Female Broadcasters Unite Against Sexism in Nicaragua

In “Why Radio Matters,” Mary Myers outlines numerous applications of radio which she believes to be extremely effective if applied correctly in a development setting. Her emphasis on the ability of radio to educate and empower reminded me of a small UNESCO-funded conference I heard about recently from a friend in Nicaragua who works for AMARC (Asociación Mundial de Radios Comunitarias). Last October, female radio broadcasters from all around the country convened in Matagalpa to discuss sexism they face in their everyday lives as well as the most effective and empowering ways to discuss sexual violence on the air. Among the things highlighted by the workshop were linguistic techniques to avoid assigning blame to victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse and the importance of using “vos” rather than “tú’ whenever possible in such discussions.

The workshop followed the enactment of Nicaragua’s recent Law 779, which was officially enacted in June and essentially provides the country with a far more modern, protective set of laws surrounding issues of sexual violence, spousal abuse, and women’s rights as a whole. While the law has been seen as an impressively comprehensive step towards sexual equality in Nicaragua, it has drawn resistance from native tribal populations, such as the Mayagna Indians, who see it as a threat to their existing tribal laws. The female broadcasters at the conference discussed tactful ways to encourage sexual equality in such situations without imposing judgment on existing cultural standards. Another interesting dimension of the conference was a discussion of the problems caused by the particularly odd work hours experienced by radio broadcasters. Many of the women ended or began work at odd hours in the morning and different radio stations had various ways of ensuring that they were at least somewhat protected while walking to and from work on deserted streets.

WISENET

I recently learned about a subset of the Federal Communications Commission called WISENET: Women in ICTs Shared Intelligence Network. The network exists entirely online and aims to aggregate knowledge, experiences and data related to women in ICTs. In their own words,

WISENET (Women in ICTs Shared Excellence Network) is a convening platform that aims to leverage the experience, resources and connections of the international ICT community to better the situation of women, their communities and their countries. The platform will include the redesigned blog, news, events, and research.

WISENET is a key part of the International Bureau’s Women’s Initiative: Going Mobile and Connecting Women. Through the Initiative, we hope to collaborate on how to best use ICTs for development and motivate women to pursue careers in technology.

One exceptionally useful feature of the website is a oft-updated congregation of news links regarding women in ICTs—a topic which receives far too little media coverage. I’ve had a difficult time in the past finding news articles or current events relevant to our class discussions, and the first few links I tried here were great. The WISENET site also features a blog with posts from high-ranking administrators at various NGOs and government offices. Finally, there’s an impressive compilation of research on gender and ICT-related issues. More than anything else it looks like a way for English-speaking development workers to share ideas rather than a hands-on consumption-side ICT tool, but it’s still an incredibly useful resource. I have no way to tell how much traffic the site gets, but I hope someone out there is making use of it.

ICTs and the Achievement of the MDGs, and Goal 3 in Particular

One certainty is that there will be no adequate measurement or tracking of the relative status of women without the application of ICT… Moreover, it is only by the application of ICT that there is any hope of adequately unravelling the complex casual patterns in gender discrimination and of planning effective public gender policies”.

As discussed previously in both class and on this blog, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set out to eradicate poverty by 2015. Goal 3 is to “Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women”, and more specifically to eliminate the gender disparity in primary and secondary education. This is important because gender equality is fundamental to international development and poverty eradication. However, in his article, ICTs and MDGs: On the Wrong Track, Richard Heeks points out some of the main issues with MDGs, most specifically that they don’t use or address ICTs.

Since the creation of the MDGs, there seems to be a consensus on the idea that ICTs can help women achieve equality (despite the current inequalities in ICT access). One report by the UNDP’s Central and Eastern Europe Office titled Bridging the Gender Digital Divide analyzes the relationship between gender and ICT and makes a series of recommendations for the UN. One of their main recommendations is to “Deepen knowledge on the link between ICTs and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals”, specifically relating to Goal 3. The report says that ICT “can serve as an invaluable tool for those striving to meet the target and to improve their performance for these indicators”. Moreover, they would like more attention to be given to integrating gender with Goal 8 (Develop a Global Partnership for Development), which would mean ICT benefits for everyone.

Other recommendations include a “gender-focused ICT assessment” to identify which technologies are most user-friendly, commonly used, and accessible for women. For example, older technologies are often cheaper and therefore more accessible for women. Both this report, along with another report by Nancy Hafkin and Sophia Huyer, discuss that the main problem is the lack of gender ICT statistics available. The UNDP article writes, “The lack of data is a fundamental constraint for evaluating the gender impact of ICTs and women’s position in the ICT sector”. Therefore, they recommend a more extensive assessment to discover which strategies can be used to eliminate gender inequality through the use of ICTs.

Azerbaijan Technology Gender Differences

This week, our class discussions have been focused on barriers to use of ICT– mainly gender , and the potential equalizing effects ICTs may have on gender inequality. As I looked for some statistics on Azerbaijan specifically, I came across this blog written by Katy Pearce that provides research on ICTs in the Caucasus region. Pearce explains that the overall focus of her research is the adoptions and use of information and communication technologies in diverse cultural, economic, and political contexts. Specifically, she researches the barriers to ICT use, often socioeconomic in nature, but sometimes political or cultural. Pearce provides an enormous amount of technical statistics on the Caucasus region on her blog, one of which is a graphical breakdown of ICT use in Azerbaijan by gender.

To access the full size image, click here 

Pearce’s report explains that, unlike neighboring Armenia and Georgia, women in Azerbaijan are much less likely to own and use technology. Here are some reasons Pearce offers as to why these discrepancies occur:

• Azerbaijani women may lack the economic and educational resources which would make them more likely to use technology.
• Azerbaijani women may lack the temporal resources (due to household responsibilities) to have time to engage with technology.
• Culturally and religiously, there is some evidence that Azerbaijani families discourage women from using the Internet because of fear of emancipatory activities or meeting men.
• Many Azerbaijanis use Internet cafes for access and these, like in many countries, are places that are inappropriate or not safe for women.

Many of these reasons have come up in other reports and analysis for other countries. While I would be cautious to generalize to all countries and ICT use, I think that under the right circumstances, there are cases where a country profile may provide insights for other countries.

Addressing 2 Fronts in Gender Equality Among ICTs

As we’ve become aware of the many benefits  brought by the information age and ICTs its pertinent to incorporate issues regarding gender in ICT policy. Thus, by integrating gender issues into ICT policy better  ensures that women will have access to such benefits. As mentioned in class women often have the typical domestic responsibilities such as caring for children and the elderly among various other tasks depending on the individual situation and their respective culture. These domestic duties are particularly predominant in the developing world further separating women from access to ICTs. With less leisure time and  little extra funds to spend outside the family needs reaching ICTs can hold infinite barriers for women in the underdeveloped and rural regions. Not to mention the majority of the worlds illiterate population is in fact female further depriving them from the benefits of ICTs.

I found an article online that was particularly interesting to me which addressed gender issues and efforts to incorporate them into ICT policy by proceeding on at least two fronts: (1) “sensitizing policy makers to gender issues, and (2) sensitizing gender advocates to information technology issues.”
I thought this was an interesting approach to addressing gender equality in ICT policy. The article provides insight to potential obstacles in the first front, such as the likelihood of policy makers in regions characteristic of great gender inequality being resistant to engendering the policy process. Furthermore,  this is where gender advocates may be capable of producing greater results in engendering ICT policy. They put forth that since gender sensitive advocates, women organizations, and civil societies can be influential in the policy process, if they educate themselves on technologies and the importance of engendering ICT usages this could  greatly contribute to the closing of the inequality gap. Obviously, addressing gender issues is not black and white and actually rather complex as is addressing most social issues, but I felt this was a unique and insightful approach to keep in mind in women empowerment in the ICT realm.

http://www.willowwilliamson.com/CommPolicy/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Paper-NHafkin.1.pdf

The Lost Decade: Ten Years of Retrospect on Gender and ICT

A little more than ten years ago, the famed Geeta Rao Gupta published an article on Foreign Policy as a continuation of her work published just prior in the International Feminist Journal of Politics.  The title of her article? ‘Till Technology Do Us Part.  The article strikes a depressing tone as it angrily demands from global governments why policies that benefit women have yet to be established when it comes to ICT and the work force.

The conclusion of the article is simple:

[Previous reserch concludes] that maximizing the benefits of technology for female workers requires building on women’s “experiential knowledge,” providing women with flexible vocational training that considers nontraditional job opportunities, and ensuring that the state takes greater responsibility for protecting vulnerable workers.

This conclusion comes from an impressive collection of data where “nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academic researchers, and policymakers from Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam [were used] to examine the ‘problems and possibilities’ that technology poses for women workers.”  Interviews on the ground described cases such as this one where “hand loom weavers in India reported feelings of uselessness and despair because their skills were rendered obsolete by technologically skilled workers.”  There lies the rub, and why the previous conclusion was not how the article actually ends.  Instead, the author continues in her conclusion with the following caveat:

Unfortunately, without a concrete political strategy spelling out the how, who, what, and where, such objectives remain unobtainable. A realistic strategy should identify the individuals and institutions that would implement these recommendations, assess the costs and benefits to the state and to employers, and outline the specific steps at the local, national, and international level needed to translate well-intentioned rhetoric into reality.

Ten years later, and those concerete strategies do not appear to have been formulated. (If they have, dear reader, please post some recomended points of research in the comment section bellow.)  Further, the author implores countries to examine the health risks associated with high-tech work: not just repetitve stress injuries like carpal tunnel but psychological damages and negative externalities like loom weavers lament above.  While the promise of incorporating technology into the working lives of women may make for a great political soundbite, even ten years out there has yet to be a credible response to this criticism.

ICT Usage Among Marginalized Women in Thailand

I believe Gender Assessment of ICT Usage and Access in Africa   does an excellent job highlighting the complications of dispersing ICT access equally across rural and urban areas of developing countries. By breaking ICT down to specific categories, including radio, internet and cell phone access, the report gives the clear understanding of the complications, emphasizing the role of women, in and out of the house, and how and when they are most commonly able to access ICTs. Just as women of rural lands are marginalized in this report, I chose to look further into marginalized populations and their access to ICTs. I came across a report entitled ICT’s and it’s Social Meanings: Women in the Margins of Thailand. This report, published in December 2010 by Mary Luz Menguita-Feranil focuses on the social implications of ICTs for marginalized women in the Thailand-Burma border. (see map below)

These implications have grown from globalization and technological change, and most widely effect the growth and transformation of the local economy. The report finds that while this globalization of ICT usage has helped the economies of most developed countries, a major urban-rural divided persists in developing countries such as Thailand (similar to what was found in the first article mentioned) and that a notable implication of this divide majorly affects the marginalized women, the migrant workers and refugees, in Thailand, especially in the context of community empowerment. These refugees and migrant workers are in an attempt to escape the repressive militant government of Burma. The role of ICTs has been great. They have enabled significant growth and survival of the freedom of information, communication, and mobility that were not allowed to the women within their own country. Essentially the new perspective this paper was able to bring to my attention was the ability of ICTs to keep refugees connected. Not with the outside world, but with their old life. The refugees are now able to stay connected with their family at home, amplify their voice and their need, and continue to enable a knowledge society where women can expand and learn. Unfortunately, a large group of women, in Thailand, and around the globe, are still excluded from these benefits. The exclusions include the illiterate, those in particular rigid religious households, and those who cannot afford the technology. However, hope is seen in the changes this access has granted to the refugees, and the ability it has given them to hold onto a normal life with opportunity. 

“Good Brain is Good Brain”

When discussing Gender and ICT4D, the biggest theme is of course, the “gender digital divide.” In many regions of the world where women don’t necessary have the same social mobility or financial independence as men, breaking into the field of technology can be quite the challenge. In fact, it’s an issue we still face at home in the U.S. and other “Global North” countries as well. However, with all this in mind, I wanted to focus my post today on one particular woman who has been successful in the tech field. According to eLearning Africa’s 5/29/12 article “For girls, it is possible to dream big,” native Kenyan Juliana Rotich started out as a “lonely, young ‘geek’ with oversized glasses at school. Today she is a highly successful tech entrepreneur who is a co-founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi, a homegrown non-profit tech company that has taken the world by storm.” This e-Learning Africa interview with Juliana is helpful not only because she serves as a positive role model for other girls and women to look up to but she can also provide an insider scoop on what techniques and social barriers exist for women interested in breaking into ICT.

 

ICT – Social Entrepreneur & Executive Director of Ushahidi (ICT non-profit)

Juliana started off by focusing on her childhood inspirations. She remembered first learning about Mae Jemison and her journey to the moon. Clearly, the emphasis here is placed on dreaming big. Young people often underestimate their potential by thinking they’re not good enough or need to reach some magical age before they can start pursuing certain interests, but Juliana argues ardently against that. Especially for young women to break into the technology which is still considered a “man’s world” is even more difficult.

In terms of the benefits of ICTs for women, of course there are the well-known links to economic growth and financial independence but additionally, Juliana talks about reaching a social and cultural standing of equality. “There is a friend who thinks a good brain is a good brain, either way. Whether it is a male brain or a female brain…” This is the type of change in mentality that needs to happen, not only in Africa but world-wide.  Finally, she speaks on the African notion of chama, which is “a group of women who come together, and they put in a pool of money to help each other. Now if we had a scientist within that mix, or a techie within that mix, they could create software to help that chama.” Women, being the social, integrative type that we are, have a huge advantage in acting as instruments of change within communities. Overall, I hope this post can serve as a reminder that women are rapidly expanding and entering the ICT field. Hopefully more examples like Juliana can change the mentality that Technology is strictly a “man’s world.”

 

Resources:  E-Learning Africa

http://www.elearning-africa.com/eLA_Newsportal/for-girls-it-is-possible-to-dream-big/

RCDF Uganda and Gender Inclusion Strategies

The Rural Communications Development Fund in Uganda (RCDF) is a type of Universal Access Fund that encourages the private sector to invest in ICTs for rural areas. The RCDF allows for basic communications services at a reasonable price and distance by all people (urban and rural) in Uganda. It is meant to 1) assist in areas where commercial services cannot be provided 2) provide basic universal access 3) promote competition among operators. The RCDF supports a multitude of projects that include but are not limited to: multi-purpose community telecenters, Internet cafes, public telephone booths, ICT training centers. However, from a gender perspective the RCDF may not seem as perfect. The Uganda Women Caucus on ICTs conducted an assessment of the RCDF and provided commentary on necessary alterations.  Because the RCDF is (for the most part) successful and can/could be used as an appropriate model to set up similar funds in other countries, it is important in my opinion to understand certain flaws that could be changed with heeding advice from the gender perspective assessment.

Here are a few things they recommended (considering the assessment concluded with a number of concerns), and that I thought important:

1) Women and marginalized populations in rural areas cannot all be reached by solely newspaper, which is the main form of spreading information regarding RCDF. Consider radio/Internet/mailing lists/posters/brochures/etc.

2) In relation to the RCDF policy, the policy makers should be more specific in what the policy intends to do for gender mainstreaming.

3) The selected agencies should be distributed in the 3 following categories: “educational institutions including female only ones; private sector for profit businesses including women owned enterprises and NGOs / CBOs including women’s organisations and agencies with gender objectives

4) Revise selection criteria to attract more women: this should encourage women to apply by “giving incentives to women proprietors, through positive discrimination, or indicating that women organizations should apply.”

In conclusion, this assessment was productive; however, I was interested to read on about other initiatives the UWCI had taken on. One project included a presentation on “Gendering the e-Government Policies in East Africa,” at the April 2006 Regional Stakeholders’ Consultative Workshops on Cyber Laws and e-Justice and on Information Security. I am curious to see if any changes followed with this assessment on the RCDF.

To read the assessment in full, please go to this link: RCDF_Uganda (PDF)

mobile phones and toilets; the interplay between Need, Access and Use in the context of development

“There are more mobile phones than toilets” (What does this mean for development?)

Although the oft-quoted phrase emerged early in 2010 in accessible meme format, the statement cannot be taken at face value.

Although those who look at the potential of mobiles to change the world see this phrase as a sort of staple illustration, there is a more troubling discrepancy at play here. The complexity of this seemingly simple phrase must be deconstructed in the context of development. Rafree’s blog-article, ‘Wait… What? bridging community development and technology’, explores “what is missed in this meme’s beautiful simplicity.” The mobile access and mobile phones referred to are not necessarily equally distributed. The gender disparity at play, citing survey collection data as a huge part of the problem.For instance, many surveys only collect data pertaining to mobile ownership at the household level.  This leads to problems that affect development projects.Libraries, as critical in the context of ICT4D development can be part of the solution.

Raftree outlines the faults alongside three short videos I highly recommend watching:

-At the practitioner level, assuming women everywhere can access and use mobiles and Internet can make a project run into problems

-In some places where women’s literacy and numeracy skills are quite low, projects designed to share or collect information by mobile can run into additional challenges

-Girls note that despite their interest, boys will physically fight them to access available computers or mock girls who want to learn

While Rafree raises many important points in her blog and ensures we work to combat the technological gender discrepancy, we must also consider the broader infrastructural content, as we discussed last class. What does it mean to have more cell phones than toilets? How is technology changing the perception of ‘need’ in the developing world?

Chatterjea seeks to address such concerns in his Column, addresses the issue, ‘Why India has more cell phones than toilets’

According to Chatterjea, ”74% of India’s population, over 880 million, own mobile phones”. Although the latest figure for toilets is not yet available, the UN and other agencies indicate that  India lags woefully behind in sanitation  (Chatterjea 2012).

Why do so many people feel the urgent need for a mobile phone but not a toilet?

The perception of ‘need’ is an important consideration. Today, every Indian feels he or she ‘needs’ a mobile phone, something that cannot be said for toilets. Mobile phones are certainly tools for progress in the developing world. But basic health concerns must also be addressed. Where do we find the balance?

And make sure to check out our class twitter!