Women’s Rights Online

Ada Lovelace Day: a reminder of the importance of digital inclusion

October 10, 2017

Ada Lovelace Day, named after the world’s first computer programmer , celebrates the achievements of women in STEM. Despite the formidable legacy that women like Ada have left on ICTs, two fullRead more

Amplifying Women’s Voices in Technology Policy

August 11, 2017

The world is at the beginning of a connectivity revolution that is rapidly turning internet access into a critical determinant of individuals’ human and social capital and earning power. As theRead more

Related Research

Women’s Rights Online Digital Gender Gap Audit

September 9, 2016

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are powerful tools for achieving everything from enhanced incomes and wider access to credit, to quality education and healthcare for all andRead more

Women’s Rights Online: Translating Access into Empowerment

October 20, 2015

New research by the Web Foundation shows that the dramatic spread of mobile phones is not enough to get women online, or to achieve empowerment of women through technology. The study, based on aRead more

More About This Project

Internet access offers a powerful avenue for people around the world to assert their rights and to claim social, economic and political opportunities for empowerment. Yet, half the world’s population remains offline

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most of them women, and most in developing countries. Recent research shows that this persistent, pernicious digital gender gap is worsening — a fact that threatens to deepen existing inequalities and to undermine global development as the benefits of technological change are captured primarily by men. Our Women’s Rights Online network is working to reverse this trend by focusing its efforts on impacting the policy needed to bridge the gender gap in technology, data, and policymaking. Comprising women’s rights and digital rights groups across 15 low- and middle-income countries, the network wants to see evidence-based national ICT and gender plans established in at least seven new countries within the next five years.