Women and ICTs: Different Strokes?

Women and ICTs: Different Strokes?

Submitted by Sabina Panth on Fri, 03/18/2011 - 11:27

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Mainstreaming a gender perspective is considered essential in assessing the implication of any development program, project or policy on men and women. This holds true of the modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as well, as research studies are showing a significant gap between men and women in their access to and understanding of ICT opportunities.

Social and institutional barriers were seen as major factors behind the ICT gender divide in research conducted by AudienceScapes in Pakistan, Ghana, Kenya and Chad.  The ICT gender analysis conducted in these countries revealed that factors such as socio-economic roles, levels of education, literacy, language skills and mobility prevented women from accessing the same level of ICT opportunities as men.  The study found that women were twice as likely as men to be illiterate. Knowledge of English or the national languages that are popularly used in modern ICT (internet, mobile and even TV or radio broadcasts) correlated with better opportunities, including higher education, which men in general surpassed women and rural women lagged further behind.

The AudienceScapes research findings also revealed that gender roles influenced the general attitudes, habits, topics of interest and choice of information and communication technology in men and women.  This was especially true in rural households.  A BBC survey taken in Pakistan showed that men were more inclined to consume news on current affairs, business, politics and sports while women preferred watching television or listening to radio shows pertaining to household affairs, health issues, art and religion. The urban-rural setting also influenced gender disparity in ICT use.  For instance, internet use was largely limited to urban, educated men. And radio was the most effective means of reaching rural women. 

The AudienceScapes research findings provide an interesting perspective because women’s access to and choice of communication and information technology may not just be influenced by lack of better opportunities or low literacy levels but also socio-economic conditions and cultural norms.  Hence, merely improving ICT access for women may not be the solution.  It may be equally important to raise awareness on the merits of and the opportunities that these modern technologies provide to women. A gender mainstreaming perspective in ICT is, therefore, important in order to acknowledge that women and men may sometimes require different treatments because of different life conditions they live under and the varying roles they play.

Mark Your Calendars: Gender, IFIs and the Global Food Crisis Panel Discussion

FYI

 

Allison Strype

Civil Society

IREX

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Email: astrype@irex.org

Phone: 202-628-8188  x. 127

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gender Action <info@genderaction.org>
Date: Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 12:15 PM
Subject: Mark Your Calendars: Gender, IFIs and the Global Food Crisis Panel Discussion
To: ams2228@columbia.edu

 

 

 
 

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Event 


Gender, IFIs and the Global Food Crisis

 

Gender Action, ActionAid and the Henrich Boll Foundation are hosting a a panel to highlight the gendered impacts of IFI investments in agriculture and rural development. The panel will also highlight the policy implications of these investments within the context of the latest global food crisis, which has pushed an additional 44 million people into poverty.   

 

Women, who account for more than two thirds of the world's poor and the majority of the world's small-scale farmers, bear the brunt of rising food prices and growing food insecurity in developing countries. Despite women's critical role in food production, International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have failed to translate gender-mainstreaming rhetoric into significant action. 

 

Panel speakers will discuss the ways in which IFI investments exacerbate food insecurity and poverty in developing countries and thereby undermine the health and livelihoods of women and girls. The panel will invite discussion on how civil society can advocate for rural development and agriculture investments that meaningfully involve women and girls as stakeholders and equally benefit women and men, boys and girls.

 

Featured Panelists

Marie Clark-Brill, ActionAid

Elizabeth Arend, Gender Action

More Speakers to be Announced 

 

Date

April 12, 12 p.m.

 

Location 

Gavi Alliance

1776 I St, NW

Suite 600

Washington, DC 20006

 

Lunch will be served. Please rsvp to info@genderaction.org by Monday, April 11.

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NYTimes: Taking the Gender Fight Worldwide

, who in 2002 became Chile’s first female defense minister and four years later the country’s first female president, has never shied from challenging the status quo. Now the first head of U.N. Women, the three-month-old U.N. agency for gender equality and female empowerment, Ms. Bachelet is doing it again — this time turning some traditional notions of feminism on their head.

Read the full article here: http://nyti.ms/hhTQsX

Don't miss "Keeping Girls in School"

From: Asia Society Washington [mailto:AsiaDC=asiasociety.org@mcsv162.net] On Behalf Of Asia Society Washington
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 1:30 PM
To: Katie Sheketoff
Subject: Don't miss "Keeping Girls in School"

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Date
Tuesday
April 5th
6:30 to 8:30 PM

Location
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Asia Society Members: $10
Asia Society Non-Members: $15
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RSVP's are required by 12 PM on April 4th.

Speaker
Cory Heyman
Chief Program Officer
Room To Read

Discussants
Carol Yost
Director
Women’s Empowerment Program
Asia Foundation

David Sprague
Executive Director
Education Policy and Data Center
Academy for Educational Development

 
Moderator
Ariana Leon Rabindranath
Associate Director, Asia Society Washington


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Keeping Girls In School

The 21st Century Challenge for Education in Asia

The issue of gender-based educational rights remains a challenge for many Asian countries, particularly in rural areas. There are many reasons why girls have no access to basic education or drop out from schools. These include economic considerations, gender bias, safety, lack of adequate school facilities within their neighborhoods, and absence of female role models in schools. 

Girls’ education is vital to a country’s development because it promotes investment in human resources and is capable of raising living standards and encouraging social stability if managed well.

In this panel discussion, Cory Heyman, Carol Yost, and David Sprague will speak about working towards achieving the elusive goal of getting girls to continue their education through secondary school, and how broader research in the education sector has shaped their thinking over the last decade.   

About our discussants

Dr. Cory Heyman serves as the Chief Program Officer, supporting Room to Read’s Habit of Reading portfolio (Reading Room, Local Language Publishing, and School Room programs), the Girls’ Education program, and the Monitoring and Evaluation unit.  Cory has acted as a close advisor to Room to Read since 2004, when he assisted in developing the organization’s first monitoring and evaluation study. Cory brings with him extensive experience in international development and education, having recently served as the Vice President and Deputy Director of the Academy for Educational Development’s Center for Gender Equity.

Carol Yost has been with The Asia Foundation since 1986. In 1993 she designed and launched a dedicated program to increase women's participation in public decision-making and political processes to address their priority issues. As director of the Women's Empowerment Program, she oversees all of the Foundation's programs to advance women across the Asia-Pacific region in conjunction with the Foundation's country field offices and local partner organizations. Based in Washington, D.C., Ms. Yost travels to Asia regularly to collaborate with the Foundation's expert staff to develop programs that further women's political participation, legal rights, education, and economic opportunity and to support efforts that combat violence against women and trafficking of women and children.

Dr. David Sprague has spent nearly his entire professional career working in the field of education. After teaching for five years in both public and private schools in the U.S., he returned to graduate school and received his Ph.D. in Education from Florida State University. He joined USAID in 1972. From 1979 to 1988 he was the Director of the Office of Education in AID/Washington's technical bureau. After converting to the Foreign Service, he spent the next 12 years in Pakistan, Ukraine and Bangladesh. After retiring from USAID in 2000, he lived and worked as an education consultant in Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan.

The Women and Development in Asia Series is underwritten by LEO A DALY.


Copyright (c) 2011 Asia Society. All Rights Reserved.

WFPG Celebrates Women Diplomats! DC 4/13, NY 5/19

IREX is a member of WFPG, if anyone wants to attend this event.  –Randal

Women's Foreign Policy Group

The Women's Foreign Policy Group cordially
invites you to join us for our

Celebrations of Women Diplomats



These evening receptions and programs will celebrate and highlight the achievements of women diplomats on the occasion of the

100th Anniversary of
International Women's Day

Washington, DC
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Embassy of Bulgaria
1621 22nd Street NW
Washington, DC
Click here to register

    

New York, NY
Thursday, May 19, 2011
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Home of Geraldine Kunstadter
1035 Fifth Avenue, Apt 15C
New York, NY
Click here to register


Space is limited. Advance registration is required.

$50 WFPG Members          $75 Non-Members

Event proceeds will be used to support our mentoring programs.
Please contact us at 202 884-8597 or programs@wfpg.org with any questions.

Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media


From: Foundation Center [pubhubalerts@foundationcenter.org]
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 12:52 PM
To: Randal Mason
Subject: Today's PubHub Alert


March 25, 2011  
The following reports have been posted to PubHub:

Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media
International Women's Media Foundation

Byerly, Carolyn M.

Details findings about the representation of women in news media ownership, publishing governance, reporting, editing, photojournalism, and broadcast production, as well as the challenges they face in shaping news coverage by region and country.


Published: March 2011
Funder(s): Carolan K. Stiles, Ford Foundation, Loreen Arbus Foundation, UNESCO Communication Development Division
Subject(s): Women; Journalism/Media; International Affairs/Development


You received this e-mail because you subscribed to Foundation Center PubHub Alerts with the username "RandalM." To change the subjects of your alerts or to unsubscribe, click here.

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USAID Frontlines Feb March Gender Articles

Click here to download:
Frontlines Feb March 2011 USAID.pdf (2.72 MB)
(download)

I wanted to send on to you, if you had not already seen it, the most recent issue of USAID’s FRONTLINES.  In it there are various articles on gender that I think will be particularly valuable for the Gender Community of Practice.  I wanted to especially highlight the interview with USAID’s Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg on the role of gender in development and the article on fighting early marriage.  There is also a wonderful article on the role women’s groups have played in rebuilding Haiti post-2010 earthquake. 

Katherine

 

Letters from Uganda: Teach a woman, educate a village | Mormon Times

http://www.mormontimes.com/article/20096/Letters-from-Uganda-Teach-a-woman-ed...

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[YWID] CFP: Gendered Perspectives on International Development

CALL FOR PAPERS 

 

Gendered Perspectives on International Development

Working Papers

 

Gendered Perspectives on International Development (GPID) publishes scholarly work on global social, political, and economic change and its gendered effects in the Global South. GPID cross-cuts disciplines, bringing together research, critical analyses, and proposals for change.

Our previous series, MSU WID Working Papers (1981-2008) was among the first scholarly publications dedicated to promoting research on the links between international development and women and gender issues. Gendered Perspectives on International Development recognizes diverse processes of international development and globalization, and new directions in scholarship on gender relations.

The goals of GPID are: (1) to promote research that contributes to gendered analysis of social change; (2) to highlight the effects of international development policy and globalization on gender roles and gender relations; and (3) to encourage new approaches to international development policy and programming.

Individual papers in the series address a range of topics including gender, violence, and human rights; gender and agriculture; reproductive health and healthcare; gender and social movements; masculinities and development; and the gendered division of labor. We particularly encourage manuscripts that bridge the gap between research, policy, and practice. Previously published papers can be viewed at: http://gencen.isp.msu.edu/publications/papers.htm.

Gendered Perspectives on International Development Working Papers are article-length manuscripts (9,000-word max) by scholars from a broad range of disciplines. They disseminate materials that are at a late stage of formulation and that contribute new understandings of women and men’s roles and gender relations amidst economic, social, and political change.

If you are interested in submitting a manuscript to the Working Papers series, please send a 150 word abstract summarizing the paper’s essential points and findings to Dr. Anne Ferguson, Editor, or Anna Jefferson, Managing Editor, at papers@msu.edu. If the abstract suggests your paper is suitable for the Working Papers, the full paper will be invited for peer review and publication consideration.

 

The Downside of Focusing on Women and Girls

The Downside of Focusing on Women and Girls

10:00 AM Wednesday March 9, 2011
by Timothy Ogden  | Comments ( 16)

Yesterday was International Women's Day and there were many articles and blog posts championing the idea that anti-poverty philanthropy should focus on women and girls (see, for instance, Mary Ellen Iskendarian's post for The Conversation). Like many ideas in poverty alleviation before it, the "women first" approach has been increasingly captured by overly simplistic thinking about the poor and anti-poverty programs — with easily foreseeable, and already evident, negative consequences.

What could possibly be wrong with focusing aid programs on women and girls?

First, many of the arguments made in favor of a focus on women and girls — such as the idea that men spend money only on themselves while women spend money on their families — are rooted in the fallacy of essentialism. This fallacy attributes the results of context and culture to the core nature of people. There is a far better explanation for spending patterns of men and women, rooted in understanding how families everywhere negotiate over household income. In most societies men are the primary income earners; they distribute the income to their wives for particular purposes, usually including buying food and caring for children. Being human, the male income earners unsurprisingly feel that they should be able to enjoy some of the fruits of their labor.

When women become the primary income earners, we should expect to see the same spending patterns evolve over time. And that's exactly what we do see. In India and Cote D'Ivoire, researchers have seen that as women gain control of their income they do indeed spend more on themselves. The Indian study, one of the few high quality studies of microcredit extended to women, found no increase in household spending on clothing, food, or education.

Second, the marketing pitch for focusing on women and girls increasingly is stereotyping men in the effort to combat the stereotyping of women. As Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo write in their forthcoming Poor Economics, if we want to make an impact on global poverty we have to stop painting the poor, women or men, as cartoon characters. The "women first" movement increasingly relies on caricatures of virtuous women and deadbeat dads. I'm especially concerned because the nature of global poverty today means that the men in these caricatures are black and brown, calling to mind racialist theories of the past even if that is by no means intended.

Consider the undeniable costs of a caricatured bias toward women. David McKenzie's research in Sri Lanka, Mexico, Brazil and Ghana has shown that urban male entrepreneurs typically earn far higher returns from microfinance than women do (in Sri Lanka average returns on capital for women were 0%, for men 10%). If we are trying to fight poverty, shouldn't we at least consider what strategies are most likely to raise household income the most?

Does that mean that we should not focus on women and girls? Of course not. We should focus on women and girls. But we need to base the focus on the fact that women and girls are marginalized — and therefore empowering them can have significant benefits — not because they are women and girls. That may seem to be just a matter of semantics, but it is far from that. By defining programs in terms of the wrong criteria we create institutional inertia that will inevitably continue to pour resources into an area long after it is no longer appropriate. Just look at affirmative action programs in the United States that continue while a flood of research shows that the important distinction to deal with is class not race (though of course the two do overlap).

A focus on the marginalized, regardless of their sex, ethnicity, location, or other essential characteristics will do far more to combat poverty than a blind focus on women and girls.

Timothy Ogden is an executive partner at Sona Partners, and the editor in chief of Philanthropy Action, an online journal for high net worth donors.