Education
The single most important factor for increasing the ability of girls and women to take advantage of IT opportunities is education. This requires interventions at all levels, from literacy through scientific and technological education. To prepare women to enter IT fields, the concentrated efforts of the past 10 years to ensure access to quality basic education for girls should be continued and strengthened, with IT integrated into the programs. Indeed, improving the quality and reach of basic education through IT is increasingly essential to mitigating the gender divide for women in developing countries.

Beyond access to basic education, girls and women must be equipped with skills to prepare them for a range of roles in IT as users, creators, designers, and managers. Therefore, efforts should focus on increasing the number of girls and women studying IT-related subjects in formal schooling and seeking IT training outside of school. Science and technology education is necessary for women to work in IT as computer programmers, engineers, systems analysts, and designers, yet women's low enrollment in math and science courses impedes participation in these IT fields globally. It is interesting and fortunate, however, that there is a great deal of variation in the percentages of women enrolled in the natural sciences, computer science, and engineering in developing countries. Indeed, evidence suggests that young women in developing countries are not as affected as U.S. women by attitudes that computer science is not an appropriate field for women to enter. For example, recent enrollment statistics indicate that more than 50 percent of students enrolled in natural sciences (including IT) in Argentina, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, the Philippines, and Singapore were women. Women comprise at least 30 percent of university level students in natural sciences in a large number of other developing countries, including Jordan, Mongolia, Jamaica, Sri Lanka, West Bank/Gaza, Lebanon, Oman, Tunisia, Algeria, Brazil, Paraguay, Albania, Armenia, and Bulgaria. (4)The largest proportion of women engineers is found in Central and South America and East and Central Europe.(5) Africa remains the area of greatest concern, however, as African women have the lowest participation rates in the world in science and technology education at all levels.

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