LAHORE: ThinkFest held a session on the gender and the digital divide and national and international perspectives about it on Tuesday.

The session was curated by Gulalai Khan, communications and gender expert and lecturer on internet governance. The panel included Jon Barata of the Cyber Policy Center of Stanford University, Jennifer Adams, expert for International Center of Journalists, (Washington DC) and Uzma Quresh, senior social development specialist for the World Bank-Pakistan.

The panelists discussed various issues that make the existing digital divide problematic for women and how social and cultural barriers result in women not fully utilizing the potential that Information Communication Technologies offer.

Barata said that usually even when legislation is in place for making online spaces safe and inclusive, the implementation is the challenge. He added that the integration of policy work, legislation work, development work and civil society work is key to effective policy making and implementation.

Uzma Qureshi said development programmes make a concerted effort to integrate gender interventions into mainstream activities of the programme as standalone initiatives do not provide the desired results.

She also said that the gender digital divide in Pakistan cannot be fixed until social and cultural norms are worked upon and attitudes towards women’s use of technology change.

Adams stated that in the west too, where women have access and skills, online spaces are not as productive for women as they should be.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2020