ECLAC calls for closing the digital gender gap, promoting the participation of more women in science and technology, and eradicating gender-based cyberviolence

A call to guarantee effective connectivity for women, to increase their participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers and to eradicate gender-based cyberviolence was made today by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). ), in the framework of the commemoration of the International Women’s Daywhose theme this year is “For an inclusive digital world: Innovation and technology for gender equality”.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the use of the benefits of the Internet is uneven: it is estimated that 244 million of its inhabitants do not have access to these services. The differences in connectivity between urban and rural areas are especially alarming: while 68% of urban households in the region were connected to the internet in 2018, only 23% of households in rural areas had access.

Women experience more precarious conditions when they access the internet, the document states Gender equality and the autonomy of women and girls in the digital age: contributions of education and digital transformation in Latin America and the Caribbeanprepared by ECLAC, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

It is estimated that 4 out of 10 women in the region are not connected and/or cannot afford effective connectivity, understood as Internet access, availability of devices and basic skills for their use.

“The cost of mobile and fixed broadband service for the population in the first income quintile in the region reaches an average of 14% and 12% of their income, respectively, which explains why a high percentage of this low-income population income does not have internet access. Given that in the region women are overrepresented in lower-income households, it results from this that there are more women in unconnected households,” the joint document indicates.

“At ECLAC we recognize the talent, strength and creativity of women and girls in the region. However, we note the structural persistence of gender inequality. The data is eloquent and calls us to action”, says the Executive Secretary of the regional organization of the United Nations, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, in a video message about International Women’s Day 2023.

“This March 8 we make a double call. We call, on the one hand, to reduce the digital gender gap and guarantee the full participation of women in development and technological knowledge and, on the other, to move towards the care society, a development style that places equality and sustainability of life in the center and that no person is left behind”, emphasized the highest representative of ECLAC.

Women in the region have made significant progress in education, even surpassing men by 6.1 percentage points in the completion rate of upper secondary education. However, these achievements hide unequal gender patterns by disciplines, ECLAC reiterates, which deepen as progress is made in basic schooling and become more acute in higher education.

In most of the countries of the region, the proportion of women graduated from STEM careers does not exceed 40%. The most critical fields are engineering, industry and construction (with 30.8% participation of women in higher education enrollment in 2019) and information and communication technologies, ICT, with 18% participation of women in enrollment higher education in 2019.

Higher educational credentials for women also don’t translate into better jobs and pay once they enter the job market. Only 1 in 2 women participate in the labor market and women spend almost three times as much time on unpaid care and domestic work as men (19.6% of their time versus 7.3%).

Women who remain in STEM careers are also relegated in scientific production and academia: on average, less than 30% of patents include at least one woman on the inventing team in the region and the participation of women in publications of physical and chemical sciences is 38%, a percentage that drops to 30% in the case of engineering.

On the other hand, ECLAC warns that women and girls experience different forms of violence through digital media. This violence is considered gender-based as it is generally sexist and sexualized. It is expressed through threats, discriminatory speech, sexual harassment, invasion of privacy, non-consensual disclosure of images, among other cybercrimes.

Cyber ​​violence for reasons of gender, says the Commission, is exacerbated in particular with defenders of human rights, women politicians, communicators and journalists, and leaders in the public space.

ECLAC urges the countries of the region to comply with the recently adopted agreements aimed at closing the digital gender gap and guaranteeing the full participation of women and girls in all their diversity in development and technological knowledge. These are included in the Buenos Aires Commitment and in the Digital Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean eLAC2024 (both approved in November 2022) and in the Declaration of the ministers and high authorities of the national mechanisms for the advancement of women in Latin America and the Caribbean, signed in February of this year.

ECLAC proposes to advance in different priority areas in a synergistic manner. For example, it calls for incorporating the gender perspective in the processes and policies for the transformation of the productive matrix and the digital transformation of the most dynamic sectors of the economies; promote gender and social co-responsibility in care; and promote comprehensive care systems, supported by digitization, to free up time for women and girls so that they can be trained and have equal access to education and digital technologies.

It is also necessary to promote inclusive digital transformation processes (such as the Basic Digital Basket initiative) to ensure effective connectivity in homes in the region; promote basic and technical-professional education (ETP) to increase the participation of women and girls in STEM fields and eliminate gender stereotypes in the education sector; ensure the full participation of women in the processes of creating digital technologies and innovation; generate safe spaces free of digital violence; and strengthen governance and multisectoral alliances to meet the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.