Saying No to a Hand Me Down Information Society: The Digital Gap, Gender and Development

This presentation made by IT for Change at the International Know How Conference in Mexico in 2006 details innovative directions for the discourse on development and women’s rights. The paper suggests that the digital gender gap is seen at its widest in feminist silences in public discourse on alternative visions for the information society and absence in policy corridors at global and national levels. Within the present political context, access in the IS does not imply equal participation in the IS; it is a privilege that is paid for, to avoid being pushed to the periphery. The author contends that women’s rights in the IS emerge from 3 vantages À“ first, the fact that the IS brings a new set of challenges like online pornography, trafficking and other gender based crimes; second, a new lease of life for ‘older’ rights À“ the right to information, education etc., the realisation of which acquires a new dimension in the IS; and third, some completely new opportunities for free expression, communication, networking and institutional revamp. As the emerging IS creates a new context for public policy, and gives birth to new governance frameworks, feminists will need to contend with multistakeholderism in these policy spaces, which envisages a bottom-line consensus among progressive civil society actors, global business interests, and governments À“ a task that can be painfully antithetical to fundamental.

Publisher: ICT for Change
Year of Publication: 2006