Gender and the Digital Economy

Since the 1970s, the world has witnessed rapid advancement in the development and spread of new technologies, particularly information and communication technologies (ICTs). This has, concomitantly, fuelled a fresh industrial revolution and shaped a ‘new’ economy: the information or digital economy. In the global discourse on ICTs, the concern so far has primarily been outsourcing and the loss of service sector jobs from the developed world. This book focuses, instead, on the positive aspects of the digital economy as they relate to women in the developing world. It illustrates—with case studies from Argentina, Morocco, India, Malaysia and the Philippines—how economic empowerment through the medium of ICTs can change the position of women within their families and the workplace, even in the face of uneven development processes. This timely volume, which is rooted in primary and original research, illuminates the gender-related facets of the emergent information society while raising key questions about the implications of the digital economy on women`s work and lives. Transcending disciplinary boundaries to analyze the implications for theory, policy, and action, t his book will be of considerable interest to academics, planners, implementers, and researchers of ICTs, as well as those involved in women’s studies, international communication, technology studies, and development studies.