• ICT and gender

ICT and gender

How can we ensure that women have equitable access to the benefits and opportunities made possible by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and how can ICTs be leveraged for women’s empowerment and the promotion of gender equality? This paper presents a study on gender and e-business in Malaysia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Thailand. It offers a comparative gender analysis of each country's level of infrastructure development and ICT penetration, their level of recognition of gender issues in general and in relation to ICT in particular, and their level of readiness and capacity for e-business development. The study finds that gender-sensitive ICT policies must be applied to e-business given the rapid integration of ICTs into the business environment.

The study concludes with recommendations for developing a gender-responsive e-business environment. These policy recommendations are based on the experiences of the four countries, and from three broad perspectives premised on the nature of the digital divide. These are:

• the Information Technology Access Gap – this is the gap that represents the divide between those who have physical access to the computer (at home, school, the work place or cyber cafes)
• the Information Technology Application Gap – this divide separates those who know how to apply existing information technology to create wealth and those who do not
• the Information Technology Creation Gap – this divide has three levels, and it represents the divide between those who conduct fundamental research and development in information technology; those who use and create IT products and services with existing technology; and those who are only consumers of the IT products and services

Policy-related lessons are also garnered from Malaysia’s wealth of experience in implementing preferential policies for poverty reduction that are based on ethnicity, since gender issues are not unlike racial issues as both are prevalent in social, political and economic institutions, and interact with each other as well as other forms of power of class, age, region and nation. These recommendations include:

• accelerate the de-monopolisation of the telecommunications industry, encourage wireless technology and non-technology specific e-commerce legislations
• promote and support the use of open source and free software
• develop a more comprehensive and extensive system of gender sensitive data collection
• ensure the establishment of inclusive e-commerce policies and support programmes

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