gender digital divide

This report presents the findings from an evidence-based study that examines the gendered aspects to women’s internet access on mobile broadband connections in Uganda.

Availability and affordability of the internet have a major impact on whether women are able to access and use it. In this article, the authors explore what happens when community networks bring the internet closer to women and the small and big ways in which this changes their lives.

Community networks provide alternatives to internet access infrastructure that is controlled by either companies or the state. In the remote area where Kondoa Community Network works, even patchy services have been helpful to ensure access to better education and medical services. 

Despite having the highest growth in internet penetration across the globe,  Africa remains the only continent whose digital gender gap has widened since 2013. It is this that motivates AfriSIG to focus deliberate gender lenses on its planning and coordination.

In this article we explore what uses women make of the internet in urban and rural parts of Manipur, India. Is this use limited to social media? What about the generation gap, and the rampant spread of election propaganda?

This interview explores the gender implications of setting up a community network in the remote areas of the Philippines – from tackling gender stereotypes to the distribution of labour to the benefits of access for a community that is ignored by telecommunications companies.

Digital disadvantage mirrors deeper structural, economic and cultural inequalities. Measures to bridge the gender digital divide must be grounded in human rights, including women’s rights to participate in and contribute to social, economic and cultural development.

This briefing, jointly published by the Internet Society and APC, outlines ways in which policy makers can facilitate the internet’s positive potential through an enabling framework for women’s digital inclusion.