Internet access and use has grown spectacularly over the last ten years. Nearly half of the world's population is online today — up from just around 20% in 2007. Yet this impressive growth hides a less-than-ideal reality: internet uptake and use has been concentrated in many of the world's wealthier countries, and primarily among men.
Over four billion people remain offline today. This digital divide undermines global development and tends to further disadvantage already marginalised populations — women and the poor in particular. The digital gender gap is daunting. Women in poor, urban communities are up to 50% less likely than men to use the internet. Recent data reveals that this digital gender gap is growing wider, and remains largest in Africa (at 23%).
What can we do to close this growing divide and enable affordable, universal internet access for all? Developing effective solutions requires us to understand the nature of the digital gender gap. We analysed recent data from the ITU and found that:
1. Where you live affects how likely you are to be connected. In high-income countries, the gender digital divide is higher in rural areas. In low- and middle-income countries, the divide is slightly higher in urban areas.
2. Your age also impacts the likelihood that you're connected.
The digital gender gap increases as age increases (more significantly in low- and middle-income countries). Among 15- to 24-year-oldss in low- and middle-income countries, the gender gap is 3%. This gap grows to nearly 8% among the 25 to 74 age group, and swells to over 45% for those 75 and above.
While age and location are important factors in determining access, they are far from the only issues affecting women's access to and use of ICTs. Inequality in access to and use of technologies can also result from systemic and other sources of discrimination in society.
Patriarchal systems of power may restrict women's access to technology directly or indirectly through the gender wage gap, unpaid work and care, uneven and unequal access to education, and the so-called "triple burden" (i.e., the view of a woman's simultaneous responsibilities to her family, job, and community). In short, this means that policies that seek to improve internet access and use that do not consider the underlying causes of gender inequality will fall short.
Making real progress toward closing the digital gender gap will require that broadband plans, ICT policies, and wider economic policies place particular emphasis on women, and the unique challenges they face in accessing and using the web. This means:
- Making sure gender advocates and experts are involved in the development of broadband, ICT, and other policy from the outset of the policy progress.
- Establishing time-bound targets to achieve gender equality in access and use, and ensuring that sufficient money and resources are allocated to achieve these targets.
- Investing in digital skills training for women and girls, and making sure this education starts early (e.g., primary school).
- Focusing on public access solutions to allow women and other populations that might not be able to afford even a seemingly affordable broadband connection to reap the benefits of online access.
- Investing in the collection of gender disaggregated data because without proper data, we can neither create effective policy nor measure progress toward established goals and targets.