Gender inequality online is “dear to all of us,” says inventor of the web foundation

This story is part of Bridging the broadband divide, CNET coverage of how the country is working to make broadband access universal.

If women and girls do not have access to the Internet, the government will incur significant costs. To be precise, just how much money has been estimated so far.

A new study released Monday by the Tim Berners-LeeWeb Foundation and its affiliate Alliance for Affordable Internet calculated that over the past decade, 32 low- and middle-income countries have lost $ 1 trillion because they failed. not helped more women to connect to the Internet. Some of these countries include India, Nigeria, and the Philippines.

The digital divide is a global problem, but there are still individual groups who are unlikely to have access to the Internet. These groups can be defined by geography, gender, and group. Race, Or all three. Women in low- and middle-income countries are even less likely to access the Internet than men.

“This report reveals how important gender inequalities are to all of us,” Boutheina Guermazi, director of digital development at the World Bank, said in a statement. “Creating the digital gender gap must be a top priority for governments looking to build a resilient economy as part of their COVID-19 stimulus agenda. ”

In the 32 countries reported by the Web Foundation, just over a third of women had access to the Internet, compared to almost half of men. And while digital connectivity is playing an increasingly central role in our lives, this gap doesn’t seem to be closing over time. The coronavirus pandemic shows how important it is to have internet access at home, from remote schools to medical care. Over the past decade, the difference between the number of women and men online has shrunk by just 0.5 percentage points, according to a survey by the Web Foundation.

Lack of Internet access by women means that many women are excluded from education and employment opportunities and are placed in poverty and other dangerous situations without access to medical or other assistance. Often. That should be enough for the government to try to close this gender gap, but it is not always the case.

A global broadband policy for economic gain

In a new report, the Web Foundation explains the cost of digital gender inequality from a difficult economic perspective. This hopes the government needs to take the issue seriously. The report calculates that closing the digital gender gap over the next five years can generate $ 524 billion, which is attractive to the economies of the countries studied.

“Including women and girls in the online world is not only good social policy, but also financially good,” Teddy Woodhouse, senior research director at Web Foundation’s access and affordability, said in an interview. I am. For him, a big test of the report is whether the information is helping to awaken new allies and move the needle to close the digital gender gap. “It’s really very practical and I’m trying to figure out how to build a change case,” he said.

Focusing on a wide range of economic implications is also a way to prevent digital gender inequality from being rejected by those in power, as debates on gender equality often take place, Ana Maria, l one of the report’s co-authors. Rodriguez Purgarin added.

“Our gender discussions can take place with politicians who are already working on gender equality, ending digital gender inequality,” she said. “But I want to get the message across that it affects everyone.”

One of the main problems identified by the survey as preventing women from accessing the Internet is the lack of gender-sensitive broadband policies. It is a clear goal for women to have access to the Internet.

Governments interested in closing the digital gender gap have a choice of many areas, such as rights, education, access and content, where they implement their policies. Woodhouse cited Costa Rica as an example of a country that has implemented such measures by setting specific goals for more women to participate in STEM.

Costa Rica publishes an annual report on how it is achieving its goals. “This is only possible if you’ve defined these metrics in the first place,” says Woodhouse. This is an example of how creating a responsible system can be a good practice.

Internet access beyond binary

The Web Foundation’s research on gender focuses on traditional male and female lines and does not incorporate the experience of transgender or non-binary citizens. According to Woodhouse, the “critical issue” in expanding research is the availability of data. He added that it’s even difficult to get data broken down enough to show a gap in the experience of cisgender men and women (people whose personal identity and gender match their birth sex). ..

“Second, getting more fully disaggregated data is essentially non-existent in most situations, especially in the economic situation of low- and middle-income countries that we see,” he said. paddy field. In some countries, it is illegal to be transgender and liable to imprisonment or other serious measures, making it impossible to track different genders.

The lack of data is what Woodhouse wants to change. However, he added that the general objectives of the study remain the same.

“The goal is to reduce the belief that gender should predetermine what rights a person should have, the experience they should have and the type of Internet access,” Woodhouse said. “It will be a net benefit for everyone.”