On International Women’s Day, the Digital Gender Gaps team at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science have launched an updated version of their dashboard to help ensure women are equal participants in digital society.
In this research spotlight, Professor Ridhi Kashyap discusses how her team have updated their Digital Gender Gaps dashboard to include subnational estimates of internet use and mobile phone ownership by gender.
The spread of the internet and mobile phones has been one of the most significant technological revolutions of the 21st century. Digital technologies have become integral to many aspects of our lives and have brought wide ranging benefits to many, including greater information, better connectivity and access to services in more cost-efficient ways.
These benefits are particularly noticeable for marginalised populations who may otherwise lack access to resources or networks through other means. However, our research shows that women continue to lag behind men in their access to the internet and mobile phones in many parts of the world.
While women and men have largely attained equality in internet access and mobile ownership in high-income countries, we find that women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are 22% less likely to use the internet and 14% less likely to own a mobile phone. Gender gaps in internet use and mobile ownership are especially large in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Our updated Digital Gender Gaps dashboard uses machine learning algorithms to provide subnational estimates of internet use and mobile ownership by gender. This is the first ever database of digital access by gender covering 117 LMICs at the subnational level. By knowing how many women use the internet in different parts of a country, researchers could use the dashboard to plan more targeted interventions, such as around sexual and reproductive health, or financial inclusion, with mobile phone apps.
Our subnational estimates show large gender inequalities in internet and mobile ownership within LMICs such as India and Nigeria. In Nigeria, more than 70% of women use the internet in the southern capital city of Lagos, but fewer than 20% use the internet in northern areas such as Kebbi. While more than 75% of women use the internet in India’s capital New Delhi, only around 35% do in the northern state of Bihar. These numbers highlight that while digital technologies have spread, their spread is still uneven, both between and within countries.
The Digital Gender Gaps dashboard was developed to track gender inequalities in internet use and mobile ownership. The dashboard is part of the Digital Gender Gaps project which provides regular updates and monthly estimates of internet and mobile adoption by gender. These methods have helped improve coverage of digital gender gaps at the national level, and our data have been used to track progress on the United Nations’ global Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 which lists improving women’s digital connectivity as a key indicator for achieving gender equality.
Why is digital gender equality so important? Our work has shown how women who own mobile phones and use the internet are more empowered with their own health and decision-making within the household. Greater digital connectivity can also bolster social connectedness and exchange between communities, relevant for sharing information, for example, around sexual and reproductive health. Research also highlights the value of mobile phones for alleviating impacts of poverty and for enabling women’s economic empowerment. In professional contexts, women can benefit from the more flexible forms of networking afforded by online platforms.
As we stand at the brink of another technological shift, with the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence across multiple domains, we must ensure that women are equal participants in digital society, and not left behind. Technologies can have a positive impact on societies – but only when we close the digital gender gap.
