[UgaBYTES] Book review; AFRICAN WOMEN AND ICTs Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment

[Roselinie]

This is such an interesting book! How can I get some copies for my resource
center???
Rose


-----Original Message-----
From: ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org
[mailto:ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org] On Behalf Of Sandra Nassali
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 11:57 AM
To: ugabytes
Subject: [UgaBYTES] Book review; AFRICAN WOMEN AND ICTs Investigating
Technology, Gender and Empowerment

The revolution in information and communication technologies (ICTs) has vast
implications for the developing world, but what tangible benefits has it
brought when issues of social inclusion and exclusion, particularly in the
developing world, remain at large? In addition, the gender digital divide is
growing in the developing world, particularly in Africa. So what do ICTs
mean to African women?

African Women and ICTs explores the ways in which women in Africa utilize
ICTs to facilitate their empowerment; whether through the mobile village
phone business, through internet use, or through new career and ICT
employment opportunities. Based on the outcome of an extensive research
project, this timely book features chapters based on original primary field
research undertaken by academics and activists who have investigated
situations within their own communities and countries. The discussion
includes such issues as the notion of ICTs for empowerment and as agents of
change, ICTs in the fight against gender-based violence, and how ICTs could
be used to reconceptualize public and private spaces

However, according to co-editors of the book (IDRC), ICTs alone cannot bring
about lasting change.

“ICTs are not necessarily a solution. They are fitting into an existing
environment,” said Anne Webb, research coordinator of the Gender Research in
Africa into ICTs for Empowerment Network (GRACE) at the book’s Ottawa launch
on May 21.

*Gender inequalities remain*

The research showed that women enjoy fewer benefits from ICTs than men, and
that existing gender inequalities are often unaffected, or even perpetuated,
by ICT use. It also found that gender-based obligations, societal biases,
and even physical strength can restrict women’s ability to learn about or
use new technologies. For example:

Responsible for running households, women are less mobile and have less free
time than men, and therefore cannot easily take advantage of training and
other resources;

Male university students discourage their female peers from accessing
computers in labs by pushing them out of line;

Women often feel uneasy or unwelcomed when visiting Internet cafés on their
own;

ICT use can shift family dynamics and the balance of power, causing strife
in the home which can lead to arguments, violence, divorce, and even death.

Despite all this, says Ineke Buskens, GRACE’s Project Leader and Research
Director, when properly managed, ICTs can make, and are making, a difference
in African women’s lives.
“The power to connect, to mobilize is unique to ICTs, and that can be used
for women’s empowerment.”

*Examples outlined in the book include:*
Researchers in Morocco finding that ICTs are helping raise awareness about
domestic violence
Women’s use of cell phones to meet their communication needs: a study of
rural women from northern Nigeria

Mobile phones in a time of modernity: the quest for increased
self-sufficiency among women fishmongers and fish processors in Dakar

Reflections on the mentoring experiences of ICT career women in Nairobi,
kenya: looking in the mirror, e.t.c.

The book therefore analyses the relationships between information and
communication technologies (ICTs), women’s empowerment, gender
discrimination, access, entrepreneurship, advocacy among others. The authors
bring together a questioning of the place of ICTs in the lives of women in
Africa who are getting on with the daily struggle for greater autonomy and
equality with the perceptions of the women themselves, and a context that
predominantly focuses attention on the promises of ICTs for development
rather than the ongoing divisive inequalities.

Click here to read more from the
book.<http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-135944-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html>

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Sandra Nassali
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UgaBYTES Initiative (www.ugabytes.org)
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