South Africa is still rated as one of the countries with the highest incidence of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) in the world. With many looking at ways to reduce and eliminate the scourge of violence against women and girls, it remains a complex issue triggered by a myriad socioeconomic factors. We need to capitalise on the potential of digital technology and how it can be utilised more effectively, in novel ways, to assist in combating GBVF.  

While the Covid-19 pandemic forced hundreds of millions of people to participate on online platforms and use digital and mobile technology to access basic resources and services, it also exacerbated the gender digital divide (GDD). Technology have-nots and know-nots around the world experienced substantial marginalisation, mainly due to divisions caused by income, education, and social standing. 

The pandemic highlighted how critical digital connectivity is to governments, businesses, and society, and brought a newfound sense of urgency to the digital inclusion agenda. Digital technology, and specifically the internet and mobile phones, has revolutionised how women and girls live their lives, and for most of us, it is impossible to imagine a world without it. The GDD, however, leaves women – often from vulnerable communities – without adequate skills and education to survive in today’s rapidly evolving and technology-enabled economy. 

There are significant benefits in ensuring that women, particularly in developing regions, are included in the transformation to a digitally enabled society. Whether through websites, social media, instant messaging, or email, digital technology has opened up avenues for online activism, community-building, career opportunities, healthcare information, better access to learning and financial inclusion. 

By extension, the same digital platforms can be used to alleviate the impact of GBVF at community and domestic levels. These platforms can support GBV prevention by enabling emergency features to report incidents, create awareness, and train young people or children using gamification tools. In South Africa, the use of social media enabled the #NationalShutdown which saw thousands of women protesting against GBVF, and paved the way for the National Strategic Plan, and the Presidential Summit to tackle GBVF. 

We also witnessed the liberating effect of the internet with the start of numerous high-profile social movements against GBVF that went viral such as #MeToo in New York, helping women to stand up for themselves, raise awareness around GBVF and indeed report GBVF thus eliminating the stigma associated with harassment and violence against women. Other such campaigns were #NiUnaMenos in Argentina and #TimesUp, founded to support victims of sexual harassment in Hollywood. 

Despite this, in South Africa and indeed Africa, a majority of women still do not have access to digital and mobile technology; and the challenges remain threefold – accessibility, affordability, and literacy. 

The ability to read and write is the functional requirement to use technology, and digital literacy has become as important as basic literacy. Yet, as of January 2023, consumer data from Statista indicate that 35,6% of the world’s population remain without access to the internet. Globally, men are 21% more likely to have access to the internet than women, and the gender technology gap is perpetuating inequalities that already divide countries and communities. 

Across low- and middle-income regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where poverty and gender intersect, women are now 7%  less likely than men to own a mobile phone, 8% less likely than men to own a smartphone, and 16% less likely to use mobile internet, this according to GSM Association’s 2022 Mobile Gender Gap Report. This means that there are still 264 million fewer women than men accessing mobile internet, and this in itself exacerbates women’s inability to use mobile as a tool to deal with and report intimate partner violence.  

There is no doubt that we have to deal with the problems of access and the availability of the internet and mobile broadband services, and coordinated efforts are urgently required to reduce the gender gap and ensure that women can participate fully in a more digitised society. 

But bridging the GDD divide requires more than ensuring women and girls have access to cell phones and the internet. Women’s access to information and communications technology (ICT) is constrained by factors that go beyond issues of technological infrastructure: socially and culturally constructed gender roles shape and limit the capacity of women and men to participate on equal terms. 

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Of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals, goal 5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, and calls for enhanced use of enabling technology to promote the empowerment of women. Ironically, an example of where the tech gender gap remains quite staggering is the ICT sector itself, where women are still grossly underrepresented, holding less than 25% of tech jobs despite the sector enjoying steady growth. One of the possible causes of this problem lies with education, as female students are often not encouraged to take STEM-related subjects at high school.  

In a few days’ time, the world will once again observe International Women’s Day. A gender-responsive approach to innovation, technology and digital education would offer immense opportunities to address persistent development and humanitarian challenges and benefit worldwide productivity, social development, and most importantly, gender parity. When women thrive, societies, businesses and economies thrive. 

Tackling gender inequality is complex, difficult, and slow, and digital inclusion cannot and will not solve all the challenges that women face. But, if its power to enable women to make the most of their potential is truly harnessed with the necessary urgency, digital technology can help accelerate the process.

Our thinking about what it really means to “bridge” the GDD has to become a lot more sophisticated than it has been so far. And inasmuch as governments need to set an enabling environment to drive tech innovation and digital adoption to bridge the GDD, through appropriate and coordinated policy frame­works, the private sector also has to play its part. Together we can and must advance in making digital gender equality a reality. 

Without this happening, the promise of the 2030 Agenda – of a better world where there is universal respect for human rights and dignity and where no one is left behind – will go unrealised. DM