Expert Comment: What is the 'digital gender gap'?

Digital technologies, such as the internet and mobile phones, have spread widely, and become integral to many parts of our lives. Yet women continue to lag behind men in digital access in many countries. The Digital Gender Gaps project team, led by Professor Ridhi Kashyap at the University of Oxford’s Department of Sociology and Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, explore the numbers which illustrate women's unequal participation in digital society.

The spread of the internet and mobile phones has been one of the most significant technological revolutions of the 21st century.

Digital technologies have become integral to many aspects of our lives and have brought wide ranging benefits to many, including greater information, better connectivity, and access to services in more cost-efficient ways.

Why is digital gender equality so important? Our work has shown how women who own mobile phones and use the internet are more empowered with their own health and decision-making within the household. Greater digital connectivity can also bolster social connectedness and exchange between communities, relevant for sharing information, for example, around sexual and reproductive health.
Professor Ridhi Kashyap, Digital Gender Gaps project team leader

These benefits are particularly noticeable for marginalised populations who may otherwise lack access to resources or networks through other means.

However, our research shows that women continue to lag behind men in their access to the internet and mobile phones in many parts of the world.

Alongside colleagues at the Department of Sociology and Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, we have developed an interactive dashboard to track gender inequalities in internet use and mobile ownership.

The dashboard is part of the Digital Gender Gaps project, which provides regular updates and monthly estimates of internet and mobile adoption by gender.

These methods have helped improve coverage of digital gender gaps at the national level, and our data have been used to track progress on the United Nations’ global Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, which lists improving women’s digital connectivity as a key indicator for achieving gender equality.

While women and men have largely attained equality in internet access and mobile ownership in high-income countries, we find that women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are 22% less likely to use the internet and 14% less likely to own a mobile phone.

Gender gaps in internet use and mobile ownership are especially large in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Updated Digital Gender Gaps dashboard showing subnational estimates of women’s internet use across India

In our newly updated version of our Digital Gender Gaps dashboard, we use machine learning algorithms to provide subnational estimates of internet use and mobile ownership by gender. This will be the first ever database of digital access by gender covering 117 LMICs at the subnational level.

By knowing how many women use the internet in different parts of a country, researchers could use the dashboard to plan more targeted interventions, such as around sexual and reproductive health, or financial inclusion, with mobile phone apps.

Our subnational estimates show large gender inequalities in internet and mobile ownership within LMICs such as India and Nigeria.

In Nigeria, more than 70% of women use the internet in the southern, capital city of Lagos, but fewer than 20% use the internet in northern areas such as Kebbi. While more than 75% of women use the internet in India’s capital New Delhi, only around 35% do in the northern state of Bihar.

Updated Digital Gender Gaps dashboard showing subnational estimates of women’s internet use across Nigeria

These numbers highlight that while digital technologies have spread, their spread is still uneven, both between and within countries.

Why is digital gender equality so important? Our work has shown how women who own mobile phones and use the internet are more empowered with their own health and decision-making within the household. Greater digital connectivity can also bolster social connectedness and exchange between communities, relevant for sharing information, for example, around sexual and reproductive health.

Research also highlights the value of mobile phones for alleviating impacts of poverty and for enabling women’s economic empowerment. In professional contexts, women can benefit from the more flexible forms of networking afforded by online platforms.

As we stand at the brink of another technological shift, with the increasing use of artificial intelligence across multiple domains, we must ensure that women are equal participants in digital society, and not left behind.

Technologies can have a positive impact on societies – but only when we close the digital gender gap.