By Nada Ihab 
23 June 2021

Digital transformation gives women the possibility to access finance, integrate into national and even regional and global value chains, as well as access knowledge. Although bridging the digital gender divide cannot solve all the challenges that women in the MENA region face, it carries significant potential towards gender equality. Today, only less than half the world’s population is online and able to participate in the digital economy.  In fact, over 2 billion women are estimated to be offline globally, which pushes our female peers further into the margins of the global political economy.

Moreover, there is still a major risk that the COVID-19 crisis may put gender equality on hold and entrench inequalities, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where women represent only just about 21% of the labour force, contributing 18% to the region’s GDP. 

The issue is that women continue to lag behind men in their use of digital technologies, particularly mobile technologies. While obstacles vary between regions and countries, the most significant include: 

1. limited digital skills and knowhow – there is a strong need for investment in vocational and digital-related training for women to increase mobility and occupational choices.  In fact, research has shown that women who perform more ICT-related tasks in their jobs receive higher pay — as much as 12% — than those without such skills; 
   
   

2. the high cost of data and internet-enabled devices – today handset affordability remains the primary barrier to mobile phone ownership for both men and women across the board. A recent web foundation study found that  22% of non-internet female  users said the cost of data packages kept them offline while 25% of female users said this limited their use; and
   
   

3. a lack of relevant online content contributes to a perceived low-value in using precious resources to connect – women are more concerned about their privacy online than men. But without women’s full participation as content creators, the internet will continue to be built with a bias towards male perspectives and will be missing out on the full knowledge, talent and contributions of all members of society.
   
   

Even where women have access, they are less likely than men to make full use of the opportunities associated with connectivity. This means that women are less likely than men to have access to vital (and basic) services online, such as educational content, employment opportunities platforms, medical information records, or financial tools such as money transfers.  This is in part due to women feeling more concerned about their privacy when exchanging private messages online, or sharing their home addresses and healthcare information. Consequences of women’s personal data being misused, including experiencing and witnessing online harassment and online abuse, increases online vulnerability. In Egypt, “approximately half the number of working women are informally employed with minimal wages and have little or no access to social security; are mostly illiterate, unskilled, and without access to formal employment”. As for unpaid precarious work, it is significantly more prevalent among females, with many young women spending time doing unpaid household activities, or unpaid care for family members.

Gender-Responsive Approaches

The right policy environment is critical to the success of any long-term effort to bridge the gender gap in internet access and use, and, ultimately, to achieving universal, affordable internet access.  Governments need to realize that closing the digital divide means closing the gender digital divide — which will require policies that include all of the aforementioned characteristics, as well as a gender-responsive approach to the development and implementation of the policy. Gender-responsive broadband planning is not just about making policy for women, it is also about developing policy that ensures all groups have equal opportunities to access and make use of broadband services. Because the more people come online, the more people are able to connect with friends and family, increase business opportunities, organise, and share knowledge and ideas. 

Now, while policymakers increasingly appear to recognise the importance of closing the digital gender gap for both national and global development goals, most countries are falling short when it comes to developing and implementing the gender responsive policies needed to do so.

This lack of attention is not just specific to MENA or the global south — countries across the world are struggling to take the steps needed to address growing gaps in women’s access to and use of the internet.

Source: ITU (2017), Facts and Figures 2017,
https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2017.pdf

That said, on a regional basis, the gap in Internet usage has been decreasing in some regions but increasing in others (ITU, 2017). Notably, between 2013 and 2017 the gap has generally narrowed in developed economies including Europe, as well as in Arab States (by about 3%, 1.5% and 2%, respectively), whereas it widened in least developed countries (LDCs) and in Africa (by 3% and 4% respectively). Conversely, in the Americas, over the period considered, the balance even tilted towards women.

This progress in certain countries is in part due to co-ordinated policy action around raising awareness and tackling gender stereotypes; enabling enhanced, safer and more affordable access to digital tools; and stronger cooperation across stakeholders to remove barriers to girls and women’s full participation in the digital world. Digital technologies provide new opportunities to make progress, and have contributed to women empowerment online, but technology alone cannot address the underlying structural problems that drive the digital gender divide. 

In Argentina, the Women Economic Development Center was established in order to promote more research on women´s inclusion and to foster more  participation in programmes and services offered by the Secretariat of Entrepreneurs and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. The centre focuses its work on three main issues: awareness to promote women’s economic empowerment – considering them as a change agent with economic impact; networking to connect women with providers, investors, incubators, accelerators, trainers and any other agent that can support the growth of their projects; as well as financial assistance to foster the Secretariat and Ministry´s existing credit lines to women projects.

In South Africa, all legislation including the Constitution outlaws gender discrimination and promotes gender equality in all sectors, including the ICT sector. The country has a specific Ministry in the Presidency, the Department of Women, whose mandate is to champion the advancement of women’s socio-economic empowerment and promote gender equality. There is also a Commission that focuses on monitoring progress in terms of gender equality. 

Here in the Middle East, a couple of examples come to mind. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual Global Gender Gap Report lists the UAE as a “leader in promoting gender equality in the Middle East” and ranks it among the “five most improved countries in the overall index,” with gender gaps narrowed by at least 4.4 percentage points. As of this year, the UAE is ranked 72 of 153 countries. In 2020, it ranked 120. Part of this leap can be contributed to the National Strategy for Empowerment of Emirati Women in the UAE for the years 2015-2021. The strategy aimed to provide a framework for all federal and local government entities, private sector, as well as social organisations, to set plans that will provide a decent living for women and make them creative in all sustainable and developmental fields.

Over recent decades, Tunisia has been considered a showcase in terms of women’s rights. The country has implemented significant changes in the constitutional, legislative and policy framework which promote gender equality and eliminate gender-based discrimination. The new constitution of January 2014 is seen by many as an indication that Tunisia has renewed its constitutional commitment not only to preserve its achievements in gender equality, but also to promote them, guaranteeing Tunisian women a full and equal place in society

Egypt has also implemented a series of positive legislative reforms supporting women’s economic empowerment: the new investment law, the new bankruptcy law, the sexual harassment law, and a new inheritance law. Take the investment law as an example. Egypt’s Investment Law No. 72/201747, aside from providing a full spectrum of investment guarantees and protection standards in the country, also includes a provision on gender equality in Article 2, whereby investment shall be governed by the principles of “equality of the investment opportunities and equal opportunities regardless of the size and location of the project and without discrimination on the basis of gender. The State supports emerging companies, entrepreneurship, and micro, small, and medium enterprises to empower the youth and small investors.” Women investors can therefore refer to this article if they experience any gender-related constraints in their investment activity. The article also calls for empowering small investors. Even though the size of women  owned SMEs in Egypt has increased moderately over time, SMEs owned by women are generally smaller than SMEs owned by men.

Other ICT initiatives worth mentioning in Egypt also are: free Internet campaign, PC for every home campaign, and reduced broadband prices and different connectivity strategies such as the Decent Life Initiative, all adopted by the Egyptian government to enhance and expand the concept of knowledge based economy. Other initiatives include the ‘Your Job Next to Your Home’ initiative supported by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and SMEs. The first phase of this initiative was implemented in Qalyubia governorate to establish 13 factories for ready-made garments, operated and managed by young entrepreneurs. Each factory employs 125 workers. Several governmental and private institutions worked together in an integrated framework.

Moreover, the role of Egypt’s National Council for Women is vital to examine for the betterment and encouragement of Egyptian women. The organization has played a pivotal role in policy orientation and ensuring a quality life for women in every segment. More recently in 2021, the organization has introduced ‘Women’s Empowerment and Financial and Economic Inclusion in Rural Egypt: Covid-19 Response program’ which aims to enable women to counter the financial obstacles faced due to the Covid-19 pandemic by going door-to-door and educating women in rural areas on digital skills, the political system, the decision-making process within the country, and even on the current rollout of vaccinations and how to register for one online.

Although enforcement mechanisms of the broad legal guarantees need to be further developed and strengthened, these initiatives and efforts highlight the government’s understanding that empowering women and integrating them as active participants in the economy is essential to promoting economic growth in Egypt.

Policy Recommendations

Developing a truly gender-responsive ICT policy starts with the simple recognition that technology development and use are both subject to existing socio-economic biases and institutional discrimination. Creating a more accessible and empowering internet for women therefore requires policy that focuses on a number of key areas. Based on ongoing government initiatives and legislative reforms in the global south, these are can be summarized as follows: Rights, Education, Access, Content, and Targets.

1. Protect and enhance everyone’s rights online.
   
   

2. Equip everyone – especially women – with the skills they need to access and use the internet effectively.
   
   

3. Deliver affordable access to an open web.
   
   

4. Ensure relevant and empowering content for women is available and used.
   
   

5. Keep policymakers accountable.
   
   

While important efforts are being made by national governments to close the digital gender divide, globally speaking, few countries within the European Union provide examples of time bound targets for women. In my opinion, this is the differentiator – the element that truly enables successful gender-inclusive policy efforts. That is, efforts must be backed by adequate budget allocations, national ICT policies and/or broadband plans, and governments need to keep monitoring gender equality in the implementation of such ICT strategies by collecting data disaggregated by gender, income, and location. Finally, it is crucial for governments to develop quantitative and qualitative indicators that measure public ICT initiatives and their impact on women as well.

Key takeaways from targets set out by governments in France, the United Kingdom and the European Union are as follows:  France required that 40% of entrepreneurs be women in 2017 vs. only 30% in 2012.  The United Kingdom aimed at a 20% increase in the proportion of girls taking A-levels in STEM subjects between 2016 and 2020.  Three objectives underpinned the European Union’s strategy on gender equality in Horizon 2020: 

1. fostering gender balance in research teams, in order to close the gaps in the participation of women;
   
   

2. ensuring gender balance in decision making, in order to reach the target of 40% of the under-represented sex in panels and groups and of 50% in advisory groups; and
   
   

3. integrating the gender dimension in research and innovation content, and help improve the scientific quality and societal relevance of the produced knowledge, technology and/or innovation.
   
   

Keeping policymakers accountable and ensuring targets are implemented are key next steps to ensuring women’s participation and empowerment in the digital economy of the Middle East in the medium term.