Globally, 200 million fewer women than men are online, and the gap could grow to 350 million within the next three years if action is not taken, warns the recently released Doubling Digital Opportunities: Enhancing the Inclusion of Women & Girls in the Information Society report by the Broadband Commission. The Working Group on Broadband and Gender reveals a ‘significant and pervasive’ gap in access to information and communication technologies (ICTs).
Anne Bouverot, Director General of the GSMA and member of the Working Group on Broadband and Gender, discussed the importance of the report during the 2013 United Nations General Assembly and the Clinton Global Initiative and highlighted how the findings should serve as a clear call to action that women are without question an underserved and under-tapped ICT market.
Doubling Digital Opportunities brings together extensive research from UN agencies, Commission members such as GSMA, and partners from industry, government and civil society to create the first comprehensive global view on broadband access by gender.
Key insights from the report:
- Around the world, women are coming online later and more slowly than men. Of the world’s 2.8 billion Internet users, 1.3 billion are women, compared with 1.5 billion men.
- The gap between male and female ICT users is significant across the developing world, where expensive, ‘high status’ ICTs like computers are often reserved for use by men. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the report’s authors estimate that only half the number of women are using ICT compared with men.
- Worldwide, women are also on average 21% less likely to own a mobile phone – representing a mobile gender gap of 300 million, equating to US$13 billion in potential missed revenues for the mobile sector.
- In developing countries, every 10% increase in access to broadband translates to a 1.38% growth in GDP. That means that bringing an additional 600 million women and girls online could boost global GDP by as much as US$18 billion.
- By 2015, it is estimated that 90% of formal employment across all sectors will require ICT skills. Professionals with computer science degrees can expect to earn salaries similar to doctors or lawyers – yet even in developed economies, women now account for fewer than 20% of ICT specialists. The report emphasizes the importance of encouraging more girls to pursue ICT careers.
The report asserts that today’s untapped pool of female users could also represent a market opportunity for device makers, network operators, and software and app developers that might equal or even exceed the impact of large emerging markets like China or India. GSMA mWomen found a similarly exciting market potential in unconnected women in its report Women & Mobile: A Global Opportunity: by overlooking the women’s market, the mobile industry faced an estimated $13 billion revenue opportunity. In its work with mobile operators, other industry partners and the development community GSMA mWomen aims to close this gender gap to increase women’s access to mobile phones and mobile internet, creating economically sustainable social value for women.