Today, the internet mirrors the good and the bad in our societies. Unfortunately this means that it also mirrors and magnifies existing social cultural and economic inequalities, including gender inequality.
The internet has provided opportunities for women and gender-diverse groups to disrupt discriminatory social norms, access information, freely express their views and opinions, access jobs and other economic opportunities, develop relevant content for themselves, and participate in public engagement and debates. At the same time, so many women and gender-diverse people have been left behind, especially in middle-and low-income countries.
The World Wide Web Foundation has partnered with women’s rights and digital rights organisations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean to develop one of the few global civil society networks focused on closing the gender digital divide—the Women’s Rights Online (WRO) Network.
This Playbook draws from the experience and learnings from the work of World Wide Web Foundation and the WRO Network in advocating for gender-responsive ICT Policy.
It provides fundamental principles and approaches in advocating for and integrating gender into the policy development process, as well as actionable steps towards gender-responsive policy-making.
It is designed for policymakers, authorities, civil society organisations, activists, and researchers who are engaged and interested in working to close the gender digital divide, as well as anyone interested in integrating gender into their policy advocacy and development processes.