Gender and Technology

Gender and Technology: A rights-based and intersectional analysis of key trends.

Vanessa Ceia, Benji Nothwehr, and Liz Wagner

This report aims to highlight the disparities between access to technology and digital literacy skills, with global gender issues. The study examines access, use, governance, privacy, security, and other issues pertaining to information and communication technologies and analyzes the particular impact these issues have on women and gender minorities globally. Research is conducted using an intersectional feminist framework and is unique in that it recognizes and critically examines all social categorizations in their examination of gender and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), rather than simply examining gender by itself. The point of departure is that many initiatives aimed at empowering women through technology do not address the intersecting factors which influence women's ability to benefit from digital technologies and ICTs, which factors include individual attributes such as race, class and age, as well as structural determinants such as education and geography. A key takeaway is that the ways in which ICTs are targeted at women globally are intentionally framed towards neo-liberal development values that hope to indoctrinate women as labor-focused and individualistic, rather than community-oriented. This limits digital self-determination. Access the full report here.

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