1. In spite of increasing penetration of mobile broadband, the gender digital divide is increasing.
Correct.
True. Mobile broadband connectivity is growing at exponential rates. However, current trends demonstrate that the global gender digital divide is not automatically narrowing with market diffusion, contrary to early expectations in telecommunications policy circles. About 55.1% of women globally are excluded from the benefits of connectivity. However, Internet growth rates are slowing down in the countries with a significant digital divide. In the 48 poorest countries, despite 85% of the population still being offline, the pace of connectivity expansion is decelerating. A significant proportion of this population is poor, less educated and located in remote and rural areas, without sufficient purchasing power. Women make up the majority of this population. However, high entry costs and limited rate of return on investment makes it unviable for telecom players to invest in new network infrastructure in these areas, leading to an “access trap” for these communities.
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2. Addressing women’s exclusion from connectivity is about bridging the gender divide in access. (Choose one of the following)
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Correct.
Partially true. Addressing women’s exclusion from connectivity is about guaranteeing a quality connectivity experience for women. This is possible only if we tackle the emerging gender divides in ‘use’, following the WSIS plus 10 review document. This means that women need support in building sophisticated digital capabilities that will help them unlock the empowering potential of the Internet for strengthening their personal connections, building social networks, getting timely information, gaining access to public services, and/ or leveraging new income-generation opportunities, etc.
3. There is __________ correlation between women’s educational attainments and their use of the Internet. (Fill in the blank with the right option)
Correct.
Strong. With a rise in education levels, women’s confidence in their digital capabilities soars and the gender gap in access reduces. The relationship between education levels and women’s access to the Internet has been borne out byresearch. For example, the ITU ICT Facts and Figures 2017 Handbook has highlighted that “there is a strong link between gender parity in the enrollment ratio in tertiary education and gender parity in Internet use”.
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4. For ensuring women’s inclusion in online platforms, it is sufficient to ensure that they are free and open.
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Correct.
No. An open and free online platform is not automatically gender-inclusive. In fact, very often, such platforms tend to exclude women from the South, as they adopt a “white male geek culture” that demands a high degree of self-confidence and tolerance of conflict – as exemplified by Wikipedia. Therefore, openness and freedom are not enough; it is equally important to enshrine gender-inclusiveness as a cultural norm in online platforms if more women are to participate fully and freely.
5. For effective access to connectivity for women, the best strategy is: (Choose one of the following)
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Correct.
Investing in both. Any strategy for universal access should invest in both mobile and fixed broadband expansion. It may be true that globally, it is mobile broadband that is driving Internet penetration and increase in Internet usage. However, as the International Telecommunications Union has highlighted, without investments in fixed broadband, governments will be unable to create an institutional environment that enables poor and marginalised women to use connectivity as a stepping stone to full participation in the digital economy and knowledge society1. This is because mobile broadband cannot support intensive users, such as businesses providing information and knowledge services, or public institutions delivering specialised services to citizens. Several constraints would emerge for use-scenarios such as: a rural government hospital seeking to introduce a video-conference facility for e-health consultations with women, or staff training through expert inputs; or, a sub-district level agricultural agency trying to schedule a monthly video conference session for women farmers with experts from leading agricultural universities in the country etc.
- ITU. (2012). Measuring the information Society. Retrieved from https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/publications/mis2012/MIS2012_without_Annex_4.pdf, 21 August 2017; ITU. (2016d). White Paper on Broadband Regulation and Policy in Asia- Pacific Region. Retrieved from http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Regional-Presence/AsiaPacific/Documents/Events/2016/APAC-BB-2016/Final_White_Paper_APAC-BB.pdf, 21 August 2017
6. Commercial zero rating services are an effective strategy to bring more women online, by smashing affordability barriers.
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Correct.
No. Evidence suggests that commercial zero rating arrangements are not necessarily bringing new users online in developing countries. Between November 2015-February 2016, the Alliance for the Affordable Internet conducted a survey of 8000 mobile Internet users across eight countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. They found that only one in 10 zero rating customers are first time Internet users. Also, most users seemed to be using zero rating as a strategy to top up other unrestricted means of accessing the Internet, such as through public Wi-fi. Where zero rating is permitted, mobile network operators are incentivised to set low data volume caps on broadband plans, to increase the appeal of their own zero service bundles, inflating connectivity costs of the Open Internet.
7. Public access is a __________ for individual access. (Fill in the blank with the right option)
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Correct.
Permanent Complement. Public access points serve as crucial venues to build digital capabilities of socially marginalised groups who need supportive facilitation, to make sense of connectivity. Therefore, as Sey et al. (2013) observed in their global research study on the impact of public access, it is more in the nature of a “permanent complement” – a constant support structure to individual access – especially in developing countries.
8. When evolving legal-institutional frameworks to address online gender-based violence, which of these two approaches is preferable in framing liability of Internet intermediaries? (Choose one of the following)
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Correct.
Safe harbour. 'Safe harbour' grants immunity to Internet intermediaries for users' actions, provided they operate within certain requirements – usually expedient action for removing or disabling content that contributes to technology-mediated violence against women, when it is brought to their notice. They are preferable to generalist frameworks which hold the Internet intermediary completely liable for online content. Here, the very evidence of illegal user activities on Internet platforms may lead to civil and/or criminal penalties for ISPs and the companies owning these platforms. Such approaches, unsurprisingly, encourage over-censorship and excessive content blocking by Internet intermediaries.
Unit 4.2
Glossary Text for Tooltips
The intersecting structures of social stratification