Session: The Gender Digital Divide: A Review and Future Agenda
The gender digital divide, known as real-world gender inequality replicated in the digital world, has become “the new face of inequality”. Bridging digital divides is vital for achieving the United Nations’ 5th Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality. The objective of this talk is to share the most recent studies into the gender digital divide issues. Using a feminist approach, I will review the existing literature on the gender digital divide published between 2010 and 2022 through keyword searching on ScienceDirect, Proquest, Sage Journal, JSTOR, EconLit, Google Scholar databases, and research from international organizations. 42 articles were selected in total and analyzed using a systematic review method. Results show that extant research could be divided into three categories: 1) determinants of the gender digital divide; 2) impacts of ICTs and bridging the gender digital divide including positive effects on sustainability, gender equality, empowerment of women, economy, education, and politics; 3) the regional perspective consisting of case studies on specific regions and countries. The results from a feminist perspective analysis indicate a lack of pragmatic policy implications. The findings can provide an innovative perspective for future researchers to consider in gender digital divide studies, especially for policy recommendations and future research agendas. Therefore, the results contribute to the literature on digital inclusion, women’s empowerment in technology, as well as gender and feminist studies altogether.
Bio
Grace Chenxin Liu has been recognized as a global top youth researcher, advocate and changemaker for gender equality and sustainable development. She is an invited speaker at the United Nations, the International Telecommunication Union, and TEDx. She is a WomenTech Network Global Awards Winner, Global Youth Challenge Winner, YOUNGA (the world’s largest global festival for impact) Equality & Inclusion Working Group Leader, Davidson Ambassador, and Girls Leadership Academy STEM Role Model & Keynote Speaker.
As a member of the Global Conference on Women's Studies Scientific Committee, 2022-2024 National Youth Advisory Council, 1000 Girls 1000 Futures and the Junior Academy of the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), Grace was honored to be 2023 National Service-Learning Conference and NYAS & Stevens Initiative Event Moderator, and one of the selected few highlighted speakers at many international, national, and local conferences/events, which has inspired many students, especially girls, and women, across six continents and from 100+ countries.
Grace is the Founder of Sharing to Empower, an internationally recognized global alliance to promote gender and sustainable development issues. Her research was published by the United Nations and the Journal of International Women’s Studies and received Harvard International Review Academic Writing Contest Gold Medal. She has worked on 10+ international research projects and developed technological solutions to real-world problems. Her team was the Global Challenge Winner of the Global STEM Alliance.