The emphasis on ICT as a tool of economic and social empowerment for underprivileged women raises new research questions that are relevant both for advocacy and project work by NGOs as well as for policy intervention by national and international bodies. The paper assesses women’s access to and use of ICTs for social empowerment and poverty reduction.<br /> <br />
Poverty Reduction, Gender Equality and the Knowledge Society: Digital Exclusion or Digital Opportunities
The paper is based on the premise that any strategies to increase the participation of women in the information economy will increase national IT capacity, reduce poverty, and help to raise the national standard of living. It summarises international discourse on the connections between gender equality and poverty reduction, and defines the context of the knowledge society, including the digital and gender divides.<br />
Roma women thoughts regarding the Open Society Institute and the Advocacy Project carried out Roma information Project (RIP). The goal of the project was to introduce a selected number of Roma women organisation in Central and Easter Europe to information technology.
The "She Figures 2003" report provides a detailed statistical analysis of women's participation in all aspects of science (education, employment, and research), existing gender differences across scientific fields and gender equality in setting the scientific agenda.
Latest Eurostat data show that although women are still significantly under-represented in scientific and engineering disciplines, the numbers of female graduates in these fields have increased over the last few years. The new figures on “Women, science and technology: Measuring recent progress towards gender equality" provide continuing evidence of a narrowing of the gender gap for graduates in “hard sciences”, especially in technologies and engineering.
The site of Communications, Education and Employment features methodology and teaching material for the training of women in rural areas in the use of IT technology and the Internet and to run test courses.
eLearning is one of the main topics in the action plan eEurope 2005. All aims of this action plan should be achieved by the end of 2004. The eLearning initiative seeks to mobilise all actors to speed up changes in the education and training systems for EU's move to a knowledge-based society.
The document presents a summary of the discussions. Specific themes include access to ICTs and their use; Information, technology and women empowerment; and Women's campaigns, networks, resources and repositories on ICT.
The document outlines concrete recommendations for actions in a myriad of areas to address problems of gender equity in ICTs, ranging from basic access issues to decision making power and presence.<br /> <br />
E-discussion on the impact of ICT on gender relations and the ways ICT can be used to overcome gender inequalities. sharing ideas, opinions, concerns, and lessons learned with development practitioners, policy makers, and academics.
The paper highlights specific measures that could be incorporated into ICT policy in developing countries to ensure gender equality.
Overcoming the gender digital divide: understanding ICTs and their potential for the empowerment of women
The document is a synthesis of the results of the Virtual Seminar Series on gender and ICT, and online forum for exchange of research-based knowledge and information.
The paper emphasises the importance of gender disaggregated statistics and indicators in informing national and global ICT policies.