Phase Two: Engendering the Knowledge Society: Measuring Women's Participation
Phase One of the project (see below), Women in the Information Society, demonstrated that contrary to what might be expected, gender patterns in Internet use do not vary equally with Internet penetration. Women’s rates of Internet access and use will not automatically rise with national rates of Internet penetration. A range of socioeconomic and political factors affect and frame the gender divide, including social and cultural barriers to technology use; education and skill levels; employment and income trends; media and content; privacy and security and location/mode of access.
This 2007 report was written by Sophia Huyer and Nancy Hafkin to address options and strategies to encourage women to make full, active, informed and creative contributions to the knowledge society. In order to achieve this, data are needed: data that provide the best and most useful information on gendered opportunities and challenges, data that will allow the best decisions to be made. The report aims to provide the framework for the necessary data analysis to achieve these goals.
The report presents a framework on Gender Equality in the Knowledge Society. Based on a gendered analysis of the major indexes of science, technology and innovation (STI), information and communication technology (ICT) and the knowledge society, it is meant to guide policy makers to better understand what sectors of the economy and society are the most strategically relevant to women’s development goals.
The framework starts with the base conditions for socioeconomic and political development which determine the ability of both women and men to contribute to the knowledge society: health status, social and economic status, level of opportunities available, level of political participation, access to resources and the enabling policy environment. The framework builds on this foundation to incorporate indicators relating to the ability of women and men to participate in the knowledge society: access to science and technology education, access to and use of technology, decision making in knowledge society sectors, participation in science, technology and innovation systems and access to lifelong learning.
The intention is to help policy makers make informed decisions which allow them to take full advantage of and mobilize the full range of a country’s human resources towards a vibrant and competitive national knowledge society.
The report was co-sponsored by Orbicom, the National Research Centre of Canada, and the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and WIGSAT.
Click here to download the report.
Download the Executive Summary.
Phase One: Women in the Information Society
Launched at the
World Summit on the Information Society
November 17, 2005
Women in the Information Society, in From the Digital Divide to Digital Opportunity: Measuring Infostates for Development, Orbicom.
The economic and societal transformations of the Information Society touch all facets of daily life - economic, social, political, and cultural. ICTs facilitate information sharing and knowledge management and also provide individuals, businesses and governments with the essential networks to overcome the challenges of distance and time. Industries that manufacture and supply ICTs now make up a measurable sector of many national economies. The wide-ranging applications and effects of the Information Society have enormous implications, both positive and negative, for gender equality and women's empowerment. Information about the extent, nature and consequences of the gendered nature of the digital divide is critical if existing disparities are to be reduced and the Millennium Development Goals achieved. However ICT measurements and comparative country analyses in this area have been extremely scarce.
This panel presented the results of two ongoing studies by Orbicom and Regentic (IDRC) to: collect and assess existing sex-disaggregated data on women's participation in the information society at the international level; generate and analyse qualitative and quantitative data on women's participation in the information society at the national level; provide qualitative analysis on the factors affecting women's participation and being to suggest qualitative and quantitative indicators for measuring gendered patterns in participation in the information society.
The main finding of Women in the Information Society was that contrary to what might be expected, gender patterns in Internet use do not vary equally with Internet penetration. Women’s rates of Internet access and use will not automatically rise with national rates of Internet penetration. A range of socioeconomic and political factors affect and frame the gender divide, including social and cultural barriers to technology use; education and skill levels; employment and income trends; media and content; privacy and security and location/mode of access.
Sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency, International Telecommunications Union, Orbicom, Global Knowledge Partnership, and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).