The Broadband Commission Working Group on Broadband and Gender has released a report entitled "Doubling Digital Opportunities: Enhancing the Inclusion of Women & Girls in the Information Society" on access to information and communication technologies. According to the report, there are at the moment 200 million fewer women online than men with a tendency to row to 350 million within the next three years if action is not taken.
The report has been put together from research from UN agencies, Commission members and partners from industry, government and civil society. Worldwide, of the 2.8 billion Internet users, 1.3 billion are women, compared with 1.5 billion men. The gap between male and female users is relatively small in OECD nations, In developing countries, however, women has far less broadband access than men. Bringing an additional 600 million women and girls online could boost global GDP by as much as US$18 billion.
- Download the full report
