By Ore Somolu

When we talk about closing the digital divide, we usually think of this divide in the context of developing countries versus developed countries, or rural areas versus urban areas. One aspect that is often neglected is the role that gender has to play in the promotion of most information and communication technologies (ICT) use in Nigeria. Gender is an important issue when thinking and planning how ICTs can be used for development. Why? Because when we talk about ICTs and development, we move from a purely technology focus to a human focus (Hafkin, 2002) and gender is a big determinant in who accesses and who uses ICTs.

Socio-economic class, educational and professional backgrounds, combined with gender influence how often and actively women can engage with technology. Where a woman lives, i.e. in an urban center or a rural village, will also be a determinant of her technology access and use. Typical gender-based constraints might include average lower disposable incomes, placing access to most ICTs out of reach; limited time for technology use with having to combine earn a living with looking after a family; average lower literacy levels, which makes use of text-based ICTs difficult; traditional notions about technology being more suited for men; and language barriers between speakers of indigenous languages and the predominantly English-language content (on the Internet). A wider problem might also be that many women are unsure of the clear relevance of technology to their lives.

Strategies to address this divide include:

1. Preparing the Ground
Young women need to become more involved in science and technology from an early age. This could be formally (primary or secondary school, computer school, after-school program) or informally (learning from family or friends, summer camps with computer classes). The Gender Team at KnowledgeHouseAfrica organises the FOSS Women Bootcamp Workshop, which equips young women with the skills necessary to train other women to use FOSS* (Free and Open Source Software). Fantsuam Foundation offers scholarships to qualified and interested women for ICT training.

Mothers are a big influence on their daughters and if they display feelings of technophobia, some girls may unconsciously adopt similar feelings. It is important that encouragement comes from the home, through introduction from a young age to incrementally more complex forms of technology.

2. Making Information More Relevant
Some research has shown that women and girls tend to be more interested in what the technology can do for them. And this makes sense, because technology is a tool and not a means in itself. Therefore, one way of encouraging more girls and young women to use ICTs would be to ensure that the information being disseminated by ICTS is useful, practical and meets the young women’s needs. This could be, for example, education, health or agricultural information disseminated online. It could information that is tailored specifically to meet the needs of a particular target group of women.

The rising popularity of personal and participatory technologies, like weblogs*, wikis* and podcasts*, has meant that individuals can more easily create their own content, which they can disseminate widely on the Internet. This has led to a proliferation of content with very specific interest areas. For time-constrained women or women with clearly defined information needs, this can have many benefits because the chances of finding relevant information are increased. It also means that women can share information more easily.

3. Developing User-Friendly Technologies
If ICTS are to be more widely used across both sexes, then they need to be developed more closely with their applications in mind. So strategies like building computers suited to the local climate and which can run on readily-available sources of power; ensuring that program instructions and content is available in local languages; developing and promoting computer keyboards with the alphabet of local languages would encourage more women to use them. Some mobile phone companies offer automated customer support services in a choice of Nigerian languages.

4. Women as Information Facilitators
It is important that conversations about gender and ICTs take place, because sharing experiences and identifying pertinent issues is typically a good first step to deciding on a plan of action.

Creating such a space e.g. an electronic email list, discussion board or a weblog would enable practitioners, researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders come together to discuss ICT issues from a gender perspective.

Since women understand best the limitations to their engagement with ICTs, it is important for any ICT program that wants to successfully reach out to young women to have a fairly large and visible female presence. For example, outreach programs should have female facilitators (or a good balance between both sexes) especially when working in communities where there is limited interaction between the sexes and ICT training programs should have female instructors. The existence of strong and far-reaching networks, where women can share information, exchange experiences, and support and mentor each other is very important for nurturing young interest in technology.

5. Influencing Policy
Men and women need to be as active participants as they possibly can in the process of developing and implementing ICT policies, if policy is to be made more effective for both men and women. While policy is created by the legislative arm of the government, members of the civil society (i.e. ordinary citizens like you and I) can play a large role in bringing to public attention a need for appropriate legislation in the first place, e.g.:
• Get involved with women-led lobbying organisations
• Raise issues affecting girls and women’s ICT use via newspaper or magazine articles and propose solutions
• Participate in on-going conversations on how policy affects girls and women. This could be on weblogs, electronic mailing lists, websites, radio or television; or at youth meetings and conferences.
• Organise grass-roots campaigns which address issues of how more girls and women can access ICTs in more meaningful ways

6. Research and Development
Inter-disciplinary research that cuts across relevant subject areas such as gender, technology, telecommunications, media, law, education and culture is necessary to generate the information and analysis necessary to inform appropriate but visionary policy formulation and effective regulation of ICTs in Nigeria. It is important to examine the current access to ICTs and see how these could be improved for women and costs lowered. It is also important to observe how these ICTs are being used; for what purposes, how their use could be made more effective; how women could contribute to the development of more appropriate technologies; what types of information women are interested in receiving; how this information could be created and how better it could be disseminated using ICTs. As researchers ask some of these pertinent questions and attempt to answer them, they find out more about how ICTs can be made more relevant and available to more women.

Research also feeds into the development of technology tools that would better meet women’s needs.

7. Private Sector Commitment
The private sector has typically led the way in innovation and adoption of new technologies. Since women make-up a large percentage of the Nigerian populace, from a strategic point of view, it makes sense that girls are encouraged to use technology so that they grow up to become consumers of technology.

This can include providing internship opportunities in progressive companies, with maybe a certain proportion allocated to young women; mentorship opportunities for young women with successful technology professionals; developing scholarship opportunities for talented women; sponsoring technology programs aimed at young women or youths.

A true information society needs to contain and cater to both men and women and so we all have a role to play in opening-up access to everyone.
What are the additional ways in which more women and girls can be encouraged to use ICTs?And what other applications to work and life do you think can be highlighted to women, so that they can better see the relevance of ICTs to them?