Does the digital economy promote women’s rights? Unpacking the myths!

1. Does the digital economy promote women’s rights? Unpacking the myths!

2. Digital economy: An economy based on the digitization of information which of course gave birth to Electronic commerce and its services for additional communication, marketing, and sales channels.

3. Benefits of digital economy: • creates new economic opportunities. • Digital data can be used for development purposes and for solving societal problems, including those related to the SDGs. • Help improve economic and social outcomes, and be a force for innovation and productivity growth. • Platforms facilitate transactions and networking as well as information exchange. Transformation of all sectors and markets through digitalization can foster the production of higher quality goods and services at reduced costs. • Digitization is transforming value chains in different ways, and opening up new channels for value addition and broader structural change.

4. The digital economy space has created room for a new ways of commerce but most of this is still far from what an inclusive economic space should be. These gains aren't yet representative of women who engage in economic activities within the margins of economic power. It remains a heavily segmented space as seen below:

6. Because of these numerous vulnerabilities the digital economic space needs to more feminist leaning in order for it to protect and enhance women's rights. This means that economic policies that govern the economic spaces must be de-constructed and de-colonised to be completely equitable, diverse and inclusive in their practices. What then does feminist economics mean?

7. Feminist economics; accepts that economics is not a rational science but rather a reflection of the psychology of human behaviour and decision making. Economics is a field that reflects the values, interests and priorities of those with power. Mainstream economics is too focused on men completely overlooking the contribution that women make to the economy and by doing so, the economy and set priorities, economic responses tend to perpetuate inequalities rather than address them. The contributions that women make to society and the economy are, therefore, routinely and systematically undervalued. What do we start examining inorder to change this?

8. Microeconomics by studying the economic behaviours of individual units focusing on an analysis of individual consumers, individual firms, or individual markets and how all these affect the way women do business either on or offline. Macroeconomicsby focusing on the broad and wide economic issues: growth, inflation, taxation, regulations, accessibility etc that affect how women engage economically. Some macroeconomic components are; Fiscal policy:the means by which a government adjusts its spending levels and tax rates to monitor and influence a nation's economy. Monetary policy: Monetary policy is adopted by the monetary authority of a country often targeting inflation or the interest rate, attempting to ensure price stability and general trust in the currency. Gross Domestic Product: This measures the value of economic activity within a country. Trade and Investment policy:Trade policy refers to the regulations and agreements that control imports and exports to foreign countries.

9. Recognising micro and macro economics alone are insufficient for exploring the dynamic and complex interactions among humans, institutions, and nature in our real economy this is why we need the Meso and Meta economics. Meso-economics studies examines the institutional aspects of the economy that are not captured by micro or macroeconomics, example; the way courts, political parties, religions all intersect with the economy. Meta-economicsgoes still further, by studying deeper functional aspects of the economy, understood as a complex, interactive, and holistic living system. It is therefore important to understand that macroeconomic decisions have an impact on women’s lives, gender equality and feminist considerations within macroeconomic policy making. Core among these are listed below with increasing areas of research and advocacy:

10. DECENT WORK Promote sustained economic growth, higher levels of productivity and technological innovation. Encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation are key to this, as are effective measures to eradicate forced labour, slavery and human trafficking.

11. UNPAID CARE WORK Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate

12. TAX JUSTICE & WOMEN Determining how to best mobilise public funds is essential for sustainable development—particularly for developing countries. A holistic approach to tax policy, centred on economic growth, is key.

13. SOCIAL PROTECTION RIGHTS social protection interventions reduce social and economic risk and vulnerability by helping individuals and families especially the poor and vulnerable cope with crises and shocks, find jobs, invest in the health and education of their children, and protect the aging population.

14. By having a new approach into what digitalisation would mean for women we must be cognizant of what offline trade already looks like with its disparities and understand that digitization has the potential to exacerbate these disparities. These range of issues must be addressed accordingly within GENDER EQUAL & FEMINIST LENSES in order for digital commerce to serve vulnerable women better.

15. THANK YOU!