Gender & the Digital Economy

In the discourse on information and communications technologies (ICTs), the focus has been on the, sometimes negative, relocation of jobs from the developed world. This book focuses, instead, on the positive aspects of the introduction of ICTs and shows how they can empower women and make a difference in today's uneven development process. It illustrates, with case studies from Argentina, Morocco, India, Malaysia and the Philippines, how economic empowerment can change the position of women within their families and workplaces. This book shows how to: - distinguish between liberal and neo-liberal theoretical paradigms while analyzing `informational capitalism'; - interrogate the silence and ambiguity among scholars and practitioners regarding gender equality, ICTs and human development; - avoid imposing canons of Western feminism in assessing the benefits of e-trade in societies where social norms are different; and - incorporate feminist principles of inclusion, user-developer interaction and transparency while designing ICT initiatives. Gender and the Digital Economy is an excellent resource for academic researchers, NGOs and industry analysists in the field of international development communication. The biggest strength of this anthology is that it fills a gap in knowledge by presenting perspectives of women from developing countries as diverse as the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Morocco and Argentina....Throughout the collection, the authors acknowledge the multiple and intersecting oppressions of women as well as their specific positions in society, in a accordance with principles of Third World Feminism. -- Book review, Asian Journal of Communication

Gender and Empowerment in the Information Economy - Swasti Mitter and Cecil Ng An Introduction PART ONE: THEORIZING GENDER, DEVELOPMENT, AND ICTS A REALITY CHECK Globalization, ICTs, and Economic Empowerment - Swasti Mitter A Feminist Critique From 'Information' to 'Knowledge' Societies? Argentina in the Context of Engendered Regional Globalization - Martha Roldan PART TWO: GENDERED SPACES IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY Female Spaces in the Philippines' ICT Industry - Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu Women's Agency and the IT Industry in India - Govind Kelkar, Girija Shrestha, and Veena N Valuing Women's Voices - Cecilia Ng and Swasti Mitter Call Center Workers in Malaysia and India Women Weavers Online - Susan Schaefer Davis Rural Moroccan Women on the Internet Virtual Community Building for Networking Among Women - Isabel Zorn PART THREE: THE POLITICS AND POLICIES OF GENDER AND ICTS Gender-Net - Dora Ines Munevar M and Juan Aburto Arrieta A Political Goal of Communication Technologies Thinking BIG to Accelerate Gender Equality and Transformation in the ICT Arena - Gillian M Marcelle