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Date Added
to Site: 19th August 2004 |
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Short
Summary |
| Title |
Gender Issues in the Information Society
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| Author |
Primo, N. |
| Publication
Date |
September 2003 |
| Publisher |
United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) Publication Series |
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Short Summary |
Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) have the potential to create new types of economic activity
and employment opportunities, thereby improving the quality
of daily life. ICTs could give a major boost to the economic,
political and social empowerment of women, and the promotion
of gender equality. But that potential will only be realised
if the gender dimensions of the Information Society - in terms
of users' needs, conditions of access, policies, applications
and regulatory frameworks - are properly understood and adequately
addressed by all stakeholders. Poverty, illiteracy, lack of
computer literacy and language barriers are among the factors
impeding access to the ICT infrastructure, especially in developing
countries, and these problems are particularly acute for women.
But women's access to ICTs is also constrained by socially and
culturally constructed gender roles and relationships, which
remain cross-cutting elements in shaping (and in this case,
limiting) the capacity of women and men to participate on equal
terms in the Information Society. The NGO Gender Strategies
Working Group (NGO GSWG) in partnership with the Civil Society
Working Group (CSWG) at WSIS developed a list entitled '7 Musts:
Priority Issues for Gender Equality in the WSIS Process'. Included
in this list are issues such as accounting for diversity in
women's needs; building on and reinforcing existing international
commitments and declarations; promoting ICTs as a tool for peacebuilding;
focusing on people-centred development that uses social justice
as the guiding principle; and supporting local solutions that
are low-cost and open-source. |
| Summary
Source |
adapted from paper |
| Complete
Document |
 http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/file_download.php/250561f24133814c18284feedc3...
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