Global Courant 2023-04-27 16:16:05
A new report has raised concerns about the disparity in internet access between women and men in low-income countries.
Nine out of 10 young women and teenage girls in the world’s poorest countries do not have access to the internet, a UNICEF report published on Wednesday says.
The high inequality in internet access poses a serious risk that women will be left behind economically in an increasingly digitally connected world, the UNICEF report said.
About 78 percent of young men and teenage boys in the poorest countries are offline, according to UNICEF, which examined data use in 54 predominantly low-income countries in its report.
This equates to about 65 million adolescent girls and young women aged 15-24 who do not have access to the internet, compared to about 57 million of their male peers.
Adolescent girls and young women are “left out when it comes to digital skills,” the report said.
Of the 54 countries and territories analyzed in the report, only eight achieved gender parity in youth internet use.
Among regions, the largest gap is observed in South Asia, with 27 percentage points in favor of adolescent boys and young men.
The importance of digital skills
“Closing the digital divide between girls and boys is about more than just access to the internet and technology. It’s about empowering girls to become innovators, makers and leaders,” UNICEF Education Director Robert Jenkins said in a statement.
“If we want to tackle the gender gap in the labor market, especially in science, technology, engineering and maths, we need to start now by helping young people, especially girls, to acquire digital skills.”
The report explains that young people also need the right “technical knowledge to navigate the Internet, synthesize and adapt information and create the world they want to see online”.
Without these digital skills, it says, “young people risk being excluded from the socio-economic benefits of being active online”.
Even in cases where girls had equal access to traditional educational opportunities such as math and reading, the report warned, “this doesn’t always translate into digital skills.”
Differences in access to technology persist, even within the same household. In a survey of 41 countries, UNICEF found that “households are much more likely to provide mobile phones for boys than for girls”.
Female youth are 13 percent less likely to own a mobile phone, according to UNICEF, “limiting their ability to participate in the digital world”.
