Logging On: Closing the Global Gender Digital Divide
By Karen S. Rowan, Editor, On Campus With Women

In April 2003, six women stood among Afghanistan's first graduating class of certified information technology specialists. The women, along with their eleven male classmates, are now primed to build Afghanistan's networking system from the ground up and to teach computing and networking skills other Afghans, particularly other women. Indeed, several of the female graduates went on to teach the first all-women class that began just two months later in June.

The newly certified IT specialists participated in a Cisco Systems Networking Academy at the University of Kabul. The Networking Academy offers Web-based courses and training programs designed to provide students with the Internet technology skills, from basic Web design to large network operating systems management. To date, Cisco and its strategic partners, including the United Nations Development Program and the USAID Leland Initiative, support over 10,000 Networking Academies in over 150 countries and in 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia.

Cisco's Least Developed Countries (LDC) Initiative focuses on training local people to design, build, and operate informational and communication technologies (ICT) in their own countries, thus facilitating sustainable development. Currently, Cisco has established Networking Academies to train students and instructors in 33 of the 49 nations designated as Least Developed Countries.

Across the globe, the LDC Initiative has worked to ensure that women are helping to close the digital divide. While barriers to women's participation in ICT in developed countries remain high, such barriers are often even higher in least developed countries. Not only are literacy rates significantly lower for women in developing countries-for example, 48 percent of men versus 22 percent of women in Cambodia and 56 percent of men in Angola versus 28 percent of women-traditional gender roles often discourage women from seeking training in ICT. To compound the challenges, many participating LDC's lack adequate telecommunications infrastructure and Internet service providers to fully support the network training.

Another Cisco program, the Gender Initiative, conducts research on gender recruitment, participation, and retention strategies in the Networking Academies in developed or developing countries. Working in partnership with local colleges and universities, as well as governmental and non-governmental agencies, Networking Academies have actively recruited and supported women students, providing tuition assistance, scholarships, supplemental lab practice, career counseling, and job placement support.

Wiring Sex Equity Globally: Success Stories
Jordanian women now have access to sixteen Networking Academies, including three all-female academies, and their participation in the academies increased from 5 percent in 2000 to 28 percent in 2001. Recruiters for the program often find that women mistakenly believe that networking requires physical strength and are thus less likely to pursue careers in ICT.

Dubai Women's College in the United Arab Emirates reports that governmental agencies and private companies alike are now recruiting Academy graduates, ensuring that female graduates have some job prospects when they complete their training.

El Salvador's Networking Academies, including one all-female Academy, reported 36 percent female enrollment as of February 2002, up from zero percent two years earlier. Although El Salvador is one of the most wired countries in Central America, damage sustained during major earthquakes in 2000 and 2001 has hampered enrollment, and cultural values continue to steer women away from traditionally male careers such as computing or engineering.

In Uganda, Makerere University now boasts the first women-oriented Internet Training Centre, housed in the Department of Women and Gender Studies (DWGS). By integrating the Networking Academy curriculum into the general curriculum of DWGS, the training center addresses gender and development issues along with the technological components of the curriculum. The gender-balanced courses seek both to increase women's participation in ICT and to lay the groundwork for gender-balanced policy and decision making in Africa.

It is just this sort of partnership that promises to close the global digital divide and to sustain women's participation in ICT fields. While corporations like Cisco certainly offer a wealth of resources, academic partners, particularly women's and gender studies departments, encourage participants to understand the complex cultural and economic issues that will shape women's careers beyond the Networking Academies. This broader perspective is especially important if Academy graduates are to put their newfound skills to work on behalf of other women and girls in their communities, as many of the graduates aim to do.

References

Millennium Development Goals National Reports: A Look through a Gender Lens (United Nations Development Programme, 2003). www.undp.org/gender/docs/mdgs-genderlens.pdf.

United Nations Millennium Development Group, Reporting on the Millennium Development Goals at the Country Level. 2001. (United Nations Development Program, 2001). www.undp.org/mainundp/propoor/docs/UNDGMDG-Guidance-NoteENG.doc.

Women's Empowerment, Gender Equality, and the Millennium Development Goals: A WEDO Information and Action Guide. (New York: Women's Environment & Development Organization). www.wedo.org/publicat/MDG_toolkit1.pdf.