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Impact of ICTs on women's participation in public and political life

This report discusses the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on women's participation in public and political life. It highlights the unequal power relations within which ICTs are produced, used, and distributed, and explores the possibilities and challenges they present for marginalized groups. The report also addresses issues such as discrimination, violence, and exclusion that can arise from the use of ICTs. It provides recommendations for extending definitions of personhood, engaging the private sector, and actively participating in internet governance.

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Impact of ICTs on women's participation in public and political life

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  1. Impact of ICTs on women's participation in public and political life Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Rights Programme, January 2012

  2. Who we are / what we do • International network of organisations using ICTs for social justice – 43 members around the world • Womens rights programme & ICT policy programme • Women’s rights programme – violence against women, sexual rights, evaluation

  3. What is the issue • Information and Communication Technologies ICTs are not gender neutral – produced, used and distributed in a context of unequal power relations • For marginalised groups with access, ICTs present possibilities to construct, deconstruct and reconfigure both their own identities and the structures – whether government, media or social – within which they live • ICTs also enable new forms of discrimination, violence and exclusion

  4. What are our entry points? • Women and marginalised communities are a key interest group in how the internet is governed, yet are are largely absent from spaces where decisions are made • When we access the internet it is with all of our civil and political rights intact • Norms and values offline are reflected online including – in discrimination and exclusion and in responses

  5. Shifts and nuances • Internet governance • Anonymity • Privacy and consent • New actors • Defining harm • No recognition for extended notions / extended definitions of ‘personhood’ • Interaction as workers, content producers, ‘ordinary’ users

  6. Opening new possibilities • Public participation – Tahrir bodyguards, rape of black lesbians in SA • Organising – Meem • Subversion – Pink Chaadi, Uprising of Women in Arab World • Expanding citizenship • Performing identity, negotiating restrictions

  7. Closing down spaces • Shut downs – DRC October 2012 • Censorship, regulation and pornography • Misogyny and hate speech • Rape videos, privacy and consent • WHRDs – Egypt, Uganda • Defining harm, mobilising anxiety • Double standards of prosecution

  8. Who are the actors • Individual users - norms and values (Technical community; Opus Dei - .fam) • Private sector - no transparency on regulations & enforcement - tracking technologies & privacy control - privatisation of access • State - protection vs rights framework

  9. Recommendations • Extending definitions of personhood • Expanded debate on ‘right to forget’ • Engaging private sector • Engage in internet governance eg IGF • Indicators for CEDAW report cards • Post-2015 development agenda • WSIS +10

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