by Grace Anaja
The United Nations Department of Global Communications organised a CSW67 virtual side event themed ‘Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS) and Higher Education: A Space for Gender Equality‘ on Tuesday, March 14, 2023. The discussions centered on the use of information and communication technologies in universities and colleges as a way to advance, promote, and protect gender equality, while addressing related issues of gender-based violence, women’s empowerment, and greater access of women to higher education.
The moderator for the session was Jayashri Wyatt, Chief of the Education Outreach Section, and Outreach Division of the United Nations Department for Global Communications. Among the speakers were Dr. Moya Bailey, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University (United States), Dr. Mariateresa Garrido, Assistant Professor in the Department of International Law and Coordinator of the Doctoral Program, University for Peace (Costa Rica), Dr. Daniele Vieira, Assistant Professor, Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil), Dr. Judy Wajcman, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics (United Kingdom), and Dr. Bhavani Rao, Dean of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Director of the Center for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality, and UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality, Amrita University (India).
There is no doubt that institutions of higher learning play a central role in shaping and developing intellectual and learning spaces that are empowering women scholars and scholarship across all areas of academia. Women are highly underrepresented in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Statistics reveal that women’s representation is slightly more than 35% of the world’s STEM graduates. They are also a minority in scientific research and development making up less than one-third of the world’s researchers.
ICTs have the power to uplift women and girls and create pathways for gender equality especially with the massive digitization of huge sectors of economic activity and individuals’ personal engagement on social media. There are challenges related to ICTs in the perpetuation of sexist ideas, derogatory attitudes and actions towards women in digital spaces, and the promotion of gender-based violence and stigmatisation of women. These and more are the challenges that affect women’s inclusivity in ICTs.
Dr. Moya Bailey shared an animation video explaining the term, ‘misogynoir‘. It is a term she coined in 2008 to describe and better explain what was noticeable in the representation of Black women in the media, particularly social media. These representations were limited and negative, in her words ‘anti-black, racist and sexist‘. Due to how rampant it was, she coined the term to address it. Misogynoir is defined as the anti-Black racist misogyny that Black women and people read as Black women experience. It shows up through negative images and stereotypes that have devastating and real-life impacts on Black women. She gave an example of the term used in the USA, ‘welfare queen’ which was a stereotype promoted in the 80s and according to her, was created to disparage Black women seeking government assistance. The welfare queen was depicted as a Black single mother committed to taking down the government through the abuse of social services. It convinced the American public that Black women were the primary users of welfare, hence, a burden to society. Dr. Bailey believes that public policies like public housing, education, healthcare, etc., are created with misogynoir ‘baked’ into the plans. Another example is the use of drag by Black male comedians to portray stereotypes about Black women. While some might find the characters funny, they are quite problematic. They inform ideas about Black women, especially dark-skinned Black women. These characters suggest that dark-skinned Black women are unattractive, loud, unlovable and ‘over-the-top’. In her final words, she encouraged everyone to commit to defeating misogynoir by elevating whole and healthy representations of Black women and girls, and by interrupting moments where it shows up.
Dr. Mariateresa Garrido posited that intersectionality is one way ICT and higher education can promote gender equality. It is hard to talk about gender equality without considering the differences that exist among individuals. One way to create spaces for gender equality is by promoting topics in which women can participate in and open different spaces for them, framing research with the peculiarities of women and the interests of their societies. Some of the issues related to ICT include being accustomed to the immediacy of communication especially for the younger generation as regards to information for research. However, after the pandemic, the use of certain digital tools affected women differently. For instance, classes were held and courses were taken on WhatsApp for international students and those who did not have access to personal computers or stable internet connection. The downside for women was that those who had children, families, etc. found it quite hard to separate work from private communication. The use of instant messaging applications blurs the line between institutional communication and personal communication. The burden of reading messages and replying to them on time is higher for women. Policies need to be created to diminish the negative effects of technology on women such as defining work hours with instant messaging and setting boundaries for formal conversations and broadcasting of work done. In addition, institutions need to support women scholars and ensure their safety online and on social media from threats and attacks due to their publications and reports.
Dr. Daniele Vieira gave some data on a global study in 2020 that analysed the situations in higher institutions for the past 18 to 20 years globally. There were more women than men entering higher education situations in universities. The only exception was the African region where there were still more males than females in terms of enrollment. From face value, one might think this is good news seeing that historically male participation was higher. Further analysis revealed that there are some persisting inequalities, the limits to the advantage, in the institutions. For example, senior positions, leadership positions, governing bodies, decision-making positions, majority of these positions are occupied by men. With STEM, as stated, there is more participation of males which is called the horizontal gender segregation, based on subjects. An example of vertical segregation as seen in 9 Southern African countries is that though there are more females than males acquiring their Bachelors and Masters, there is an underrepresentation of women acquiring PhDs or in research levels. ICTs can be a great instrument in enabling women to have access to these opportunities – education in STEM, high-paying jobs in the digital sector. In remote communities, women and girls can be supported with digital schools and facilities. Supporting traditional campus life with the dissemination of gender rights and knowledge of the existing gender issues will go a long way in bridging the gaps. There is also a lack of alignment between the national policies and the higher institutions’ policies as certain institutions do not have policies on gender equality. As such, ICTs can help in the aforementioned dissemination of gender rights, issues and policies. Generally, ICT provides an excellent platform in overcoming some of the persisting inequalities with female participation in tertiary education.
Dr. Judy Wacjman expressed her optimism that universities, for instance, British universities, are aware of the gender divide and are introducing programs that are increasing the number of women in computer science, beyond the 13% that exists. This is because there is a skill shortage as there are not enough data scientists and roboticists. An example is the University of London that had a summer program for women who studied languages rather than mathematics and put them through an introductory course in computer science during their undergraduate studies, and they flourished which partly demystifies the kind of background one needs to get into STEM areas. These skills need to be seen as not just technical skills but socio-technical skills and change the stereotype that the average computer science graduate is a guy who designs video games. There is also the problem of female graduates transitioning to work. Fixing the problem at the level of education is not enough. Young women find it difficult to thrive in digital workplaces when they do not get promoted and there is unequal pay. There has to be an increase in the awareness of workplace cultures. Moreover, because there is a lack of women in technological design, it shows in the kind of technologies released which reflects the underrepresentation of certain groups. For example, an automated recruitment software that processes with machine learning algorithms will usually have an ideal CV (curriculum vitae) for a job applicant in a technology company being a young man from an ivy league university. We need to be aware of the social biases in technology when applying machine learning and automated decision making to security, recruitment, welfare, etc. The participation of minorities and other groups must be broadened in the design of technologies, automation and algorithms to reflect society and inequalities.
Dr. Bhavani Rao pointed out that in her work with rural women; she noticed that those who had never learned numbers had a good sense of basic mathematics and fractions. In India however, the average urban girl does not have access to a mobile phone. The boy tends to get a phone, laptop or tablet way before the sister. For rural women, access is nonexistent. Though the digital tools created are meant to create a pathway for women in higher education, women in remote areas do not even have access to technology which is a huge problem in developing countries. Sometimes, the women who manage to get their hands on these tools do not know how to use them well, get into trouble and the tools are collected from them which reinforces the vicious cycle of not giving women access to technology because they do not know how to use it. Concerning STEM women in higher institutions, we need to keep track of them by having gender-disaggregated data as they leave so that the gender issues can be addressed. Women scholars need to project themselves more, improve their online presence as professionals and work on their profiles just as their male counterparts. Technology only amplifies stories, good or bad. Women need to make sure that their vulnerabilities are intrinsically reduced so that ICTs can amplify those stories.
The backlash for women in male-dominated spaces is not new. However, it manifests itself differently in digital spaces and the ICTs due to the emerging digital world. Interventions must be made in earnest as having women programmers, Artificial Intelligence researchers and designers is critical to ending the misogynistic biases embedded in the internet and other digital platforms. Beyond these, more work needs to be done on women’s and girls’ mentality to change certain fundamental mindsets. We must start early and we must start now.
