which has helped many rural
youth apply easily for jobs in cities as well as those seeking for
jobs abroad, the use of Court Case Information System (CCIS) where on
can track court cases progress online and micro-finance softwares
which have lead to what is known as village banking. All these and
many more have helped integrate ICTs to the day to day activities of
people who slowly understand that ICTs are not just about complex
programming languages and  abstract codes.

Thanks for the contributions.

On 12/17/09, Jayalakshmi Chittoor <jchittoor at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> There are four issues of i4d magazine (www.i4donline.net) that has focused
> on ICT for Development and Gender issues. It would be interesting for the
> readers of this thread to take stock of the kind of issues besides access
> question that is relevant to Gender and ICTs. There are other important
> issues relating to social aspects of technology, design issues, budgets for
> providing the kind of support needed to enable a conducive environment and
> creating opportunities for affirmative action.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jaya
>
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Mwathi Francis
> <mfrancis at ugabytes.org>wrote:
>
>> 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.
>> Read On <http://ugabytes.org/nod/?q=node/669>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> Jayalakshmi Chittoor
> Consultant, Programme Management, Development Communications,
>                  ICT4D and Knowledge Management
> D-405 ATS Greens I, A 86, Sector 50, NOIDA 201301, UP, INDIA
> Tel: +91-9811309160
> Email: jchittoor at gmail.com (personal)
> Skype: jchittoor
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