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Women and Gender in ICT Statistics and Indicators for Development

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Women and Gender in ICT Statistics and Indicators for Development Women and Gender in ICT Statistics HAFKIN, HUYER Women and Gender in ICT Statistics and Indicators for Development [email protected] Director Issues related to the gender digital divide have been prominent in discussions Knowledge Working of the information society. However, the paucity of statistical data on the sub- 135 Stonybrook Road ject makes it difªcult, if not impossible, to make the case for the inclusion of Framingham, Massachusetts 01702 gender issues in ICT policies, plans, and strategies to policymakers, particularly USA those in developing countries. This paper surveys available gender ICT statistics (508) 872-1004 and indicators and makes recommendations for ªlling the gaps that exist. Few gender ICT statistics are available because many governments do not collect ICT statistics consistently and regularly, and rarely are the data Executive Director disaggregated by sex. The best practices are generally found in developed WIGSAT countries, with most developing countries lagging behind. and Recent work that sheds light on women, gender, and the information soci- Senior Research Advisor ety includes a major six-country study on the gender digital divide in Gender Advisory Board of the francophone countries of West Africa and Orbicom’s 2005 research on UN Commission on Science women in the information society. Although major composite ICT indices do and Technology for Development not publish gender and ICT statistics, the potential remains for them to do so, Brighton, Ontario and some indices encourage others to enrich their work with gender data. Canada The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in 2003 in Geneva, saw ICTs as vital tools for women’s empowerment: We are committed to ensuring that the Information Society enables women’s empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society and in all decision-making processes. To this end, we should mainstream a gender equality perspective and use ICTs as a tool to that end. (WSIS, 2003a, ¶ 12) Unfortunately, we know very little about the situation of women and ICTs, particularly in developing countries, because the data—sex-disaggregated statistics and gender indicators on ICTs—in many cases are not there. Col- lecting and analyzing data on how ICTs impact men and women differ- ently are a necessary prerequisite to achieving a globally equitable information society. Without this information, more than 50% of the world’s population may be overlooked. This article surveys the available quantitative data on women and gen- der with respect to ICTs, investigates the problems that arise from the paucity of data, and presents the results of some current efforts to rem- edy the problem. It concludes with recommendations for further action by gender advocates and policymakers. © The MIT Press 2008. Published under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivativeWorks Unported 3.0 license. All rights not granted thereunder to the public are reserved to the publisher and may not be exercised without its express written permission. Volume 4, Number 2, Winter 2007, 25–41 25 WOMEN AND GENDER IN ICT STATISTICS suring Infostates2 for Development—expressed the problem thusly: Observation and anecdotal evidence have identiªed Much remains to be done in order to understand a gender component to the digital divide in several better why gender gaps exist and why they mat- ter, as well as to initiate actions as to how best to developed and many developing countries, but there close the gender digital gaps and how this links to are little data to document it. The paucity of data more general disadvantages facing women. To makes it difªcult, if not impossible, to make the this end, proper quantiªcation and analysis be- case to policymakers for the inclusion of gender is- come critical. Such efforts, however, continue to sues in ICT policies, plans, and strategies. “Without be hindered by a dearth of adequate and reliable data, there is no visibility; without visibility, there is statistical information. Much like the digital di- no priority” (UNDP, 1995; Huyer & Westholm, vide, a statistical divide exists where the need is 2000). greatest—in developing nations. (Huyer et al., The Measuring the Digital Divide project put it 2005, p. 194) succinctly: “Comprehensive ICT data with a gender Despite the lack of gender-speciªc quantitative dimension across a large number of countries do data, project-level qualitative data have established not currently exist” (Huyer, Hafkin, Ertl, & Dryburgh, that ICTs are not gender neutral. ICTs impact men 2005, p. 137). WSIS recognized this gap and recom- and women differentially, and in almost all cases, mended the following corrective action: women have many disadvantages that result in their Gender-speciªc indicators on ICT use and needs having less access to the technology and therefore should be developed, and measurable perfor- less use of it.3 The policy implication of this disparity mance indicators should be identiªed to assess in information access, especially for developing the impact of funded ICT projects on the lives of countries, is that unless special interventions are 1 women and girls. (WSIS, 2003b) made, most women will not beneªt from the infor- Regrettably, although paragraph 28a of the WSIS mation society to the extent that men do. If ICTs Plan of Action recommends including gender analy- were gender neutral, affecting men and women eq- sis in a digital divide index and details the statistics uitably, it would not be necessary to pay special at- that should be generated to set up the index, the tention to women, and sex-disaggregated statistics plan makes no reference to the collection of sex- would not be needed for policymaking. Without disaggregated data, which are the basis for develop- both of these considerations, women will continue ing gender-speciªc indicators, including project-level to have fewer opportunities to beneªt from the performance indicators. The lack of data disaggre- myriad possibilities of the information age. gated by sex now makes it impossible to assemble Data are needed at microeconomic (i.e., project) gender-speciªc indicators of ICT in developing and macroeconomic levels. Collecting sex- countries. disaggregated data at the project level will help The 2005 International Network of UNESCO measure if men and women are beneªting differ- Chairs in Communications (Orbicom) report—From ently from project interventions. If that is the case, the Digital Divide to Digital Opportunities: Mea- the data will help project leaders take corrective ac- 1. See also Hafkin (2004). Gender-speciªc indicators are variables that are indicative of gender-related changes in soci- ety over time. Portions of this section have been drawn from the chapter “Women, Gender, and ICT Statistics and Indi- cators” in Cinderella or Cyberella? Empowering Women in the Knowledge Society (Hafkin & Huyer, Eds., 2006). 2. A country’s infostate is the measure of its uptake and intensity of the use of ICT, based on an aggregated index of information networks, education, and skills. The Infostate index is used to measure the digital divide and was pro- posed by Orbicom in Monitoring the Digital Divide...andBeyond, which is available from www.infodev.org/en/ Publication.20.html. Orbicom, created in 1994 by UNESCO and the University of Quebec at Montreal, comprises 28 chairs in communications and 250 associate members in 71 countries and undertakes many efforts focusing on ICTs. 3. See Hafkin, N. (2002, July). “Is ICT gender neutral? A gender analysis of six case studies of multi-donor ICT projects.” Paper presented at the United Nations INSTRAW Virtual Seminar on Gender and ICT. Retrieved August 30, 2006, from www.un-instraw.org/en/docs/gender_and_ict/Hafkin.pdf See also Jorge, S. & Hafkin, N. (2002, February). Get in and get in early: Ensuring women’s access to and participation in ICT projects. In Women in Action: Women and communi- cations [special issue]. Isis International-Manila. 26 Information Technologies and International Development HAFKIN, HUYER tion. At the macroeconomic level, data are needed wide range of sources. Finally, some of the compil- for ICT planning, policy, and strategies. Unfortu- ers of major composite ICT and development indices nately, neither national level nor project level sex- have recognized the importance of gender statistics. disaggregated data are being collected regularly in As with statistics and indicators in general, gen- most countries. der statistics are more developed in rich countries The paucity of sex-disaggregated information on than in poor countries. Where the gender digital di- the information society, which is the norm in devel- vide is generally thought to be most marked, virtu- oping countries, reºects the more general dearth of ally no ofªcial statistics are available, and the digital statistical information on women’s activities across divide is hardest to document. Almost no African all sectors that might lead to an improved under- countries’ ofªcial statistics collect ICT gender data standing of the “different worlds men and women and estimates indicate that women comprise 25% live in” in terms of access to education and work, or less of Internet users in Africa. health, personal security, and leisure time. (United The countries that collect gender ICT statistics are Nations, 1995, p. xvii) generally those countries where Internet penetration is high and the gender digital divide tends to be the least marked. The United States, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Iceland, Korea, Nor- way, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and Thailand In the following passage, Michael Minges explains all collect sex-disaggregated ICT usage statistics. why there are so little data on gender and ICT: Also, all European Union (EU) members agree to First, many government organizations do not col- participate in Eurostat ICT data collections, which lect national ICT statistics in a consistent and reg- are sex disaggregated. As late as 2004, however, ular manner. Of those government agencies that some 10 EU member States did not collect sex- compile [ICT] statistics, most do not provide a disaggregated data.
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