POLICY

Women's ability to take advantage of IT opportunities is contingent upon enabling social, economic, and telecommunications policies, including those leading to increased educational levels and the extension of communication infrastructure to where women live. To date, developing countries have implemented few concrete policies to promote gender equity in IT. As most developing countries are just beginning to devise national IT policies, however, the time is particularly appropriate for ensuring the inclusion of gender concerns. One way for this to occur is by sensitizing policy-makers to IT issues that affect women. Moreover, out of enlightened self-interest, women in developing countries should involve themselves in IT policy and regulation issues.

Even policies that consider social elements, such as universal access and ensuring the reach of communications to rural areas, will be blind to gender differences if the exercise is treated on the macro level without disaggregating by sex. Without explicit gender analysis and incorporation of the results into policy instruments, it isunlikely that the results will have a positive impact on women. For example, the benefits of IT may bypass women even if their countries develop adequate information infrastructure and service delivery. (14) While awareness of gender issues related to IT is growing, in part through international conferences and literature, presently there are very few places where policies reflect this awareness.

While IT policy and strategy varies considerably from country to country, most policy instruments deal with similar issues. Some of those in which gender concerns are relevant include the following: network architecture and deployment (choice of technology); pricing and tariff issues; licensing issues (ownership and control); strengthening technology innovation (R&D); IT-enabled private sector business development; human resource development for system support; IT labor force participation; data infrastructure; and facilitating access to IT networks, including universal service obligations

Gender issues should be considered not only in the content of IT policy but also in the process of policy elaboration, implementation, and evaluation. As a means of sensitizing policymakers to these issues, the following table illustrates the differences between a "gender neutral" and an "engendered" approach throughout the policy-making process for universal access.

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