WOMEN’S RIGHTS ONLINE
Closing the digital gender gap for a more equal world
October 2020

CONTENTS
Executive Summary

4

Introduction

8

1. The Gender Gap in “Meaningful Connectivity”

11

Moving from basic access to ‘Meaningful Connectivity’

12

Barriers to meaningful connectivity and internet use

14

2. Women’s Experiences Using the Internet and Barriers to Participation

17

Finding and verifying information online

18

Privacy, data protection and trust

20

From content consumption to creation

23

3. Policy Action to Close the Digital Gender Gap

25

Policy Recommendations
Appendix: Methodology

25
30

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
AUTHORS:
Report led by Chenai Chair, Ingrid Brudivg and Calum Cameron with support from Dhanaraj Thakur, Carlos Iglesias and
Ana Rodriguez.
LOCAL PROJECT PARTNERS:
Colombia: Olga Paz, Marcya Hernández, Beatriz Alarcón and Dana Beltrán (Colnodo)
Indonesia: Paksi Walandouw (Lemboga Demografi FE UI) & Widuri (ICTWatch)
Ghana: Richard Boateng (University of Ghana) & Jemilah Abdulai (Circumspecte)
Uganda: Hannington Obang (Uganda Communications Commission); Dr. Evelyn Lutwama-Rukundo,
Mrs. Marjorie Edith Kasozi Sseruwo, Mr. Francis Wasswa & Neema Iyer, Bonnita Nyamwire and Phillip Ayazika (Pollicy)
Suggested citation: World Wide Web Foundation (2020). Women’s Rights Online: Closing the digital gender gap for a moreequal world. Web Foundation.

This report is made available under a Creative Commons 4.0 International licence
For media or other inquiries: press@webfoundation.org.

Executive Summary
he internet, with its great potential
for economic opportunity andsocial empowerment, has long beencelebrated as a force for greater
equality — breaking down barriers for thosepreviously held back by their geography,
wealth, race, class and gender. But while
digital connectivity has improved life forbillions of people, it is falling short on its
promise to beat back inequality.

T

While disappointing, this is unsurprising. Digitalinequality is both a consequence, and a cause, of
broader inequalities. Typically marginalised groups
are less likely to have internet access and when
they are online they face additional challenges inusing the internet to its full potential. If we’re toachieve our goal of building a better, fairer digital
future, that must change.

This report provides a global
snapshot of the state of digital
gender inequality and illustrates
the barriers that women face inaccessing and using the internet.
Around the world, fewer women than men
use the internet. Web Foundation analysis has
found men are 21% more likely to be online
than women — rising to 52% in the world’s least
developed countries (LDCs). And this gender gap
in internet access continues to grow. Data fromthe International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
suggests that globally it has increased by 55%
between 2013 to 2019.

The gap in internet access is just one elementof a much greater digital gender divide. This
divide includes all of the ways that women areless able to use and influence the technology thatis reshaping our world. There are many ways theinternet we have today is not working equallywell for men and women, from gaps in quality ofconnectivity and digital skills, to the threats that
disproportionately impact the safety and rights ofwomen and girls — all of which prevent womenfrom fully benefiting from the opportunities that
digital technology offers.
Left unchallenged, the growing divide
threatens progress on gender equality.
The internet is one of the most empowering
technologies the world has ever seen, but unless
women are equally able to benefit from it, thegender divide risks driving further inequality.

Evidence from four countries
across three regions
There is a need for greater research in this space
to deepen our understanding of the digital genderdivide and to shape the policy responses needed
to close it. This report, building on previous
research from the Web Foundation, contributes
new evidence about women’s experiences onlinefrom Global South countries. We surveyed
almost 10,000 women and men across four
countries — Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia andUganda — to find out whether and how they
use the internet, and their experiences using
the internet. The surveys are complemented byqualitative focus groups with women and men and
key informant interviews with government and civilsociety representatives.

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Executive Summary

GHANA
COLOMBIAThis is what we found:Internet access and meaningfulconnectivity▶ Encouraging results on basic internet

access: The gender gap in basic internet accessin these countries was largely positive. Our survey
found all countries besides Uganda had far smaller
gaps than global figures. In Ghana, the gender gap
in internet access was just 5.8%, while Colombia
and Indonesia were near-parity. Uganda has
further to go with a gender gap of 43%, though thisis still lower than the regional average for Africa of
49.6%1.

▶ Women experience a second-rate internet:
In this report we go beyond basic access tounderstand the quality of internet people have,using the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI)
Meaningful Connectivity Target to measure thesecountries against minimum thresholds for regularaccess, an appropriate device, enough data anda fast connection. When using this more robust
measure of access, gender gaps reappear.
In Colombia and Ghana, which both have small
gender gaps in basic access, the gap in meaningfulconnectivity was 17% and 14% respectively. Given
that important online tasks increasingly demand

UGANDAINDONESIA

more bandwidth, reducing the gender gap inmeaningful connectivity must be the goal forgovernments that are committed to digital equality.

▶ Multiple barriers to internet access: We
asked participants about some of the barriers
preventing or limiting their internet use. Theiranswers included time and financial constraints,
poor service availability and quality, and a lack ofdigital skills.


The affordability of data emerged as
one of the biggest factors, with 22%
of non-internet users saying the cost of data
packages kept them offline while 25% of users
said this limited their use. This is in line with
A4AI findings that the cost of data and devices is
keeping people offline in great numbers. Amonginternet users in rural areas, women were 14%
more likely than men to say cost limited how
much they could use the internet.
A lack of digital skills was also ranked
highly as a barrier to access, with 45%
of non-internet users citing this as a key reason
they do not use the internet. Digital literacy wasa particular barrier for women in rural areas,
with half of non internet users saying a lack of
know-how kept them offline, compared with 45%
of rural men.

1. The regional connectivity gender gap for Africa is 49.6% based on our women-centered analysis of ITU data.

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Executive Summary“COVID-19 has been the most disruptive global force in a generation. And where there is disruption,
there is the potential to rebuild, reimagine, and create a radically better world. We can allow thecoronavirus crisis to reinforce the worst impacts of the digital gender divide; or we can use the crisis
to accelerate change, expand horizons, and get millions of girls and women online.” — UN Women
Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka & Plan international CEO Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen

Women’s experiences using theinternet
Our survey found women are less likely to becreators of content when they do get online. Men
were far more likely to engage in a range of online
activities, including:
Posting comments about political, social
or economic issues (men 29% more likely).
Selling products or advertising a service(men 29% more likely).
Publishing a blog post(men 22% more likely).

Relevant content is critical toencourage people to use the web.
Without women’s full participation as
creators, the internet will continue
to be built with a bias towards maleperspectives and miss out on the fullknowledge, talent and contributions of
all of society.
With fewer women on the internet, and womenless likely to create online content, there is a
shortage of women-created content to engage
other women and encourage them to stay online
and create content themselves.

▶ Women are more concerned about theirprivacy online. Across a range of personal data
categories, we found women more concerned about
their privacy than men, including private messages,
home addresses and healthcare information.
Focus group participants talked explicitly about
the consequences of having their personal data
misused, including experiencing and witnessing
online harassment and online abuse, and that thisincreased online vulnerability means the right toprivacy and data protection is particularly important.

▶ Women have less trust in online companies.
Consistent with caring more about privacy issues,
women were also more skeptical with regard totech companies using their data responsibly. 54%
of female respondents said they would not allow
companies to use any of their data, comparedwith 47% of men. Focus group participants said
their trust in companies was related to the degreeof control they have when agreeing to termsof service, and they expressed frustration thatcompanies offer an all-or-nothing approach topersonal data. They also pointed out that thecomplexity of these terms of service means mostpeople do not read them, raising questions about
whether people understand what they’re agreeing
to with respect to companies’ use of their data,
particularly for users with lower levels of literacy.

Closing the digital gender gap
for a more equal world
The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored thecritical importance of internet access in today’s
world while revealing the brutal inequalities alonglines of wealth, geography, age and gender thatleave some more vulnerable to the virus andits impacts. For the billions of women who haveinadequate or zero internet access, being without
this lifeline has devastating consequences. And as
women play a disproportionate role as frontline
workers, caregivers and educators, the gender gap
has further costs for families, communities andeconomies.
Everyone benefits when we close the digital
gender divide. Digital equality is important not
only for individual rights and empowerment,
but also as a vital driver of economic growthand prosperity. Inclusive economies are stronger
economies, and inclusive digital development willbe critical as countries look to bounce back fromthe Covid-19 crisis.

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Executive Summary

We urgently need to close the digital gender divide
and make sure that women and girls are able tofully participate online without fear for their safetyor their rights. Until we do, the internet will continue
to work against progress on gender equality.
Digital technologies will not automaticallyempower marginalised people and breaktraditional power structures without long term
investment and commitment to overcome
existing inequalities online. This report highlights
key areas, with specific steps, that governments
and companies must focus on to enable a truly
gender-inclusive digital world.

Collect and publish genderdata in the technology
sector
To make policies that address the specificneeds of women, decision makers need genderdisaggregated data, taking into account specificexperiences of men and women. However,less than half of countries report data on thepercentage of men and women using the internet
and few countries collect any other gender ICT
data. Governments should commit to collecting
gender data on the technology sector regularly andto publishing it openly for others to use.

Adopt Meaningful
Connectivity as the target
for internet use
and tackle the gender gap
This report shows that the current definition
used to measure internet use masks the true
extent of the digital gender divide. The meaningfulconnectivity target gives a fuller picture of thequality of internet access people experience, andcan help policymakers design better policies toclose the digital gender gap and connect more
people to a useful, empowering internet.

Promote digital skills and
ICT education for womenand girls
Digital literacy is one of the biggest barriers tointernet use and women and girls are mostimpacted by a lack of digital skills. This is influenced
by factors such as education access, income
inequality, access to digital devices, and culturalbiases discouraging women and girls fromusing technology. Governments must invest in
and promote digital skills and information andcommunication technology (ICT) education to
encourage women and girls to use the internet,
create content online and navigate the online
world safely.

Support women’s
participation in technology
development, local content
creation and ICT innovation
To close the digital gender gap, women must
be equal digital creators and producers. Today,
women make up less than a third of professionals
in the technology sector. If the majority oftechnology creators are men, the design oftechnology, products and services could be biased
towards men. Companies might lack important
perspectives to make policies, products andservices that reach and benefit more people.
Governments should develop national strategies
to support technology education, innovationand leadership for women and girls so that theirperspectives are reflected in the design anddevelopment of technology.

Safeguard the online
privacy of womenand girls
Women and girls face disproportionate risks totheir data rights online, particularly in the form of
online abuse, harassment and threats of violence.
This means that violation of women’s personal
data rights can have an exaggerated impact on
their other human rights, such as freedom of
expression, assembly, and psychological andphysical safety. Both governments and companies
have a role to play to keep people safe byprotecting the right to privacy — which in turnmakes the web safer for women, and for everyone.

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6Introduction
he internet is one of the mosttransformative technologies theworld has ever seen, upending
politics, sparking social movements andchanging how we live, work and play. But
though revolutionary in many ways, theinternet also reflects and reinforces existing
power structures in society — and can create
new inequalities that limit its potential to bea transformative force for digital equality.
This is evident in the digital gender dividethat exists between men and women.

T

A stubborn digital genderdivide
Women are less likely than men to have accessto and use the internet in developing and leastdeveloped countries. Globally, they less frequently
create online content, run web-based businesses
or work as developers building internet platforms.
Women and girls are also more likely than men
to face online harassment, abuse and threats ofviolence. As Tim Berners-Lee wrote on the web’s
31st birthday, too often the web does not work
for women and girls.
The reasons for this digital gender gap aremany — from economic and education
imbalances between men and women, tocultural expectations and traditional genderroles, to policies that fail to tackle systematic
inequalities. These, of course, vary acrosscountries and contexts.

What is the digital gender divide?
We define the gender digital divide asreflecting the inequalities between men
and women in internet access and use2.
Though often understood as the gap
between the number of men and women
who can use the internet, the digital
gender divide goes beyond access. Women
across the world face unique barriers to
fully benefiting from the internet, ranging
from digital skills and education gaps, toaffordability barriers worsened by income
inequality, to online harassment andinfringements on digital rights. And, with ashortage of women working in technology,
online platforms and services are often
not designed with women’s needs in mind.
To fully empower women online, closing
the digital gender divide means addressing
all the ways women are less able to use
and benefit from the internet.

But none of the drivers of digital inequality arebeyond the reach of decision makers to change
through smart policy. They must do so as a matterof urgency. As more of the world goes online andthe internet becomes a central arena for social,economic and political life, being unable to use theinternet fully has a dire impact on people’s rights
and opportunities — online and offline.

Unless the digital gender divide isclosed quickly, progress on genderequality — which has already been
frustratingly slow — will be at risk.
2. This includes access to infrastructure; ICT/internet enabled devices such as smartphones, tablets and computers and use of internet based platforms and services.

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7Introduction

The Covid-19 crisis has made meaningful access tothe internet even more critical. For the billions ofpeople who have inadequate or no internet access,being without this lifeline can have catastrophic
consequences, leaving them without access tocritical health information, cut off from loved ones
and stripped of their livelihoods.
As women play a disproportionate role as
frontline workers, caregivers and educators, thegender gap also has a huge knock on cost forfamilies, communities and economies. The Web
Foundation and the Alliance for Affordable
Internet (A4AI) have urged governments andcompanies to take immediate action to keeppeople connected and expand internet access as
the pandemic continues to affect lives around theworld.
The digital gender divide is not only about
inequalities in the technology women and men
have access to, but how they are able to usethat technology and the threats it poses totheir safety, rights and opportunities. Digitalequality means considering all of these factors asa whole, and building an online space that serves
everyone equally without replication of existingsocial inequalities of gender, race, income, age or
any other factor.

Building evidence anddeveloping policy to closethe digital gender gap
Despite clear benefits for increasing women’s
online participation, very few countries —particularly in the Global South — havetechnology policies and strategies that target
the gender digital divide. Moreover, mostcountries do not collect the data they needto understand the issue and formulate policy
to address it. Just 24 countries in Africa andAsia submit sex-disaggregated data on internet
access to the International Telecommunications
Union, the UN agency that tracks informationand communication technology (ICT) data. Many
countries do not conduct any surveys on ICT
access and use.
In addition to a lack of data on ICTs and genderfrom governments, there have been few global
research initiatives focused on women’s unique
use and experience of ICTs, leaving researchers,
policymakers and technologists with little evidence
on which to base decisions.
This report seeks to fill in some of this gap,
providing a picture of the digital gender gap
as it stands today, based on surveys of almost
10,000 women and men in four countries
across three regions in the Global South,
looking at how they are able to use the internet
today and the barriers they face.
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8Section 1: The Gender Gap in ‘MeaningfulIntroduction
Connectivity’

Nationally representative
surveys in four countries

Towards a gender-inclusive
connected society

We conducted nationally representative household
and individual surveys in Colombia, Ghana,Indonesia and Uganda. These countries wereselected on the basis of their regional diversity,
covering Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia.

This report aims to better understand the ways
women are kept from participating fully in our
digital world and offers policy recommendations
for governments and companies to close thedigital gender gap and make the internet a safeand empowering space for women and girls
everywhere.

Each country also has unique characteristics:
Colombia, where the gender gap in basic internet
access has been closed; Ghana, one of the regional
leaders for internet uptake in Africa; Indonesia
where a complex island archipelago geography has
special challenges for internet infrastructure andaccess; and Uganda where low levels of internet
access are further challenged by regressive policies
such as a social media tax.
The surveys were complemented by qualitative
focus groups and key informant interviews in
those countries. While each country and regionis unique, by using statistical analysis and drawing
from qualitative discussion across four regions, wehighlight globally-relevant issues around women’s
online experiences.
This report builds on groundbreaking researchfrom the Women’s Rights Online network —a partnership of organisations working for
digital gender equality, hosted by the Web
Foundation. The 2015 ‘Translating Access into
Empowerment’ report revealed the severity of thedigital gender gap, finding women were 50% lesslikely to have internet access than men in urban
poor communities in countries of the Global South— and 30-50% less likely to use the internet forfinding information, sharing opinions and pursuingeconomic opportunities — making clear that theinternet was recreating offline inequalities.

We present trends in internet use andexamine barriers that women face to using
the internet fully and freely — zoning in on
how women consume and produce content,
and their awareness and exercise of theirrights over personal data and information.
This report will be followed by country-specificreports that present data gathered in each of thefour countries in more detail and provide policy
recommendations specific to those countries.

For the internet to meet its potential
as a force for empowerment andgender equality, every country
must urgently step up and invest in
gender-responsive ICT policies now.

Five years on, has the digital gender divide beenclosed? Sadly not. While more women are now
online, globally the gap between men and womenwith access to the internet has grown indicating
the increase of men online. And as this reportunderlines, there remain substantial divides
between men and women in quality of access,internet use and digital empowerment.

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91

The Gender Gap in‘Meaningful Connectivity’

he gap in internet access between
men and women is large andcontinues to grow, across regions andglobally. Web Foundation analysis has foundthat men are 21% more likely to be online
than women — rising to 52% more likely inthe world’s least developed countries (LDCs).

T

The internet is one of the empowering tools of ourtime. This gender gap in internet access means
hundreds of millions of women and girls are
missing out on opportunities to use the internet tolearn new skills, start businesses, access healthcare
and advice, transfer cash, and much besides.
According to International Telecommunications
Union (ITU) data, the global gender gap in access
has increased by 55% between 2013 to 2019.

Left unchallenged, this growing
divide threatens progress on
women’s equality.
Bodies like the United Nations (UN) haverecognised that access to the internet is criticalto individual and global development — and havecodified this into various internet access targets.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs)
include a target for universal internet access by
2020 and SDG 5 on gender equality specificallyadvocates for women’s empowerment throughICTs. The Web Foundation however, estimatesthat only 57% of people will have internet
access by the end of 2020. One of the factors
behind this gulf is a stubborn gender gap inaccess. It is impossible to meet these ambitious
connectivity targets without dramatically increasing
internet access for women.

The Web Foundation’s Women’s Rights Online
research partners have been monitoring the
progress of countries around the world towards
meeting the SDG targets on women andtechnology with our Digital Gender Gap Audit
Scorecards. Governments across the world are
not doing nearly enough to tackle the barriers towomen’s digital access and empowerment, and tomeet the SDG targets by 2030.

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10Section 1: The Gender Gap in ‘Meaningful Connectivity’

Moving from basic access to‘Meaningful Connectivity’
The digital gender gap is about more than basic
internet access. The metric most commonly used
to measure internet access today is “someone
having used the internet in any form in thelast three months”. But this metric captures only
the first step towards meaningful internet use.
Beyond basic access, there are a number factorsthat define how useful the internet actually is forpeople. That is why the Alliance for Affordable
Internet (A4AI), a Web Foundation initiative,
introduced “Meaningful Connectivity” — a target
that differentiates levels of internet access.
The meaningful connectivity target focuses on four
components of connectivity: regular internet use;
an appropriate device; enough data; and a fast
connection. It sets minimum thresholds people
need around each of these components in order
to use the internet in useful and empowering ways.

To bridge the digital gender divide— and support gender equality
at-large — we need to understand
not only inequalities in internet
access, but get a full picture of how
women’s experiences online diverge
from men.
Meaningful connectivity provides us one lens to
do so — and the results that follow show the hugescale of the work needed to be done in the fightfor digital gender equality.
To calculate the meaningful connectivity score
for a country, we take the average score acrossall four thresholds outlined in Box 1. These areweighted equally as we assume each threshold isequally important3. This approach means that thescore calculated at the country level is not a direct
measure of individuals’ meaningful connectivity,
but rather how countries score across the fourthresholds.

The Meaningful Connectivity Target
The meaningful connectivity target is a tool toraise the bar for internet access and set more
ambitious policy goals for digital development.
It sets minimum thresholds across the four
dimensions of internet access that mattermost to users:▶ Regular internet use
Minimum threshold: Daily use▶ An appropriate device
Minimum threshold: Access to a smartphone▶ Enough data
Minimum threshold: An unlimited broadband
connection▶ A fast connection
Minimum threshold: 4G mobile connectivity

It is clear that, across Colombia, Ghana andIndonesia, the gender gap in meaningfulconnectivity4 is larger than the gap in internet
access (see Table 1). In Colombia, for instance,
where internet access between men and women
has reached near-parity, there is a 17% gender gap
in meaningful connectivity. While women and men
are online in equal numbers, men are likely to havea better quality connection with better devices,
faster speeds, more data and more regularinternet use (see Table 2). In Colombia, we foundthat 51% of men have a 4G connection comparedwith 36% of women.
In Colombia, Ghana and Indonesia, the gender
gap in basic access we found using our womencentered approach5 is encouraging — farnarrower than what we see in regional data.
However, given that even in these high performing
countries, gender gaps in meaningful connectivity
are larger than access gaps — particularly in
Colombia and Ghana — we can expect thatcountries with large divides in basic access will
perform worse still on the critical areas measured
as part of meaningful connectivity.

3. The Meaningful Connectivity report provides more detail on the score of the four thresholds in each country.
4. ibid
5. We take a women-centered approach to calculating the gender gap. Women are used as a reference group to place emphasis on the disparityand disadvantages faced by women [(% of women using the internet – % of men using the internet) / % of women using the internet].

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11Section 1: The Gender Gap in ‘Meaningful Connectivity’

Table 1: Meaningful Connectivity & Internet Use6

COLOMBIAGHANA

INDONESIAUGANDA

Internet AccessInternet AccessInternet AccessInternet Access

84.1%

30.3%

77.6%

23.2%

Gender Gap:
0.9%

Gender Gap:
5.8%

Gender Gap:
-0.1%

Gender Gap:
42.9%

83.7%

84.5%

29.4%

31.2%

77.6%

77.5%

Meaningful
Connectivity

Meaningful
Connectivity

Meaningful
Connectivity

50.9%

12.5%

50.2%

Gender Gap:
16.9%

Gender Gap:
14.9%

Gender Gap:
2.6%

47.1%

55.1%

11.7%

13.4%

49.5%

19.2%

27.9%

Uganda is excluded from
the Meaningful Connectivity
calculations because of data
limitations. See note in the
Methodology under the
Appendix for more details.

50.8%

Source: A4AI 2020 | 2020 Web Foundation nationally representative household survey data in Colombia, Ghana, Uganda and Indonesia

Uganda still has a low level of internet accessoverall, and a substantial gender gap in accessof 42% which is slightly lower than the African
region’s digital gender gap of 50%7 in internet
access. Unfortunately, methodological issues
means we do not have a meaningful connectivity
score for Uganda8, but the access gap makes clearthat the government must focus resources onconnecting women as it invests to bring more of its
population online.

Large gender gaps for meaningful connectivity
thresholds in Colombia, where near-parity inaccess has been reached for example, suggest
governments must develop policies beyond basic
access to ensure women benefit equally fromdigital technologies (Table 1). In Ghana, with justa third of the population connected, solutions
to address access should also take into accountmeaningful connectivity thresholds.

Reaching parity on basic internet
access should be seen as part of theprocess — not the end goal.
6. Calculations done using data to 13 decimal points. Any inconsistencies to gaps shown here are a rounding effect. See original data.
7. Based on our women-centered approach and using ITU regional data
8. See note on data limitations in the Methodology under the Appendix.

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12Section 1: The Gender Gap in ‘Meaningful Connectivity’

Table 2: % of population that meet meaningful connectivity thresholds
Smartphone
accessCOLOMBIAGHANA
INDONESIA

Unlimitedconnection

4G connection

Daily use

70%

36%

39%

43%

72%

51%

48%

50%

31%

5%

3%

8%

33%

8%

4%

9%

77%

24%

25%

67%

76%

29%

26%

67%

Source: Women Rights Online Nationally representative survey data in Colombia, Ghana and Indonesia, 20209

In today’s world, where the internet is used to accesshealth information, learn online, work remotely andstream and share video entertainment, meaningfulconnectivity — with regular access, enough data,
fast speeds and an adequate device — is critical.
Moving from targeting equality in basic access tomeaningful connectivity is vital to empower womenand men, and to drive competitive, inclusive digital
economies that harness everyone’s knowledge andtalent.

Barriers to meaningfulconnectivity and internet use
Our survey underlines the large gender gaps
across the four thresholds of meaningfulconnectivity. The data also speaks to some of
the barriers that need to be addressed to reachmeaningful connectivity targets.

Service quality and availability
The rural-urban divide continues to be a deep
source of inequality with internet access far
more scarce in rural areas. In addressing digital
gender gaps, it is important to take this context
into account to avoid a “one size fits all” policy
approach. We asked internet users what prevented
them from using the internet more frequently.
22% of women living in rural areas cited unreliable
service and 19% said there was no service available
at all. This was a much less pressing issue for theircounterparts in urban areas who listed thesereasons at 13% and 12% respectively (Table 3). In
countries with lower overall internet use where
infrastructure is less developed, the urban-rural
divide is greater still. In Ghana, 34% and 29% of
women in rural areas cited unreliable service/no
service as barriers, compared with 21% and 15% of
women in urban areas citing those issues.

As we advocate for policies that work according tocontext, we also nuance the differences amongst
women as we contrast the challenges for womenin urban areas and women in rural areas. Thisapproach highlights the need for policy approaches
that are aware of different contexts.

9. See note on data limitations in the Methodology under the Appendix.

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13Section 1: The Gender Gap in ‘Meaningful Connectivity’Time

Affordability

Having enough time in the day is a key factor
impacting internet use. 25% of participants
who are internet users cited a lack of time as
limiting more frequent internet use. This was abigger factor in particular for women in urban
areas (26%) in comparison to women in rural
areas (18%) (Table 3). While it is a significant issue
for both men and women, as highlighted by UN
Women, women face the double burden of workas they carry out paid activities and unpaid carework — including childcare, cooking, cleaning
and farming — essential for households andeconomies to function. In our findings looking at
activity and employment, we found that 20% of
women in urban areas and 16% women in rural
areas who cite time (Table 3) as a limitation were
homemakers or housewives.

Income levels impact internet use for both
men and women. Around the world, women
still earn less than men, with a 50% income
gap overall and a 40% wage gap for men andwomen in similar positions, according to theWorld Economic Forum Global Gender Gap
Report. In addition, challenges to accessing
credit, land or financial products make it moredifficult for women — and female-headedhouseholds in particular — to afford internet
access. The affordability of data plans emerged
as a limitation for rural participants, particularly
women, impacting their ability to access a quality
connection on a daily basis (Table 3). AcrossColombia, Ghana and Indonesia, 33% of womenin rural areas listed affordability as a limitation tomore internet use, compared with 26% of womenin urban areas. Looking at non internet users,
we find that, regardless of gender and location,affordability of data plans is a barrier.

None of the men surveyed who cited time as alimitation reported being home makers. Women
spend on average 4.1 hours per day on unpaid
care work in contrast to men at 1.7 hours. The
imbalance in unpaid care work (and its impact ontime-use) highlights that solutions to close thedigital gender gap need to take wider societal
gendered inequalities into account.

Table 3: Top factors limiting more frequent use for internet users (% of people)
Total
I cannot afford the mobile
data plan/internet service

25%

The service is unreliable(no good connection)

19%

The service is unavaialble(no connection at all)14%

I don’t have time

25%

Rural users

Urban users

33%

26%

29%

25%

22%

13%

29%

17%

19%

12%

17%

13%

18%

26%

23%

28%

Source: Women Rights Online Nationally representative survey data in Colombia, Ghana, and Uganda 202010

10. See note on data limitations in the Methodology under the Appendix.

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14Section 1: The Gender Gap in ‘Meaningful Connectivity’

Table 4: Top barriers to internet use for non-users (% of people)
Total
I cannot afford the mobile
data plan/internet service

22%

Price of mobile phone orother device is too expensive

32%

I don’t know how to use it

45%

I don’t have a device (phone,tablet, computer, etc.)

31%

Rural users

Urban users

22%

22%

22%

23%

33%

30%

34%

30%

50%

45%

45%

36%

34%

28%

34%

28%

Source: Women Rights Online Nationally representative survey data in Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia and Uganda 2020

Digital skills
Along with affordability, a lack of digital skills is oneof the biggest barriers to internet use. Among
those not using the internet, 45% of recipients
cited not knowing how to use it as a significant
barrier (Table 4). But there is a clear gender gap
in digital literacy, particularly in urban areas where
45% of women said they didn’t use the internet
because they don’t know how to, compared with
36% of men. The lack of digital skills is more of
an issue in Indonesia than in any other country
with, on average, 78% of non internet users citing
skills as a barrier. There is clearly a need for digital
literacy and skills programmes in both rural andurban areas, with a particular focus on women.

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2

Women’s Experiences
Using the Internet andBarriers to Participation“First and foremost, and the key, I use the internet to work. I’m a social media marketer specialised incontent marketing and social media management. I use the internet to work; I use it to send e-mails,
and I use it for fun as well. I use it for my advocacy stuff that I do, and to reach out to people in
Ghana, outside Ghana and all over. Yes, I use it for almost everything; I’m always on my phone or
laptop, so I use it for everything.” — Ghana urban female participant, November 2019he goal of connecting more womenand girls to the internet is not an
end in itself — and we cannot stop at
access. Bridging the digital divide and making
sure women have meaningful connectivity
is ultimately about expanding rights andopportunities for everyone. And as more
women connect, we need to make sure theinternet they find is safe, empowering andrespects their human rights.

T

This section examines findings that emerge fromour research that impact women’s full use of theinternet, specifically around accessing information,
perceptions of trust, privacy and data protection,and safe online engagement. The findings help
shed light on some of the issues that need to beaddressed to ensure women are not discouraged
from using the internet, and that they can be
guaranteed of their rights online.

That means examining and understanding thedifferent experiences men and women have
online today, so that policymakers, technologists
and others take action to ensure the internet is fit
for everyone now and in the future — and does
not perpetuate the inequalities that exist offline,
whether along lines of gender, raceor other factors, or create new
inequalities. Otherwise we will
see an extension and exacerbationof familiar systematic barriers
for certain groups to equallyparticipate in economic, politicaland social life.

www.webfoundation.org
16Section 2: Women’s Experiences Using the Internet and Barriers to Participation“As a housewife, internet access is for interacting through social media; internet access is very helpful
for children learning. My children are still in primary school. When they have an exam, some students
do not have a school book and I as a parent also browse through Google (to assist them11).” —Indonesia female rural participant, October 2019
“Now it is very common to find several links that are fake because let’s say when one clicks on thoseyou can tell looking at the type of writing, the way in which the ideas are exposed, you realise thatthey are not totally reliable sources.” — Colombia female urban participant, January 2020

Finding and verifying
information online
At its core, the web is a tool for sharing andfinding information. Everyone depends on searchengines and social media to navigate the internet
and access information for a range of purposes,
from health information and entertainment, toagricultural activities, job hunting and business
opportunities. One of the biggest worries emerging
from our research around accessing information
online was the accuracy of content and the growthof misinformation, echoing rising concerns aroundthe spread and damage of misinformation anddisinformation in countries around the world —particularly during Covid-19 in relation to healthand political misinformation.
Being able to determine the credibility of
information is particularly important in Ghana,Indonesia and Uganda where there are laws
and regulations that may be used to criminalise
the creation or sharing of misinformation anddisinformation12.

While respondents cited misinformation as a major
concern, still less than half (47%) of respondents
across the four countries said they took steps toverify online information against other sources.
Here there was also a gender difference, with 45%
of women saying they have verified information,compared with 49% of men. In Colombia thisgender divide was greater, with only 47% of
women verifying information compared with 57%
of men.

There are a number of factors
impacting whether people arelikely to verify the information theyread online, including being able toaccess content in a language they
can understand, their educational
background and digital skills, andtheir ability to afford enough data tobrowse other sources online.

One of the important ways to verify
information is by looking at other, credible
online sources, such as public health agency
websites or credible news outlets.

11. Clarity by authors on context from the focus group discussion
12. Governments should pass regulation designed to limit misinformation and disinformation online, in line with human rights standards. Governments should not use laws
intended to curb misinformation as a back door to limiting freedom of expression, of peaceful association and assembly, and the freedom to access information. For more, readour brief on misinformation and free speech in the Covid-19 context.

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17Section 2: Women’s Experiences Using the Internet and Barriers to Participation

If women and men of all backgrounds are to
use the internet to access and validate relevant
content, there needs to be more diversity inlanguages of content to meet people’s varying
needs.
Beyond access to relevant content, we also
found that education has a significant positive
relationship to whether people verified information
online.14 Because women in many countries havefewer educational opportunities than men, andbecause there is a gender gap in digital skills(Table 4), this may impact their ability to verify
information.

People need access to content they canunderstand, and we found that across all four
countries we studied, frequent access to local
language content resulted in a higher likelihood ofparticipants verifying information13. Many people
globally struggle to find a wide range of content
in their language because online content is not
representative of the language comprehension of
all internet users. While 16% of the world speaks
English as a first or second language (native
English speakers make up just 5% of the global
population), estimates suggest almost 60% of
websites are English-language. This leaves muchof the world with limited content to explore and tovalidate information they do find.

Finally, data affordability is a factor impacting
whether people are likely to verify information
online. When the cost of internet packages
is restrictive for many people, this limits
what they can do online, including verifying
information. Women’s lower earning-power
throughout the world means many women face
additional financial pressure and may not be able
to consume as much internet data, if they are
online at all. In Ghana, for example, our study
found a significant relationship between income
levels and the likelihood of individuals verifying
online information.15 This evidence shows thecomplex interplay of issues spanning content,
education, income and other factors that impact
people’s ability to do something as simple as findand validate information online. Our researchunderscores the importance of understanding thevarious ways in which inequalities emerge, andtackling them in a holistic way.

13. Availability of local language content has a significant positive impact on the probability of verifying information in each country: Colombia - 0.045***; Ghana - 0.102***;Indonesia - 0.075*** and Uganda - 0.062*** Robust standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
14. Education has a significant positive impact on the probability of verifying information in each country:: Colombia - 0.099***; Ghana-0.053**; Indonesia -0.044** and Uganda 0.096*** Robust standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
15. Wealth has a positive significant effect on verifying information in Ghana at 0.215***. Robust standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0www.webfoundation.org
18Section 2: Women’s Experiences Using the Internet and Barriers to Participation“I’m very concerned about my privacy. Because in some cases, if you are not very concerned, you will
later find out that what you posted will then be posted elsewhere, and it will go against you.”— Ghana rural female respondent, November 2019
“Because as a lady I get many stalkers offline. Now imagine what will happen when I put all mypersonal information online. I feel violated if I keep getting contacted by strangers.”— Uganda urban female participant, October 2019

Privacy, data protection
and trust
Trust is an important factor influencing how people
use online spaces and digital tools. If people do
not trust companies, governments, or others tohandle their personal data properly, their desire
to participate actively on the internet will bediminished, creating chilling effects that impact
their online opportunities.
This survey presents evidence that privacy isa more significant concern for women thanmen, suggesting that strong data protection
guarantees are particularly important toincrease trust in online services and tosafeguard equality in rights and freedoms for
women online.
Our findings show that women are moreconcerned about the privacy of their personal
data in categories such as private messages,
personal data of family members, medical records
and home addresses (Table 5). And women areconcerned about the potential harms they face if
this information is misused.

People face a multitude of harms if their personal
information is misused, and women are particularly
at risk. It is a basic violation of women’s right toprivacy when their personal data is shared withindividuals and audiences other than those they
intended to share it with, or used for purposes
other than those they agreed to. Their information
could be inappropriately shared by individuals
or entities who might be entitled to access it for
specific purposes, such as family, friends, doctors,
companies or government agencies. In somecases, hackers or other bad actors may accesspersonal information and share it with others.

Table 5: Concerns about
personal data privacy (%)

Private message
Personal data offamily members
Medical records
Home address

89%
85%
81%
77%
70%
65%
69%
61%

Source: Women Rights Online Nationally representative survey
data in Colombia, Ghana, Uganda and Indonesia 2020 16

16. See note on data limitations under the Methodology in the Appendix.

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19Section 2: Women’s Experiences Using the Internet and Barriers to Participation“Out of the 36 apps we tested, we found that 61% automatically transfer data to Facebook the
moment a user opens the app. This happens whether the user has a Facebook account or not, andwhether they are logged into Facebook or not. We also found that some of those apps routinely send
Facebook incredibly detailed and sometimes sensitive personal data. Again, it didn’t matter if people
were logged out of Facebook or didn’t have an account.” — Privacy International, 2019.

Data privacy and gender-based
violence
The Women of Uganda Network, has
highlighted the growing trend in the sharing
of non-consensual intimate images of women,
often perpetrated by partners or ex-partners.
For example, in 2014, Ugandan celebrity
Desire Luzinda had intimate photos andvideos shared by her ex-partner, which led toonline abuse, as well as harassment by law
authorities and government ministries. As is
all-too-frequent in some countries, she waswas arrested and charged with spreading
pornography, leading to her revictimisation. In
another 2019 case, socialite Martha Kay was
blackmailed and her private photos released
online, leading to threats of violence. Twomen have been charged for robbery of herphones and using electronic communications
to harass her, with intent to place her underreasonable fear for her safety.

While online privacy issues affect everyone, womenare disproportionately affected by serious privacy
violations in some areas17, like doxxing, the sharing
of non-consensual images, cyberstalking, andsurveillance via connected devices by abusive
partners. Online gender-based violence is a
substantial and growing trend and many womenare understandably concerned about their online
safety, including who can access their informationand online profiles. Not only are these harms
violations of women’s privacy, but they also impact
women’s physical and psychological safety, and canadversely impact women’s freedoms of expression
and assembly and their professional, economic,
and educational opportunities. Protecting women’s
personal data, information and privacy is critical toupholding these other rights and freedoms.
Women on average had lower levels of trust in
private companies across the four countries
surveyed, with 54% stating they would notallow companies to use any of their data,compared to 47% of men. The gulf between
men and women was larger in countries withhigher internet use. In Colombia 53% of womensurveyed vs 40% of men said they would not allow
companies to use their data, and in Indonesia thenumbers were 60% of women and 51% of men.

Our survey found that womenare more concerned with healthdata and, although not exploredfurther in our study, sexual healthand reproductive data has been
identified by researchers as an areaof concern.

17. Here are some examples of work on gender and the right to privacy,: Privacy International’s submission on the consultation of ‘Gender Pperspectives on Privacy’- https://
privacyinternational.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/PI%20submission%20on%20gender%20consultation_September%202018.pdf. Second, ; Digital Privacy is a feminist issue.
Published October 16, 2016. https://www.womensmediacenter.com/news-features/digital-privacy-is-a-feminist-issue; and finally submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on
Violence Against on the increase of gender based violence with COVID 19.

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20Section 2: Women’s Experiences Using the Internet and Barriers to Participation“The first thing is that each of the tools has certain types of rules that you have to agree with, but if
you don’t agree, you can’t access them. That is a reality because, for example, I don’t like the ideaof having to give all my data to a company, but I can’t disagree because otherwise, I can’t enter theplatform. Companies put that because law is required, but there is really no regulation, and you areforced to share information you don’t want... Besides that, they’re super long, tedious, and have a very
technical language, and if you don’t accept them, you can’t have your account. I think it should be
regulated.” — Colombia urban low income female respondent, January 2020
“No one reads it (laughs) yeah... I mean sometimes we have a new cell phone and there’s noapplications. If we want to install Facebook, Instagram we could do it in 30 minutes. If there’s 10
applications each has its own terms and conditions which are long and we have to agree first, then... we read it beforehand and it’s too long and the content is legal terms .... And one would need 20
minutes multiplied by 10 to read. That’s already two hours like reading a very thick book if we readeverything, all of the terms and conditions!”— Indonesia, urban male participant, November 2020

Research by Privacy International, for example,
highlights concerns with period tracking
applications which were found to be sharing
women’s personal health data to third parties
without their consent, and used for targetedmarketing campaigns and other commercial
activities.
In our focus groups, the trust participants hadin companies to use their data responsibly was
related to the degree of control they perceive
when agreeing to terms of service for the use of
platforms. Yet, individuals tend to have limited
options when signing up to online platforms, andsome voiced concern about “forced agreement” —the sentiment that companies force users to “takeit or leave it” when asking users to agree to termsof service:
To explore this further, the study looked at
respondents’ awareness and engagement withterms of services on social media platforms.
Most platforms ask users to read and agree tothe terms of service before using an application
or website. In some cases they are also asked toread and agree to privacy policies. We found thatseveral factors, including smartphone ownership,
education level and socio-economic status weresignificant in determining individuals’ awareness ofand likelihood to read terms of service. Again, we
found the availability of local language content isalso an important factor, positively influencing the
likelihood of reading terms of service. 18, 19

18. The awareness regarding Terms of Service is analyzed (OLS regression on the number of social media that the user is aware of the ToS). Similarly, the fact of having read theTerms of Service is also modelled (OLS regression on the number of social media that the user has read the ToS).
Variables influencing probability of awareness of ToS: More education has a positive effect in the awareness of ToS 0.273*** and Being a smartphone owner has, on average,
a positive effect of 0.429*** in the awareness of ToS.
Variables influencing probability of reading of ToS: More education has a positive effect in the reading of ToS.A- 0.068*; Higher socioeconomic level has a positive effect in
the reading of ToS 0.293***; Being a smartphone owner has, on average, a positive effect of 0.261*** in the reading of ToS. Respondents that find information in their own
language show, on average, a positive effect of 0.121*** in the reading of ToS.
Robust standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
19. See note on data limitations under the Methodology in the Appendix.

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21Section 2: Women’s Experiences Using the Internet and Barriers to Participation“I make videos explaining about subjects, because when children do not understand they ask me,“How do we do this?” Hence I make the video and not only share it to one child but to many children”— Indonesia, urban female participant, November 2020

From content consumption
to creation

The reality is that most social media
users, particularly those in lower
socio-economic groups, are notaware of terms of service or do
not have the time or skills to readand understand them. This raises
the question of how meaningfulthese mechanisms are, when they
are intended to provide the basis
for informed consent or valid
contractual agreements.

The original vision of the web was an open
space where all people could create and shareknowledge to harness talents and enable
collaboration on a scale never seen before. And
yet, this vision has been held back because theonline space is not yet equally open to all. The
online gender gap means that women are lesslikely to participate online both as consumers andproducers of content. When women are not able
to participate equally online, everyone is denied
their talents, skills, perspectives and knowledge.

Trust and privacy are closely linked. To makesure people are able to use the web safely andfreely, they must be protected by robust privacy
safeguards. Governments must protect people
through effective privacy laws and regulations,and companies must provide users with clear andfair terms of service and privacy notices. This isimportant for everyone, and particularly for women
who face additional online risks and express
greater concern over privacy issues.

While both men and women are more often
consumers than producers of content, our survey
finds a gender gap in publishing content suchas blogs, videos, commentary on social issues
and selling products or advertising services, withwomen less likely to be online creators (Table 6).20

Table 6: Content generation for men and women internet users %Total
Published a blog post

20%

Posted a video online

55%

Posted comments about social,economic and political issues

52%

Sell products or advertise a
service20%

Female / male users
18%
22%
51%
58%
45%
58%
17%
22%

Gender
gap
22%
14%
29%

29%

Source: Women Rights Online Nationally representative survey data in Colombia, Ghana, Uganda and Indonesia 202021

20. Based on the logit model assessing the probability of generating specific content against different variables. In the four specific types of content analyzed, being a female
reduces the probability of generating each of them. The reductions are as follows: 3% for blog posts; 5% for videos; 10% for comments about social, economic, and politicalissues; and 2% for selling a product or advertised a service.
21. See note on data limitations under the Methodology in the Appendix.

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22Section 2: Women’s Experiences Using the Internet and Barriers to Participation“I think for me I don’t think it is because I’m using social media. I think it has to do more with thesociety and the cultural thing when it comes to the male and the female, the gender thing. You being
online and you being vocal about issues that are really important, and people think you shouldn’t
be talking that way. It’s general and because you have a mouth to talk, because you are online. But
they don’t know we do it offline as well. So, it’s the heckling and the insult and they will not insult thecontent but they will insult you as a person. Whereas if it was a man that made the same post, theapproach would be totally different.” — Ghana urban female respondent, November 2019.

This is consistent with evidence found elsewhere.
Taking Wikipedia as a proxy for content
production, it is estimated that women have madeup just 9-20% of editors on the platform since
it was established. This gender gap reflects one
aspect of the skewed representativeness of theinternet, which also exists along lines of race, class,geography and, as mentioned above, language,
among other factors.
It is important that the internet is a space where
women can actively engage online, accessing andcreating relevant content, and participating inpublic discourse. The 29% gender gap in men andwomen commenting on social and political issues
is telling, suggesting that women face barriers in
exercising their right of free expression. There
are of course various reasons for this, but thenumerous accounts from women journalists,
politicians and activists who have experienced
backlash for speaking out online suggest thatmisogynistic beliefs that women should not speakout and share their views remain prevalent.

Women in the focus group
discussion conducted in Ghana citedthat harmful and discriminatory
gender norms often limit their
online participation.

To close the digital gender divide in content
creation, we need more research to better
understand the factors that are limiting women’s
participation. This means taking into accountcontextual issues that may limit women’s
participation in different communities and indifferent countries. Clearly all barriers are notuniversal.
Policymakers and technology companies must
consider gendered cultural norms as theywork towards making sure women can fully
participate in online spaces. This will require
engagement from a range of actors that take into
account social and cultural contexts, and working
with women in designing tech and policy solutions.
This is critical to close the digital gender divide andbuild a web that reflects the strength and diversityof its users.

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3

Policy Action to Closethe Digital Gender Gap

igital equality is vital to create
fairer societies, healthier citizens
and stronger economies. A world
where women and girls can safely accessthe internet and contribute online benefits
individuals and society at large.

D

Covid-19 has made the need to close digital divides
more urgent than ever, as billions who remain
offline or underconnected are left without accessto critical health information, education, andeconomic opportunities.
The majority of those who are still offline
are women. Countries cannot meet targets foruniversal internet access, digital development or
women’s equality without closing the digital gender
gap. This means eliminating gender inequalities inbasic access and affordability, dismantling barriers
to women’s participation and expression, andtackling threats that disproportionately impact
women’s psychological, physical, and economic
well-being.
This empirical evidence from four countries inthree regions of the Global South in this report has
highlighted areas where policy action is urgently
needed.
Governments and companies must implement
gender-responsive information andcommunication technology (ICT) policies with clear
steps to reduce the digital gender gap and movetowards a gender-inclusive connected future.

Policy Recommendations
Here are 5 steps for governments
and companies to urgently closethe digital gender gap in meaningfulconnectivity, and to put in placestrategies to advance women’s
rights and participation online:

1

Collect and publish gender datain the technology sector

Decision makers need gender disaggregated data
(data taking into account specific experiences ofmen and women) to create policies that address
the specific needs of women and tackle thedigital gender divide. However, according to
the International Telecommunications Union(ITU), only 50% of countries report data on
the percentage of men and women using theinternet. Less than a quarter of countries
across Africa and Asia publish this data on
internet access. Of the four countries studied
in this report, only Colombia and Indonesia
publish this data. Few countries around the world
systematically collect gender data in the technology
sector on topics beyond access, as assessed in the
Web Foundation’s Digital Gender Gap Audit.
A.	Governments must commit to regularlycollecting and publishing gender data in thetechnology sector to inform policies and assess
progress towards closing the digital gender gap.
B.	The raw data should be published in open andreusable formats so that researchers and others
can do further analysis on this data and support
new initiatives on women and technology.
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24Section 3: Policy Action to Close the Digital Gender Gap

C.	Gender data should be analysed using awomen-centred approach, with women usedas the reference group for analysis.
D.	Governments should document themethodology of their data collection andanalysis, including any changes and therationale for these changes.

Best practice from Mozambique
In Mozambique the Alliance of Affordable
Internet (A4AI) convened stakeholders
to advocate for the inclusion of sexdisaggregated ICT data in the national census.
Having conducted the census survey in 2017,
Mozambique now openly publishes census
survey data on ICT access, adoption, and use
by women and men (at both the individual
and household level), which has been used
to inform ICT policy interventions to close thegender gap.

2

Adopt Meaningful Connectivity
as the target for internet use

The Alliance for Affordable Internet’s newmeaningful connectivity target raises the barfrom basic internet access to give a fuller pictureof the quality of internet access people have. As
this report shows, the current definition used tomeasure internet use masks the true extent of thedigital gender divide.

B.	Implementation of the meaningfulconnectivity target should be genderresponsive. This means:• Gender data and analysis is applied to informthe development of policies, strategies and
ICT sector investments.
• Gender advocates and experts are involvedin the policy and planning process fromthe start to ensure women-centric policy
development.

Promoting active citizenship andparticipation through technology
The EQUALS Digital Skills Fund — apartnership between the Web Foundation,
the EQUALS Global Partnership andGermany’s Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development — supports
grassroots women’s digital skills initiatives
that provide gender-sensitive skills to womenand girls across communities in Africa, Asiaand Latin America. The fund has invested
in women-led initiatives to inspire the next
generation of women and girls in tech,providing training on using the internet forsocial change, entrepreneurship, building
social movements and supporting female rolemodels in communities.

The meaningful connectivity target
can help policymakers design
better policies and interventions
to close the digital gender gap andconnect more people to a useful,empowering internet.
A.	Governments should adopt meaningfulconnectivity as a new target for internet
access, adoption and use to inform informationand communication technology (ICT) policies
and connectivity strategies.

www.webfoundation.org
25Section 3: Policy Action to Close the Digital Gender Gap“People should not have to settle for being counted but underserved. By setting a target thatguarantees enough speed, enough data, with an adequate device, and sufficient regularity for theinternet to be an important part of someone’s life, these thresholds ensure that internet access is notjust an end in itself.” — Alliance for Affordable Internet (2020)

Policy actions to address thegender gap in meaningfulconnectivity▶ Use Universal Service and Access Funds(USFs) to invest in initiatives that target
women’s internet access. USFs are managed
by governments and dedicated to expanding
telecom and Internet infrastructure to
unserved and underserved communities.
These funds are typically financed throughmandatory contributions by mobile network
operators and other telecommunications
providers (Alliance for Affordable Internet,
2018). Research has shown that there areover $170 million of unspent funds that could
be used to bring approximately 6 million
women online, or to provide digital skills
training to nearly 16 million women and girls.
▶ Respond to the affordability barriers faced
by women. Women are among those hardest
hit by the high cost to connect, a barrier thatis further exacerbated by the gender wage
gap. Governments should make targeted
efforts to tackle affordability barriers faced
by women, focusing particularly on thoseliving in rural and remote areas, as well as
women from vulnerable groups. Initiatives
may include subsidizing data and devices,
providing more high-speed public access
options in spaces where women gather, andremoving consumer-facing internet taxes thatraise internet costs and disproportionately
impact women.

3

Promote digital skills and ICT
education for women and girls

Digital literacy is one of the biggest barriers
to access and women and girls are mostimpacted by a lack of digital skills. This is
influenced by factors such as education access,income inequality, access to digital devices, andcultural biases discouraging women and girls fromusing technology. Promoting digital skills and ICT
education is important for encouraging womenand girls to use the internet, to create content
online and navigate the online world safely, while
recognising governments and companies must do
more to prioritise measures that make the internet
a safer space. Digital literacy is key to translatinginternet access into empowerment. Governments
and companies should:
A.	Ensure women and girls have theopportunity to improve their digital skills
and information literacy so they can access, use
and evaluate information, and use the internet
to its full potential.
B.	Invest in ICT education and digital literacy bysupporting community-led and peer-driven
digital skills and empowerment initiatives
for women of all ages, focused on problem
solving, group mentorship, information and data
literacy, content creation, and leadership skills,
in addition to technical skills.
C.	Partner with schools and community centres
to offer safe spaces for women of all ages toparticipate in information and communication
technology educational programmes.
D.	Ensure that all ICT education and training
programmes are developed considering theneeds of women and girls across all educational
levels.

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Section 3: Policy Action to Close the Digital Gender Gap“For adult women, informal learning may be the only pathway available to them for developing
digital skills. Interventions targeted at adult women should take into account cultural norms as well
as women’s domestic responsibilities. For instance, internet cafes and other ICT access hubs are often
male dominated spaces that are off-limits to women, or located far from women’s homes or in unsafe
areas”. — Equals Global Partnership, 2019

Costa Rica’s Gender, Science andTechnology Policy
In Costa Rica, Women’s Rights Online partner
and A4AI member organization Sula Batsu
played a leading role in conducting andusing Women’s Rights Online Digital Gender
Gap Audit research to develop Costa Rica’s
first Gender, Science and Technology Policy(PICCTI), which was approved in 2018 and iscurrently in its first Action Plan (2019-2021).
The policy seeks to eliminate the barriers
to women’s participation in the technology
sector by addressing gender stereotypes andemployment gaps, and providing incentives
to educational institutions and companies
to achieve gender equality in science andtechnology.

4Support women’s participationin technology development,
local content creation and ICT
innovation.
Closing the digital gender gap also means
making sure that women are equal creatorsand producers online. This is a cornerstone ofcreating a web for a more equal world. Today,
women make up less than a third of professionals
in the technology sector. As the world goes digital,
it is important that the perspectives of women andgirls around the world are reflected in the designand development of technology, infrastructure andinnovation systems.

If the majority of technology
creators are men, then the design oftechnology, products and services
will be built through the eyes ofmen, and companies will missout on important perspectives tomake better policies, products andservices that reach and benefit
more people.
A.	Governments should create a national strategy
to support technology education, innovationand leadership for women of all ages.
B.	This strategy — and its investments andprogrammes — should include time-boundgender equality targets to support earlystage female entrepreneurs, technologists
and content creators of all ages to growand flourish as creators of digital content,
infrastructure and systems.

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27Section 3: Policy Action to Close the Digital Gender Gap

5

Safeguard the online privacy ofwomen and girls

Women and girls face disproportionate risks
to their data rights online, particularly in theform of online abuse, harassment and threatsof violence. This means that violation of women’s
personal data rights can have an outsized impact
on their other human rights, like freedom of
expression, assembly, and psychological andphysical safety. Both governments and companies
have a role to play in helping to keep people safeby protecting the right to privacy — which makes
the web safer for women, and for everyone.
Governments must:•	Collect data on women’s experiences andperceptions of privacy, data protection andpersonal data to inform policy strategies.
•	
Pass robust privacy and data protection
legislation that addresses women’s specificconcerns.
• E
 nforce laws that uphold privacy andpersonal data protection, ensuring thatwomen’s human rights protected offline are also
protected online.
Technology companies must:• C ommit to Principle 6 of the Contract
for the Web: ‘Develop technologies
that support the best in humanity
and challenge the worst’ and establish
effective channels for consultation during thedevelopment of technologies and after theirrelease, to ensure the rights and interests of allcommunities — in terms of gender, race, age,
ethnicity, and other intersectionalities — aretaken into account.

A global plan of action to make ouronline world safe and empowering
for everyone
In November 2019 the Web Foundation
launched the Contract for the Web, a global
plan of action to achieve a safe, empowering
web for everyone. The Contract requires
endorsing companies to design genderinclusive strategies to increase internet accessand digital literacy by women; consult with awide group of communities, including along
gender lines, in the development of products;
and establish policies designed to respect andpromote the achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals, particularly those relating
to gender equality.

•	
Give people control over their privacy,
with clear and meaningful choices to control
processes involving their data, as outlined in theContract for the Web (see info box on the right).
• C ommit to transparency andaccountability by clearly and effectively
communicating any changes to privacy policies,
as well as changes to products and services.
•	
Provide clear and understandable privacy
notices, including the types of personal dataprocessed, and explain the purposes for which
the data will be used. Given evidence thatwomen may be less likely to read or understandTerms of Service, companies should redouble
their efforts to clearly communicate datacollection and processing using ‘just in time’privacy notices.

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Appendix: Methodology
Our approach to understanding
gender and women’s rights online
is specifically by highlighting issues
that men and women face, and more so
women. Our previous 2015 study focused on
surveys in nine cities. This time we put our
focus on nationally-representative surveys
in a fewer number of countries in diverse
regions — Latin America, South Asia, East andWest Africa. Our quantitative and qualitative
methodological approach allows us to dive
deeper into the findings and comparative
trends of women’s internet access and use.
This triangulation of methodology allows us
to understand the gaps from quantitative
perspectives, but also to dive further into
the issues faced by men and women in theseregions qualitatively, as experiences are nothomogenous within or across countries.

O

Through the survey we capture demographics,
including gender and socio-economic indicators
influencing internet access and digital equality.
The qualitative methods, including focus group
discussions and key informant interviews,
provide more context-based understanding of
the opportunities and challenges women face inaccessing and using the internet in the selected
countries. This includes analysis of individual
understanding of digital rights, safety and security,
privacy and data protection, levels of required
digital skills, affordability, and the availability andcreation of relevant content.

National Survey Design
The development of the questionnaire included aconsultative process with selected Women’s Rights
Online network partners and the country research
partners. A uniform survey questionnaire tool wasapplied across the regions and translated into
the local languages when necessary. The surveys
were then conducted between September 2019

and February 2020 in four countries representing
three geographical locations — Colombia, Ghana,Indonesia and Uganda. These countries wereselected on the basis of their regional diversity,
covering Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia.
Each country also has unique characteristics:
Colombia where the gender gap in basic internet
access has been closed; Ghana, a regional leader
for internet uptake; and Indonesia where acomplex geography has special challenges forinternet access. Finally Uganda, together withconsideration for low internet use, was includedin the study as part of a partnership with the
Uganda Communications Commission that haschosen to prioritise gender issues in addressing
ICT development. The surveys were complemented
by qualitative focus groups and key informant
interviews in those countries. In each case astratified random sampling approach was usedwith a maximum sampling error of 3 percentage
points. The sample results are as follows:

Table 7: Total number of individuals
surveyed in the study
Country

Male

FemaleTotal

COLOMBIA

723

827

1550

GHANA

1114

1186

2300

INDONESIA

1022

1018

2040

UGANDA

1804

1832

3636

4663

4863

9526

Total

Source: Women’s Rights Online Nationally representative
survey Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia and Uganda 2019/2020

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Appendix: Methodology

Data limitations

These surveys were carried out by the Alliance for
Affordable Internet (A4AI) / Web Foundation (aspart of its Women’s Rights Online programme)in partnership with the Instituto de Estudios
Peruanos (IEP), the University of Ghana,
the University of Indonesia and the Uganda
Communications Commission.

As part of our regular quality assurance
process, a number of verifications were run
once the surveys were completed in orderto check for data integrity, consistency,
completeness and accuracy. This quality control
revealed some issues in the survey data including
some problems with logical inconsistencies,
sample errors, missing values and othercodification problems. As a result, we excluded
some of the data from our analysis. The following
indicators were removed:

Focus group design
In each country we conducted four focus
groups and three key informant interviews—16 focus groups and 12 key Informant
Interviews in total. Our approach focused on
ensuring context is nuanced at a country level
and consent to participate is well informed. We
worked with selected research partners in eachof the countries with an understanding of gender
dynamics in each of the countries.

• Meaningful connectivity data for Uganda.
•	Data about barriers to more frequent use of theinternet for internet users in Indonesia.
•	Indicators “personal data of family members”
and “home address” on concerns about
personal data privacy in Indonesia.

The focus groups were stratified
according to locations and income
with one mixed high-income groupand one female low-income urbangroup, one mixed low-income ruraland one female only low-income
group per country.

•	Data about awareness and engagement withterms of services on social media platforms forIndonesia.
•	Indicator “sell products or advertise a service“
on content generation for internet users inIndonesia.

In Ghana the urban high income group was
women only due to a challenge in logistics,
however it still provided meaningful insight. All
131 participants were internet users above theage of 15. Our focus was to document women’s
insights and gain comparative perspectives
on men’s insights. The discussion and the key
informant interview guides used were similar
across the regions.

Samples for other indicators were also adapted,
although the differences were typically underthe 1% threshold and not affecting the sample
representativeness or significance levels.

Table 8: Total number of Focus group participants and distribution
across the four countries
Country

FGD 1(High Income)

COLOMBIA

6

GHANA

7

INDONESIA

44

UGANDA

5

3

4

FGD 2 Urban(Low income)

7

FGD 3
(Mixed Rural)

FGD 4(Female Rural)

Total

5

5

8

35

5

5

8

32

8

4

4

8

32

8

4

4

8

32

4

3

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