Could Information and Communication Technologies decrease gender inequality? - Cross-country evidence

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is rapidly changing the society and affecting several of the issues that the world is facing. One of them is the issue of gender inequality, which is especially predominant in the developing world. Previous qualitative studies states that ICT could be one of the most helpful tools to decrease poverty and diminish the global gender gap. This study examines the relationship between ICT and gender inequality. The causation is likely to go both ways, more ICT in a country increases the equality between genders through empowerment of women and the distribution of information, while a more gender equal country is likely to increase ICT. The result of the study showed that there was a negative relationship between ICT and gender inequality through several OLS regressions. The results varied between high and low-income countries, with ICT having a lower overall fit for low-income countries but with a greater potential than for high-income countries. Overall, we draw the modest conclusion that it seems to exist a relationship, countries with higher ICT also tend to be more gender equal and vice versa.