Empowering Women in the Digital Age
Introduction
As an increasing number of people gain access to technology, digitization has an immense potential to create more employment opportunities and support inclusive economic growth, which in turn, can help to improve several aspects of people’s lives. At present, nearly half of the world’s population is connected to online networks, a jump from a mere 4 per cent in 1995.
However, while the world slowly moves towards a digital economy, it is imperative that such a transition needs to be inclusive. Unfortunately, the scenario is quite different. Due to differences in access to resources and the ability to become literate concerning information and communications technology (ICT) within and across countries, regions, and communities, there exists a digital divide. This divide is even more prominent when it comes to gender.
Currently, there are around 250 million fewer women than men who own mobile phones. They also have lesser contact with technology and lower ICT literacy levels in comparison to men. The digital gender divide becomes more visible in developing and underdeveloped regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa and the rural parts of South Asia. Nevertheless, the gender gap is also present in OECD nations like Germany, Italy, and Turkey, albeit to a lesser degree.
Why the Gender gap persists?
For centuries, women have mostly been at the receiving end of gender inequality. They are often paid less than men for the same jobs and overlooked for promotions. One of the major reasons for the same is the prevalence of patriarchal norms in several communities, leading to women being treated as the inferior gender in education and job market.
The pattern of gender inequality comes into the picture in terms of the digital age as well. A woman is reported “less likely to be online, is more likely to have low or no digital skills and is at greater risk of being socially and economically excluded by the digital disruption currently taking place”. For instance, in India, women constitute only 29 per cent of the total Internet users. The major factor behind the skewed percentage of female users is the restrictions imposed on women in a male-dominated society like that of India. In India, around 12 per cent of women stated that they would not use the Internet due to negative societal perceptions, while out of these, 8 per cent said that they do access the Web due to fear of ostracization by family members. Besides the Internet, many women and girls also do not own mobile phones since it is perceived that giving them access to technology would make them indulge in immoral activities. A case in point is Uttar Pradesh, a state in north India, which implemented a fine for any girl in possession of a cellphone outside her house. However, another reason why many families prevent girls from using technology is due to safety concerns. Women are twice as likely as men to fall prey to cybercrime, which could include cyberbullying, online stalking, harassment, and human trafficking.
Lack of access to digital tools is not the only problem though. Some women perceive technology to be unimportant, believing that they do not need it and that it isn’t beneficial for them. There are two main reasons for the same.
First, poor literacy skills compel women to have little or no knowledge about the importance of technology, or how to use it. Therefore, they are usually left in the dark as to how or why technology or going digital would benefit them.
Secondly, many women and girls who aspire to pursue a career in a STEM-related field have either no or very few female role models to look up to. Though men and women start at the same level in the technical industry, there is a dearth of women in senior roles in digital firms. In the mobile communications industry, females are 20 per cent less likely to be present in positions of senior leadership. They are also twice as likely to quit their jobs in a technology-related profession than men and tend to receive less funding from investors and venture capitalists.
Other than professional hurdles, existing gender stereotypes also prevent women from progressing in the field of technology. Pre-conceived notions such as women cannot be good at math and science forces girls, who may have the aptitude to succeed in a STEM-related field to withdraw or not pursue a profession in the same. As a result, in the year 2015, only 30 per cent of all students who graduated with a degree in natural sciences, engineering and ICT fields in OECD nations were women. Twice as many boys expect to work as engineers or scientists upon graduation, though the gap widens in ICT since the percentage of boys who want to take up a job in an ICT related field in 4.8 per cent while in contrast, for girls it is only 0.4 per cent.
Why is it important to address the divide?
By providing greater access to digital technology, women would be in a better position to take decisions rather than depending upon their husbands or other male members of the family. For example, mobile banking or digital payment transfers and technology-enabled healthcare via phone or other electronic devices would help women to avoid undertaking long, arduous trips to bank branches, ATMs, and healthcare centres respectively.
An instance of how the digital age has empowered women has been presented in a study conducted by researchers from the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). The research was conducted through a randomized evaluation in Niger, a country in Africa. Here, female members of families across 96 villages were chosen at random to receive unconditional cash transfers. The three channels through which the women were to receive cash transfers included envelopes, m-transfer on mobile phones, and envelopes along with m-transfer enabled cellphones. The results of the study showed that for those households, where the female family members received money through m-transfer experienced a 10 per cent improvement in diet, along with a rise in child meal consumption by one-third of the previous quantity consumed and an increase in the cultivation of marginal crops that were predominantly grown by women.
Similarly, Kenya launched the M-Pesa mobile services a few years back. This service allows users to store monetary value on their phones and transfer cash to others via text messages. With the introduction of M-Pesa around 2 per cent of households were alleviated out of poverty, while the female beneficiaries were able to change their financial patterns, switching from subsistence farming to business ownership and other part-time jobs.
In the case of both Kenya and Niger, it was observed that by being a direct beneficiary of cash transfer or remittance through digitization, the decision-making agency of women increased and they were better informed and aware of how their money was spent.
What more needs to be done?
If 600 million more women become connected to the Internet in the future, global GDP is expected to increase by between $13 billion and $18 billion. Therefore, more steps must be taken to ensure that women are given and empowered with technology in the digital age.
Many states and organizations have already begun to make strides to ensure the inclusivity of women in the digital space. The European Commission for instance, in April 2019 proposed to make the under-representation of women in the digital economy a political priority for Norway and 27 member states. Each member is expected to draft a cross-sectional national plan on women in technology, celebrate women and girls to raise awareness of their contribution towards the digital economy, coordinate with the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors to bridge the existing gender gap and monitor the engagement and participation of women in the digital economy by setting various national targets annually.
Furthermore, governments should encourage higher participation of women in tech through hackathons, coding workshops, and online mentoring programs that have generally been a male domain. Access to financial capital is also crucial so that more female entrepreneurs are persuaded to start their firms. Lastly, introducing a mandatory ICT curriculum at the school level, challenging gender norms about professions, fostering STEM female role models and the introduction of online or video-based upskilling and tutorials, would go a long way in empowering and increasing the participation of women in an ever-growing digital economy.
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