The digital gender gap limits the presence of women in more digitally intensive and better-paid jobs while condemning them to perform professions with a greater risk of automation. It is also related to the unequal distribution of family responsibilities, which reduces women’s ability to dedicate the necessary time to training and updating their curriculum in the face of the demands of the new economy.
This inequality leads to the precariousness of the female labor market, and insufficient gender diversity can lead to a design of the future based excessively on an androcentric vision. “Technology is not neutral and, if we do not act to counteract it, it tends to reproduce the gender biases that exist in societies, reflecting patterns of discrimination, violence, and inequality.”
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in a study on routes and challenges to close gender gaps in digital skills, identifies the following “structural nodes of inequality” that condition the use and access of technologies and the development of digital skills of women:
- Less access for women to dynamic sectors with high digital and technological content.
- Women are overrepresented in poor households, which limits their ability to pay for connectivity and devices, especially in rural areas.
- Overloading care tasks conditions the use of time for continuous learning activities.
- Less presence of women in STEM careers.
- Persistence of gender violence in digital formats
- Stereotypes regarding the lack of capabilities of girls and women to use technology.
- Underrepresentation of women in technological developments.
- Gender biases in the creation of algorithms and artificial intelligence processes.
According to another study from ECLAC, before the pandemic, the percentage of Internet use was quite heterogeneous among the region’s countries, with values over 80% in countries such as Uruguay and Costa Rica, compared to less than 50% in Cuba and Guatemala. The percentage of Internet access does not show significant differences between men and women, except for El Salvador, Peru, and Guatemala, where the difference in favor of men is more than 10 points.
The situation in East Africa reflects similar challenges. A study by the Alliance for Affordable Internet Access (A4AI) shows that in countries such as Kenya and Uganda, women are 34% less likely to access the Internet than men. This gender gap in Internet access is exacerbated by factors such as poverty, gender norms, and low digital literacy.
As in Latin America, the gender gap in digital skills is more pronounced in East Africa at higher educational levels. In Tanzania, for example, girls are less likely to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), reducing their presence in technology sectors and in decision-making about the development of new technologies.
These inequalities not only affect women’s economic development but also limit the diversity of perspectives in the creation of technology, perpetuating a cycle of exclusion and inequality in the design and use of digital tools.
