The Gendered Digital Divide

Written By Jenna Ward

In the past decade or so, you may have heard about the various initiatives, programs, and camps for girls going into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the US and other countries. In the world of technology, programs like Girls Who Code, Black Girls Code, Code.org, Built By Girls, and Girl Develop It have created spaces for more young women to learn how to code in order to close the gender gap that exists in the IT field. This gap exists due partly to the digital divide among genders.

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According to Sam Daley from the tech news company Built In, “the five largest tech companies on the planet (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft) only have a workforce of about 34.4% women” (Daley, 2020). Currently, about 26% of information technology jobs are held by women, with even less of those jobs being held my African-American, Asian, or Hispanic women (Daley, 2020). This gap exists due to a number of factors, including societal norms, access to technology, and access to education. These factors are intersectional in that a person can have access to technology and education, but societal norms may hinder their ability to learn how to use that technology. Oddly enough, the percentage of women in IT has actually decreased significantly in the last 30 years. According to a report done by the National Center for Women & Information Technology, “the percentage of computing occupations held by women has been declining since 1991, when it reached a high of 36 percent” (Ashcraft, 2016). This aspect of the digital divide is different from others because it stems from societal norms that perpetuate sexism in the IT field.

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According to a study done in Latin America addressing the gendered digital divide, “A gender lens on the digital divide is not just about a binary measure of access or no access. Gender differences persist across the nature, quality, and frequency of access” (Gray, 2017). In Latin American countries, there is even more of a gendered digital divide. Internationally, it is less likely for women to have access to and education of technology due to the same factors as in the United States. The more patriarchal a society is, the larger the divide. The Latin American study also found that “Women are less likely to get online, and they use social media less often and for more social than political functions” (Gray, 2017). This is due to societal norms wherein women are not as expected to take part in political acts as men may be. One study in India found that, “females were half as likely to own mobile phones compared with males, less likely to have internet access, or knew how to send text messages”, “prior studies have shown that women in low- and middle-income countries are 14% less likely to own mobile phones compared with men”, and, “internet access is 12% lower among women compared with men” (Joshi, 2020). These statistics are an issue because when women are not able to use technology in a world where things such as education, politics, career, and socialization all occur online, they are further from achieving equality to men in all of these aspects.

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So, why is this important? Why is it a problem that there is a gendered digital divide? Well, it’s important for women to have access, ownership, and education to all technologies in order to be involved in every conversation. This gives women the opportunity to have more agency when it comes to things like income, medical care, politics, and career. Furthermore, if more women are interested in and have access to technology, more will be interested in pursuing a career in the IT field. This will bring us closer we come to eliminating biases that lead to the continued oppression of marginalized communities. When women have more of a say in the IT field, this means they can create algorithms, codes, and databases that are less likely to hold biases against women and that can support every kind of person. All in all, closing the gendered digital divide will lead to a better, more inclusive world.