Without access to technology, there will be no gender equality

Technology can facilitate the empowerment of women and girls around the world. The digital age offers an unprecedented opportunity to end all forms of disparity and inequality, including between men and women.

However, there is also a gender gap in access to technology, which makes it difficult for women to fully benefit from digital transformation. Besides, Women and girls are 27 times more likely than men to experience harassment or hate speech onlinewhich reinforces this gap.

The future is digital. And only a third of people working in the disciplines of science, technology and engineering are women, which means that the future is being designed by a majority of men. Women have restricted access in the governance of the digital world and those who work in the sector often leave their post in the absence of a secure digital environment, or because they continue to do most of the work at home.

To draw attention to this inequality, the International Women’s Day this year has as motto For an inclusive digital world: innovation and technology for gender equality.

“By 2050, 75% of jobs will be related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. However, currently, only 57% of women use the internet”, declares the president of the general AssemblyCsaba Kőrösi.

Digital divide, economic loss

The digital divide also has a negative impact on the economy. “It is estimated that the exclusion of women from the digital world has subtracted a trillion dollars from the gross domestic product (GDP) of low- and middle-income countries in the last decade”, highlights the General secretary from the ONU.

“Investing in women improves all people, communities and countries. Let us work together, governments, the private sector and civil society, to build a more inclusive, just and prosperous world for women, girls, men and boys around the world”, says António Guterres in a video message on the occasion of this Day.

“Societies that oppress women are underdeveloped and more prone to conflict and chaos, and this correlation is not accidental. No society can prosper if it suppresses half its population and stifles half its talents.” adds the High Commissioner for Human RightsVolker Turk”.

Technology is shaping the world in which we live and facilitates access to healthy food, education and integration into a new community. It is also an ally in the fight against the climate crisis and the creation of new jobs. It is crucial that women and girls have access to the digital world.

Food security is in the hands of women

The digital divide has many angles, but its face is always female. For example, the various UN food agencies actively collaborate to improve access to technology and educate rural women and girls. In this way, they can contribute to agri-food systems, unlock their potential and reduce gender inequalities.

“Household and community food security is in the hands of women. Only by empowering women can we build a world where no one goes to bed hungry,” said the deputy executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), Valerie Guarnieri.

“Putting resources in the hands of women is a no-brainer, and with that comes the transfer of knowledge and skills, including digital literacy, to help these women realize their full potential. That’s the kind of change we can all support.” Guarnieri added.

For its part, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Program itself, agree that, although there is continuous growth in digital tools and services, women face systemic and structural barriers to accessing and using new technologies.

Additionally, in low- and middle-income countries, women are 16% less likely to use mobile internet than men. In rural areas, the contrast is even greater, due to constraints such as purchasing power, digital literacy, and discriminatory social norms and gender stereotypes.

Access to technology is vital for migrants

Migration is another face of the digital divide. Around 140 million women have left their countries of origin in search of a better life. Unfortunately, these women often face a double discrimination in their countries of destination, for being women and for being migrants.

To this we must add the digital divide. Women without access to computers or the internet face a barrier that prevents them from gaining knowledge, finding work and establishing a new life. In addition, the effective use of smartphones and social networks can help groups of migrant workers to promote and defend their rights.

The United Nations Committee for the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers (CMW) and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) declare that access to digital platforms is vital for the subsistence of migrants. migrant women. However, the use of technological tools requires knowledge that does not always exist among migrant workers, which constitutes a second digital divide.

Both committees ask the States that adopt digital inclusion strategies for migrant women to prevent the digital divide from increasing social and gender inequalities and, on the contrary, protect them from discrimination and social exclusion. In addition, digital inclusion can allow them access to better jobs, higher salaries or better educational opportunities, contributing to their social inclusion and gender equality.

Green jobs and climate change

For her part, the International Labor Organization (ILO), in collaboration with the Euroclimate+ program of the European Union, has carried out an investigation that advises how the appropriate policies of adaptation to climate change can contribute to gender equality by creating green jobs.

The report Green jobs, an opportunity for women in Latin America. Climate change, gender and just transition , highlights the need to incorporate a gender dimension into these policies and combat the disadvantages, digital illiteracy, and less access to capital, land, and financing that women face. This would allow the transition towards a green economy to contribute, at the same time, to overcoming gender inequality.

Likewise, the document confirms that climate change and extreme weather events have an unequal impact on men and women. Natural disasters increase the workload of women, who are the ones who carry the burden of care tasks in families. This fact is aggravated by the lack of basic services and the closure of schools, which leads many women to withdraw from the labor market, losing their sources of income and their options for personal autonomy.

A preliminary study by the ILO and the Inter-American Development Bank estimates that the transition towards a more sustainable economy could mean the creation of up to 22.5 million new jobs in sectors such as agriculture, forestry, renewable energy, construction and manufacturing. But again, just like in the tech sector, most of these jobs would be filled by men.

“If the appropriate policies are not applied, there is a risk of increasing inequality gaps. The transition towards a more sustainable economic model will lead to the creation of a whole new generation of green jobs. There is a risk that women will not be able to access it and, to avoid it, It is essential to implement education and training measures that help overcome the gender gap in this field”, declares the general secretary of the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Public Administration and Policies (FIIAPP), one of the seven organizations that participate in the Euroclima+ Program.