Gender digital divide

Patriarchal cultures often prevent women and girls from developing digital skills.[7] Women and girls may struggle to access public ICT facilities due to unsafe roads, limits on their freedom of movement, or because the facilities themselves are considered unsuitable for women.[1]

Women may not have the financial independence needed to purchase digital technology or pay for internet connectivity. Digital access, even when available, may be controlled and monitored by men or limited to ‘walled gardens’ containing a limited selection of content, known as ‘pink content’ focused on women's appearances, dating, or their roles as wives or mothers.[8] Fears concerning safety and harassment (both online and offline) also inhibit many women and girls from benefiting from or even wanting to use ICTs.[9]

In many contexts, women and girls face concerns of physical violence if they own or borrow digital devices, which in some cases leads to their using the devices in secret, making them more vulnerable to online threats and making it difficult to gain digital skills.[10]

The stereotype of technology as a male domain is common in many contexts and affect girls’ confidence in their digital skills from a young age. In OECD countries, 0.5% of girls aspire towards ICT-related careers at age 15, versus 5% of boys.[11] This was not always the case. At the beginning of electronic computing following the Second World War, software programming in industrialized countries was considered ‘women’s work’. Managers of early technology firms allowed women well-suited for programming because of stereotypes characterizing them as meticulous and good at following step-by-step directions. Women, including many women of colour, flocked to jobs in the computer industry because it was seen as more meritocratic than other fields.[12] As computers became integrated into people's daily life, it was noticed that programmers had influence. Consequently, women were pushed out and the field became more male-dominated.[1]

Due to the declining price of connectivity and hardware, skills deficits have exceeded barriers of access as the primary contributor to the gender digital divide. For years, the divide was assumed to be symptomatic of technical challenges. It was thought that women would catch up with men when the world had cheaper devices and lower connectivity prices, due to the limited purchasing power and financial independence of women compared with men.[1] The cost of ICT access remains an issue and is surpassed by educational gaps. For example, the gender gap in internet penetration is around 17% in the Arab States and the Asia and Pacific region,[13] whereas the gender gap in ICT skills is as high as 25% in some Asian and Middle Eastern countries.[14]

Many people have access to affordable devices and broadband networks, but do not have the requisite skills to take advantage of this technology to improve their lives.[1] In Brazil, lack of skills (rather than cost of access) was found to be the primary reason low-income groups are not using the internet.[15] In India, where lack of skills and lack of need for the internet were the primary limiting factors across all income groups.

Lack of understanding, interest or time is a bigger issue than affordability or availability as the reason for not using the internet.[1] Even though skills deficits prevent both men and women from using digital technologies, they tend to be more severe for women. In a study conducted across 10 low- and middle-income countries, women were 1.6 times more likely than men to report lack of skills as a barrier to internet use.[16] Women are also more likely to report that they do not see a reason to access and use ICT.[17] Interest and perception of need are related to skills, as people who have little experience with or understanding of ICTs tend to underestimate their benefits and utility.[1]

Digital assistants encompass a range of internet-connected technologies that support users in various ways. When interacting with digital assistants, users are not restricted to a narrow range of input commands, but are encouraged to make queries using whichever inputs seem most appropriate or natural, whether they are typed or spoken. Digital assistants seek to enable and sustain more human-like interactions with technology. Digital assistants can include: voice assistants, chatbots, and virtual agents.[1]

Voice assistants have become central to technology platforms and, in many countries, to day-to-day life. Between 2008 and 2018, the frequency of voice-based internet search queries increased 35 times and account for close to one fifth of mobile internet searches (a figure that is projected to increase to 50% by 2020).[20] Voice assistants now manage upwards of 1 billion tasks per month, from the mundane (changing a song) to the essential (contacting emergency services).[21]

Today, most leading voice assistants are exclusively female or female by default, both in name and in sound of voice. Amazon has Alexa (named for the ancient library in Alexandria),[22] Microsoft has Cortana (named for a synthetic intelligence in the video game Halo that projects itself as a sensuous unclothed woman),[23] and Apple has Siri (coined by the Norwegian co-creator of the iPhone 4S and meaning ‘beautiful woman who leads you to victory’ in Norse).[24] While Google's voice assistant is simply Google Assistant and sometimes referred to as Google Home, its voice is female.

The trend to feminize assistants occurs in a context in which there is a growing gender imbalance in technology companies, such that men commonly represent two thirds to three quarters of a firm's total workforce.[13] Companies like Amazon and Apple have cited academic work demonstrating that people prefer a female voice to a male voice, justifying the decision to make voice assistants female. This puts away questions of gender bias, meaning that companies make a profit by attracting and pleasing customers. Research shows that customers want their digital assistants to sound like women, therefore digital assistants can make the most profit by sounding female.[1]

Researchers who specialize in human–computer interaction have recognized that both men and women tend to characterize female voices as more helpful. The perception may have roots in traditional social norms around women as nurturers (mothers often take on – willingly or not – significantly more care than fathers) and other socially constructed gender biases that predate the digital era.[1]