"Most women exiting prison face profound disadvantages and are likely to struggle with poor mental and physical health. Rarely are women furnished with the resources needed to flourish post-release, and seemingly simple-sounding tasks like getting formal identification are quite complicated. The con
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tributions of lived experience to human service delivery and research are incredibly valuable, yet the ability to contribute meaningfully to interventions is rarely afforded to formerly incarcerated women. Our project seeks to address this gap through the co-design of a chatbot, called LindaBot. In this article, we discuss the method and methodology we used when working with formerly incarcerated women to ideate, design, develop, and test a technology-based solution to support their transition out of prison." (Abstract)
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"Looking at patterns between those with meaningful connectivity — defined as having daily internet use with 4G-like speeds, owning a smartphone, and an unlimited access point at home, work, or a place of study — and those with just basic or no internet access at all, we saw key distinctions betw
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een women based on geography and education in our study sample which impacted their experiences of the internet. Across our six survey countries [Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda], women with a tertiary education were nearly twice as likely to be meaningfully connected compared to their peers with less education. Women living in rural areas were three times more likely to lack internet access than their urban-dwelling peers, while women living in cities were over 50% more likely to have meaningful connectivity. Meaningful connectivity enabled women around the world to learn, earn, access government and financial services, and connect with family and communities, thereby also saving essential time and money in transport costs. Women’s educational level and having meaningful connectivity are the strongest predictors of finding information online or participating in the digital economy. Women int erviewed in underserved localities — such as remote villaes in India and impoverished urban settlements in Nigeria — reported restricted digital access due to: lack of infrastructure (such as mobile towers); high cost of devices and data services; income-generating activities and unpaid care work leave little to no time available to access connectivity or digital skills educational initiatives; dependency on men in their family to use devices [...]
We propose four tiers of achievable solutions — and call attention to policymakers, investors, and the ICT sector at large to fast-track meaningful connectivity and inclusive digital development for all:
1. Deep investments that use substantial resourcing to make profound changes in a specific policy area or for a specific community. Universal Service and Access Funds (USAFs) represent a key mechanism across the majority world for deep investment strategies. When well executed, they provide clear interventions with measurable changes in the lives of affected communities.
2. Grand visions that combine years of effort with substantial funding resources to revolutionize the status quo. National broadband plans and other key strategy documents — when appropriately supported and resourced through implementation stages — represent a core example of grand visions within this space.
3. Easy wins that are comparatively discreet and specific changes that can still create tangible value at their scale. Gender data — collecting it, creating it, analyzing it, and using it — is a critical component to several easy wins that have been implemented in recent years. Policymakers can start from this level of research and measurement to make clear steps in the right direction.
4. Scalable systems that represent large, programmatic change in the pre-existing ways of working. Multistakeholder approaches and gender targets can provide the foundation for long-term, ongoing processes that scale progress towards closing the gender digital divide. By using policy and regulation to create mechanisms and procedures that consider digital inclusion, policymakers can build habits and routines that gradually and consistently change the course of history." (Executive summary, pages 2-4)
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"This study delves into the intricate realm of gender and artificial intelligence (AI) through an examination of DALL-E 2-generated images within the Indian context. It takes a methodological approach that focuses on assessing images generated in response to prompts such as ‘a farmer cultivating c
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rops in rural Punjab’ to reveal the dynamics of gender performativity within professions. The generated images were thematically analysed using dress as a phenomenon to visualise Indian man, Indian woman and ambiguous Indian. The study concludes that DALL-E 2 reinforces the binary gender norms, leaving no space for ambiguous Indian in its responses. Although the generated image is centred on female professions, it is frequently employed in ‘male’ surroundings. Hindu religious symbols are largely used among male professionals to denote religious and gender predominance. A brown complexion reflects demographics regardless of gender, while female professionals tend to undergo a process of aesthetic enhancement, suggesting societal beauty standards." (Abstract)
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"The past decades have seen efforts to increase digital inclusion for women worldwide, with the ultimate aim to advance gender equality. However, progress is slow, despite important advances in moving beyond a focus on ‘digital access’ (as measured by network coverage and hardware) towards a mor
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e holistic understanding of inclusion that considers abilities, awareness and agency. Here, we propose a further theoretical shift that draws on social system theories (e.g., Luhmann, 1984) and on the theory of ‘intersecting inequalities’ (Kabeer, 2010). We propose to understand the gender digital gap, particularly in mobile and internet usage, not merely descriptively but dynamically – since even factors like agency and awareness change over time – by applying concepts of feedback loops, low-equilibrium traps, multi-dimensional exclusion and systems analysis. This paper highlights how women may become locked in a state of low-inclusion unless the feedback loops between digital, social, economic and political exclusion are addressed through policies that tackle multiple dimensions. The paper reviews research on gender digital gaps with particular focus on developing countries, and with direct implications for policy-making." (Abstract)
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"The Handbook is a first-of-its-kind guide that gives insights into how we can best support policy-making processes that advocate gender equality. It illustrates the concrete actions that policy-makers can take and offers an actionable checklist that supports the process of gender-equal policy-makin
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g, from gathering data and conducting research to measuring impact. If the world is to achieve gender-equal digital inclusion in the future digital economy, Internet policies and strategies must enable an explicit focus on gender equality. This also means strengthening institutions and innovative policies that promote digital gender equality. This Handbook serves as an important tool to help us develop policies and solutions and puts gender equality at the centre, rather than on the side-lines, of policy-making. Bridging the gender digital divide – in all its complexity and variability throughout the world – is essential work for all of us involved in building the global technological infrastructure. The digital future belongs to all of us, regardless of gender." (Foreword)
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"This country report provides an overview of the extent to which gender is addressed in Ethiopia’s digital policies, strategies, and regulations, divided into categories such as international development instruments, national digital policies and strategies, and digital sector-related laws and reg
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ulations. The report includes a non-exhaustive list of specific programmes supporting digital inclusion in Ethiopia. The five pillars considered for analysis of gender in ICT strategies, policies and regulations are access to digital technology, digital skills, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship and leadership and digital infrastructure. There are explicit references to digital gender equality in Ethiopia’s digital policies and strategies. Based on the findings from the study, the report has a set of recommendations to enhance policies, laws, and regulations. There is a comprehensive checklist of preliminary policy actions that will help narrow the gender gap in Ethiopia. These range from ensuring women’s enrolment and completion of secondary and tertiary education to involving the private sector when making digital policies to facilitating women’s access to international networks." (Foreword)
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"1. More women in low- and middle-income countries are using mobile internet than ever before, but their rate of adoption has slowed for the second year in a row. While 61% of women across these countries now use mobile internet, only 60 million women started using mobile internet in 2022 compared t
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o 75 million in 2021. Men’s rate of adoption also slowed in 2022, highlighting that progress on digital inclusion for all has stalled across low- and middle-income countries. 2. The gender gap in mobile internet remains relatively unchanged – women in low- and middle-income countries are 19% less likely than men to use it, which translates into around 310 million fewer women than men. This year there have been no significant changes in the mobile internet gender gap in any region, including South Asia where there have been notable changes in the past few years. 3. To close the mobile internet gender gap by 2030 across low- and middle-income countries, an estimated 810 million women need to adopt it. This is equivalent to 100 million women a year, on average. However, if the gender gap remains unchanged, forecasts suggest that only 360 million more women will adopt mobile internet by 2030. 4. There are 900 million women in low- and middle-income countries who are still not using mobile internet, almost two-thirds of whom live in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Women in these regions remain the least likely to use mobile internet compared to men, with gender gaps of 41% and 36%, respectively. 5. Women were more likely than men to report they had reduced their use of mobile internet in 2022, especially those who live in rural areas and are less educated. Across all survey countries, women also tend to use their mobile phones for a narrower range of activities and use mobile internet less regularly than men. 6. The gender gap in smartphone ownership has stalled for the second year in a row, and women in low- and middle-income countries are 17% less likely than men to own a smartphone. This translates into around 250 million fewer women than men. While more men and women own a smartphone than ever before, the rate of adoption for both has slowed down slightly. 55% of women now own a smartphone compared to 67% of men. However, once women own a smartphone, their awareness and use of mobile internet is almost on par with men." (Key findings)
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"Despite remarkable progress in the fight against HIV, the number of new infections remains unacceptably high, epidemics continue to grow in certain communities, and therefore AIDS continues to be one of the deadliest pandemics of our times. This study analyzes the rate of new HIV infections over al
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most 30 years in low- and middle-income countries. Previous research identifies two critical ways to address HIV prevention in developing countries: educating women and using mobile phones to improve health literacy and access to virtual healthcare. Our study bridges these literatures by evaluating how women's education and mobile technology work together to support the goals of HIV prevention in low- and middle-income countries. Using two-way panel fixed effects regression models of HIV incidence across 76 developing countries, we find that both increasing access to women's education and increasing access to mobile phones are associated with fewer HIV infections over time. Furthermore, we discover that women's education moderates the relationship between mobile phones and HIV. More specifically, mobile phones seem to be more beneficial for HIV prevention in cases where rates of formal schooling are low. However, at higher levels of women's education, the impact of mobile phones on new HIV infections is substantially reduced. Our findings have important policy implications for Information and Communications for Development (ICT4D) programs." (Abstract)
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"En el Perú existen alrededor de nueve millones de adolescentes entre 12 y 17 años. De este grupo, se estima que el 92.9 % hace uso de internet para socializar, informarse, desarrollar pasatiempos y asistir a clases durante la pandemia. Según las estadísticas oficiales, la población de adolesce
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ntes muestra una brecha digital de género menor a la de otros grupos etarios, pero estas estadísticas solo se limitan a medir la brecha de acceso material. Para entender de manera integral las barreras que enfrentan los y las adolescentes, se debe ahondar en las formas de impacto que internet tiene en sus vidas diarias, así como los estereotipos de género que pueden ser fomentados dentro de su entorno social próximo. Es por ello que entrevistamos a expertos y actores clave sobre la situación actual de la brecha digital de género en el Perú y elaboramos un estudio de campo novedoso –basado en la metodología diseñada por UNICEF y Global Kids Online– que nos permitió descubrir la diversidad de factores que promueven e inhiben la apropiación de internet por parte de adolescentes." (Página 6)
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"This article aims to determine how digital nationalism influences gender politics in the context of gender-issue debates on Chinese social media platforms. To this end, I present an original case study, collecting empirical data from the most popular Chinese community question-answering (CQA) websi
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te, Zhihu. By using a mixed-method research design, consisting of content analysis (CA) and critical discourse analysis (CDA), I explored gender-issue debates between Chinese internet users. The analysis reveals how such debates inform divided opinions between women and men internet users, and how misogynistic men invoke a nationalist discourse to distort the debates." (Abstract)
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"This article is an outcome of an actionresearch project that gathered community members, farmers, technologists, agroecologists and community network practitioners to make possible a community network in the quilombo of Ribeirão Grande/Terra Seca, located in Barra do Turvo city, São Paulo state,
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Brazil. The quilombos emerged as refuges for Black people who escaped repression during the entire period of slavery in Brazil, between the 16th and 19th centuries. The inhabitants of these communities are called quilombolas. With the 1988 Constitution, they gained the right to own and use the land they were on, but not without plenty of political struggles. Today Brazil has more than 15,000 quilombola communities. Within quilombo Ribeirão Grande/Terra Seca there is a group of women that takes part in a network called Agroecological Network of Women Farmers (RAMA in Portuguese – Rede Agroecológica de Mulheres Agricultoras), and one of the issues they faced collectively related to difficulties of communication [...] This essay explores positive and negative aspects of our practices in the design and nurturing of the Ribeirão Grande/Terra Seca community network, the use of feminist and popular education methodologies, respect and appreciation of local knowledge, and the importance of considering gender, race and colonialism as oppressions present in the places where community networks operate and are needed. We share these reflections so that they can be useful for other community network activists, advocates and groups when it comes to their technological practices and methodologies. In our search for socially, culturally, ethically engaged and responsible definitions of technology, we come across our own gaps and prejudices: especially how to see and work on racial relations and, crucially, how community network practitioners ignore their own prejudices." (Pages 1-2)
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"This report presents findings from a country assessment undertaken to facilitate digital financial inclusion in Ethiopia and gives an overview of the current digital financial services landscape in the country. It also identifies some of the barriers to digital financial inclusion and suggests how
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they might be removed." (Executive summary)
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"Die vorliegende Publikation ist ein erster Versuch, die Querschnittsthemen digitale Transformation und Geschlechtergerechtigkeit auf der Grundlage der feministischen Entwicklungspolitik Deutschlands zusammenzudenken. Die deutsche feministische Entwicklungspolitik will in einem globalen System, das
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weiterhin von einer ungleichen Verteilung sozialer, wirtschaftlicher und politischer Macht geprägt ist, entscheidende Veränderungen erwirken. Die Herausforderungen und Hindernisse sind jedoch vielfältig: von bewaffneten Konflikten über Klimaextreme, zunehmenden Hunger und Armut bis hin zum weltweiten Erstarken von Anti-Gender-Bewegungen. Die digitale Transformation fügt der Komplexität hier eine weitere Ebene hinzu. Digitale Technologien – von Smartphones, intelligenten Geräten und Software bis hin zu künstlicher Intelligenz (KI), digitalen Plattformen und Blockchain – eröffnen viele Möglichkeiten für Empowerment und sozialen Wandel. Gleichzeitig spiegeln Technologien die physische Welt und ihre Systeme der Marginalisierung und Unterdrückung wie Patriarchat, Rassismus und Kolonialismus wider. Trotz der in ihr verankerten und reproduzierten Ungleichheiten bleibt das Anliegen, die Potenziale der digitalen Transformation zu nutzen, weiterhin ein Handlungsfeld der deutschen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit.
Die neue feministische Entwicklungspolitik Deutschlands baut auf dem bisherigen Engagement auf und geht gleichzeitig neue Wege. Sie setzt sich für eine geschlechtergerechte digitale Transformation und digitale Teilhabe für alle ein. Gleichzeitig ist das zukünftige Ziel, alle Formen struktureller und systemischer Ursachen von Ungleichheit zu überwinden, die in der heutigen globalen Gesellschaft tief verwurzelt sind. Insbesondere letzterer Aspekt bedeutet auch, den Status quo der gegenwärtigen digitalen Transformation und digitalen Entwicklungspolitik grundlegend in Frage zu stellen. Die vorliegende Studie verdeutlicht, dass eine feministische Entwicklungspolitik im digitalen Raum vielschichtig ist und umfasst eine Bandbreite sich überschneidender Themen. In erster Linie bedeutet eine feministische Entwicklungspolitik für den digitalen Raum jedoch die Überwindung der anhaltenden digitalen Geschlechterkluft." (Zusammenfassung, Seite 6)
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"1. Women’s uptake of mobile internet in lowand middle-income countries continues to increase, but the rate of adoption has slowed. Across low- and middle-income countries, 60 per cent of women now use mobile internet. Only 59 million additional women in low-and middle-income countries started usi
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ng mobile internet in 2021 compared to 110 million in 2020. This is significant since mobile remains the primary way most people access the internet, especially women. 2. The mobile internet gender gap had been reducing, but progress has stalled. Across low- and middle-income countries, women are now 16 per cent less likely than men to use mobile internet, which translates into 264 million fewer women than men. By comparison, the mobile internet gender gap in low- and middle-income countries was 25 per cent in 2017 and 15 per cent in 2020. The gender gap is widest in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and has remained relatively unchanged in all regions since 2017 except South Asia. In South Asia, the mobile internet gender gap had narrowed significantly, from 67 per cent in 2017 to 36 per cent in 2020, but has now widened to 41 per cent. This is due to continued increase in mobile internet adoption among men but no notable increase among women, particularly in India where men’s mobile internet use increased from 45 per cent to 51 per cent while women’s has remained flat at 30 per cent. 3. The gender gap in smartphone ownership has widened slightly. Over the past five years, the gender gap in smartphone ownership had been reducing year on year across low- and middle-income countries, from 20 per cent in 2017 to 16 per cent in 2020. Women are now 18 per cent less likely than men to own a smartphone, which translates into 315 million fewer women than men owning a smartphone. This year’s increase has been driven by an increase in the smartphone gender gap in South Asia, as well as a continued increase in the smartphone gender gap in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, once women own a smartphone, their awareness and use of mobile internet is almost on par with men [...]" (Key findings)
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"This paper is the second in a series of three papers that explore the relationship between women in Africa today and Artificial Intelligence. In it, the authors explore the threats and benefits Artificial Intelligence brings to African women in different sectors; what it means to be an African woma
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n today from a pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial lens and how the intersection of various forces of production and society give insight into the ways African women's lives are currently being and will continue to be impacted by this technology." (Executive summary)
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