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The purpose of this paper is to address the gender digital divide through the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by reviewing existing knowledge within the field. This paper explores the characteristics and factors contributing to the gender digital divide. To bridge the gender digital divide, it is important to understand the factors behind gender differences in ICT access and use.

In this study, the systematic literature review was conducted in accordance with the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) approach. In total, 24 articles were selected and analysed with using PRISMA steps.

Despite a significant increase in usage of the internet and other ICTs around the world, women, especially in developing countries, tend to be on the wrong side of the digital divide. The results indicate that while there are still gender differences in access to ICT in developing countries, second-level digital divide issues are more of a concern in developed countries. In the literature, several important factors have been identified as being associated with the gender digital divide. The results highlight the importance of implementable policies to bridge the gender digital divide, as well as how sociocultural factors play an important role in explaining the gender digital divide phenomenon.

By identifying the gender digital divide studies’ characteristics and factors contributing to the gender digital divide, the authors provide an overview of the existing research, allowing us to discuss future research needs within the field. The authors argue that more research is needed to understand how to better address the sociocultural factors affecting the gender digital divide, to understand why equal access seems not to result in equal use and, to understand the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the gender digital divide.

There has been a widespread proliferation of digital technologies in the last few decades with worldwide usage increasing to 4.66 billion active internet users in 2021. This amounts to 59.5% or half of the overall population and is significant. On the one hand, the changing digital state of affairs means that there are greater opportunities for businesses, economies and societies to flourish since 92.6% (4.32 billion) access the internet through mobile devices (Statista, 2021). On the other hand, this digital revolution has not percolated equally, with women having less access to resources and capabilities to utilise digital tools. This phenomenon is known as the ‘digital gender divide’ (OECD, 2018). Correspondingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has not had favourable outcomes for women, with many losing jobs, downscaling their careers or leaving the workforce. Generally, it has disadvantaged women both economically and socially to the extent of slowing their progress towards gender equality and empowerment. With the new normal, following the COVID-19 pandemic and the acceleration of the digitalisation process, possessing digital skills and know-how will be an essential must-have. Digital working offers possibilities for women to become business owners, work flexibly and remotely, be connected to the rest of the world, and have easy access to information and education. For this to happen, the digital gender divide must be resolved by quick, concerted and inclusive pragmatic global policy-level actions to empower women to play a significant part in the digital landscape that would lead to economic prosperity and resilience, equal societies and a much better world.

This study aims to endeavor to explore the extent of gender digital divide(GDD) in Uttar Pradesh (U.P., IT-Hub of North India), a most populous state of India, with a particular focus on the first and second order of digital divide, including availability, access time and use of the internet.

The authors have adopted stratified multistage sampling procedure for this research and conducted an empirical study on the data set of 600 respondents of six districts of U.P. to perform the inter-regional analysis. Furthermore, χ² method has been used to reveal the factors responsible for the GDD among selected districts of UP.

Statistical results clearly indicate that out of 12 sub-districts, most of the districts suffered from first order as well as second order of GDD, and this gender disparity within an increasing digitization environment is due to the existence of exclusion from basic technological skills, social norms and financial constraints.

The results have implications for the U.P. Government in general and policymakers behind digitization projects in particular as well as the promoters of gender equality including researchers and fellows.

This study is the first to illustrate the orders of the digital gender gap in a developing economy such as India and to gain an insight into the factors behind it. This research will also consider a promising avenue for future work.

This aim of this paper is to examine the existing gender digital inclusion evaluation guidance and proposes future research recommendations for their evaluation. Despite modern progress in towards gender equality and women’s empowerment movements, women’s access to, use of and benefits from digital technologies remain limited owing to economic, social and cultural obstacles. Addressing the existing gender digital divide is critical in the global efforts towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In recent years, there has been a global increase of gender digital inclusion programmes for girls and women; these programmes serve as a mechanism to learn about gender-specific digital needs and inform future digital inclusion efforts. Evaluation reports of gender digital inclusion programmes can produce critical insights into girls’ and women’s learning needs and aspirations, including what works and what does not when engaging girls and women in information and communications technologies. While there are many accounts highlighting the importance of why gender digital inclusion programmes are important, there is limited knowledge on how to evaluate their impact.

The thematic analysis suggests three points to consider for the gender digital inclusion programmes evaluation: context-specific understanding of gender digital inclusion programmes; transparency and accountability of the evaluation process and its results; and tensions between evaluation targets and empowerment of evaluation participants.

The thematic analysis suggests three points of future focus for this evaluation process: context-specific understanding of gender digital inclusion programmes; transparency and accountability of the evaluation process and its results; and tensions between evaluation targets and empowerment of evaluation participants.

The authors propose recommendations for gender digital inclusion evaluation practice and areas for future research.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many educational institutions to move face-to-face education to entirely online education. This digital transformation has, in turn, reinforced the digital divide between learners who have easy access to digital devices and the Internet and other learners who do not have those. In addition to the digital divide, the differences in their genders and educational levels potentially impact leveling up learning. Therefore, the study in the present chapter has aimed to examine university-level sophomore and junior students’ differences in learning online during the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of gender, educational level, and the digital divide. Data from a survey indicate that both females and males, and sophomores and juniors had different attitudes toward using digital devices, attending virtual classes and accessing online courses through the mobile phone or the home Internet. Based on the findings on their differences, the chapter makes some implications and recommendations for policymakers, course designers and teachers in the course design, especially in the emergence.

Case explains how female leaders are more concerned about social issues the industry in which they operate could resolve. Obo-Nia, CEO of Vodafone Ghana, showed concern for resolving the digital divide in Africa and offered a collaborative solution. The case also suggests how female CEOs invest in strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) that could create a competitive advantage for firms. The case also discusses gender diversity issues in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) field and how Vodafone Ghana’s CEO tried to enhance gender diversity in the telecommunication sector and Vodafone. Obo-Nai did not emphasize gender diversity from a CSR perspective but believed in a business case for gender diversity, as an increase in participation of women in the STEM workforce could help the telecommunication sector innovate faster and resolve the digital divide challenge while also empowering women working from the informal sector.

What is the significance of a digital divide and the societal role of the telecommunication sector; Why female CEOs are more concerned about CSR and how CSR makes not charity but business case; Why female CEOs are more inclined toward collaborative strategies and how stakeholders are involved in collaborative strategies for reducing the digital divide; Exploring various strategies for enhancing gender diversity in the STEM field and the significance of gender diversity in the STEM field.

The case is about the challenges faced by Patricia Obo-Nai, the first female CEO of Vodafone Ghana, to bridge the digital divide in Africa while doing so in a profitable manner. Obo-Nai was an engineer by profession and won several awards as she rose to the post of CEO in Vodafone Ghana in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she took several corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, such as making internet service freely available in certain schools and universities so that education could continue. Obo-Nai also emphasized gender diversity within Vodafone and urged other telecommunication players to focus on gender diversity from a social responsibility perspective because it was essential for innovation. Under Obo-Nai’s leadership, Vodafone itself launched several new products. She called for a multistakeholder collaborative approach to bridge the digital divide and to make 4G internet affordable in Africa. Obo-Nai collaborated with competitors like MTN Ghana to enhance Vodafone Ghana’s roaming services.

This case is intended for undergraduate or graduate-level business and management courses, especially international business and society, CSR and leadership courses. Graduate students in public policy may also find the case compelling.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS5: International Business; CCS10: Public Sector Management

The purpose of this research is to show that the provision of an increasing range of remote, electronic access channels by private and public sector bodies is predicated on a critical mass of citizenry utilising such access channels. However, a major concern is that the increasing use of ICT for private and public sector transactions is seen as potentially creating a “digital divide” between those with access to technology and those who do not. This paper adapts an index of the digital divide documented in previous work and utilises this instrument to analyse the depth and breadth of this phenomenon in a UK region – Wales.

The paper discusses the construction of a “digital divide index” (DDIX) for Wales based upon the previous established work of Husing and Selhofer. The DDIX is applied to data collected as part of a major European‐wide project – UNDERSTAND.

The DDIX situates four citizen segments in terms of internet access and usage – gender, age, education and income. There are no significant digital divides evident within the Welsh region in terms of gender and income. However, there are significant digital divides in terms of age and education.

The DDIX as formulated considers a limited range of possible dimensions, both in terms of citizen groups and internet access and usage. Other possible dimensions for consideration are discussed in the paper.

Our application of a DDIX has been useful in highlighting the multi‐faceted nature of this phenomenon within a regional context. Further research is required both to refine such an important information society metric and to apply it in further domains of analysis.

The paper will be of interest both to academic researchers and policy‐makers interested in understanding and measuring the digital divide.

How does gender equity fare in the digital public sphere(s)? To understand the mechanism of the gender gap, this study analyzes the interaction of gender with class, age, and parenthood. With American national survey data, this research compares different types of online content production practices in this blurred digital public sphere(s). Findings show differences between men and women in five of six digital content creation activities. Women are more likely to consume online content; men are more likely to produce it. From more public blogging to more private chatting, inequality persists. Interactions with gender show (1) women from higher educational levels face more inequality compared to their male counterparts than do women from lower educational levels; (2) age is not a factor in the gender gap; and (3) generally, parental status fails to explain the production divide. Understanding the gender gap and its mechanisms can help ameliorate inequalities. Some argue that the Internet is a more egalitarian public platform for women while others find gender inequality. But neither body of research has attended to the blurring of the public and private spheres on the Internet.

Recent reports suggest the shape and size of the digital divide may be changing. This exploratory study aims to examine the relationships between demographic and situational variables and small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) owners' intentions to adopt and use free public wifi technology.

A survey study of 158 SME owners in the urban renewal community (RC) of a large Southwestern metroplex investigated the influence of known digital divisors – gender, ethnicity, age, education, and experience – on the adoption and use of wi‐fi technologies. Partial least squares was used to test the hypotheses.

Contrary to previous research, gender, age, education, and experience were not related to the intention to adopt wifi technology. Ethnicity was significantly related to intent to adopt, but the relationship was small. Ethnicity and age were found to be somewhat related to wifi usage. In marked contrast from earlier research, education, gender, and experience were not significant predictors of usage.

The findings suggest that access to high‐speed wifi has the potential to reduce and/or eliminate the digital divide. The projected changes in the digital divide can be expected to make a significant impact on SME productivity and performance.

This study is one of the first to examine the influence of the adoption and use of public wi‐fi technologies by SME owners on the digital divide.

Working-from-home (WFH) models represent one of several types of flexible work practices gaining ground in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of particular interest is the increase in the use of digital technology platforms for work collaboration and communication. These have been largely well received in terms of their potential to mitigate disruptions to business activity and employee work life in the absence of in-person work contexts. Research indicates that the sales and adoption of many digital platforms have witnessed sharp increase since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. These have contributed to creating seamless organisational collaborations, shared access to electronic data and new organisational processes to mirror previous in-person work arrangements. Many organisational members have had to upskill at rapid rates to catch up with these developments. Despite the benefits to employees, managers and organisations in terms of facilitating continued remote work, we illuminate the hidden inequities within this work model and highlight the unintended consequences from the standpoint of gender, race and the digital divide. We identify key aspects of WFH that represent underlying factors which create conditions for inequities and illustrate these with a case study. Additionally, we analyse the role of technology as a platform for WFH, noting impacts on employee well-being, team dynamics, as well as manager-employee relations. We conclude by raising implications for managers, offering recommendations to rebalance the inequities identified, such as developing an inclusive organisational culture, creating systems to access and evaluate employee feedback as well as developing appropriate response mechanisms that support particularly vulnerable groups.