Women and Nigerian ICT Policy

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the bedrock for national survival and development in a rapidly changing global environment. Little wonder, every progressive country has a national IT policy and an implementation strategy to respond to the emerging global reality so as to tap from the numerous potential associated with these technologies. However, global reports and statistics reveal that women and girls are grossly underrepresented in the field of ICTs. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in 2013 reports that there are currently 200 million fewer women online than men, and this gap could grow to 350 million in three years. The report also reveals that globally women are coming online later and more slowly than men. Out of the world's 2.8 billion Internet users, only 1.3 billion are women. The report also states that women account for fewer than 20% of ICT specialists in developing economies and estimated that, by 2015, 90% of formal employment across all sectors will require ICT skills. The report additionally stated that 21% of women are less likely than their male counterparts to own a mobile phone – representing a mobile gender gap of 300 million. In Africa, only about half of the female population makeup the number of men connected to the internet. This gender divide calls for gender mainstreaming in respect of ICT policy. This chapter examines Nigeria Information Technology Policy and possible areas of encouraging gender mainstreaming in order to encourage and boost the ICT engagement for women empowerment. Thus, having looked at the Gender mainstreaming and Nigeria's IT policy this chapter concludes that there is need for the mainstreaming of the following areas in the IT policy, the issue of access particularly for women to help bridge the gap between men and women, the issue of establishing ICT training centers for women in the rural areas to train them on ICT skills.

ICT Is Not Gender Blind

This chapter critically reviewed literature on gender disparity associated with access and usage of ICT, focusing on the less developed world, especially Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors used relevant online literature sourced from research databases such as Google Scholar, Elsevier and Wiley Online Library. With the aid of graphical illustrations, the chapter aligned its argument with some critical global research findings regarding gender-based mobile phone and Internet usage and the concept of ICT and gender. The chapter concluded that ICT gender gap negatively affects the socio-economic development of women, and recommended that ICTs manufacturers should integrate gender-balanced software and hardware right at the time of production of the technologies.

Public Demand Aggregation as a Means of Bridging the ICT Gender Divide

More men use ICTs than women globally. This is not because there are more men than women globally. Rather, it is because of social, economic and cultural challenges that work against the adoption of ICTs by women. In this chapter, public demand aggregation of ICT content is promoted as a means of bridging the ICT gender gap. The argument presented here is; the promotion of useful e-government service(s) in a country will enable equal adoption of ICTs by both men and Women. The argument for content is inspired by the examples proposed in this chapter as well as a synthesis of results from the Ghana Wireless Project and a research visit to Jaribu and Kerege in Tanzania. This chapter concludes, that the adoption of mandatory national e-government initiatives will result in more women identifying other uses of ICTs in other areas of their lives, spurring sustainable adoption of ICTs.

Small but Focused

In this chapter, we will offer some reflections on ICT accessibility, uses and perceptions by rural women. Using a sociological conceptual framework based on discussions on gender, ICT gap, and women empowerment (Stromquist, 2014; Mezirow, 2006), we will try to understand, in an innovative way, the available statistical data collected in national and international surveys on this subject; we will also add qualitative data collected in an exploratory study, conducted in a Portuguese rural village. This study was a multi-site ethnographic research project (Falzon & Hall, 2009) with participant observation and in-depth interviews. We analysed the infrastructure conditions and constraints, with the aim of giving a voice to the interviewed women, in order to better understand their representations of ICT and the reasons for their use and non-use. The results allow us to advance some possible paths to mitigate some of the constraints to ICT empowerment among rural women.

Political Dis-Empowerment of Women by ICTs

This chapter explores how bloggers in two Zambia online publications represent women politicians and how interlopers ‘frame' such politicians so as to exclude them from the public spaces. It argues that although ICTs are generally thought to be facilitators of women's empowerment, they can also be used to dis-empower the women with the full utilisation of cultural or religious frames and practices. It is further said that ICTs have both a positive and negative edge to them and thus should be used much more carefully.

Digital Leisure or Digital Business?

The fourth world conference on women in Beijing in 1995 was a springboard for women acceptance to explore various media possibilities to enhance their global visibility for societal recognition, address the negative media portrayal of women, and strengthen the gender equality struggles. Their platform for action on women and the media was to strategically increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication. These declarations and strategies were clear indications and a call for creating new avenues for expression and participation for the purpose of empowering women. These plans of action and adoption of new technologies of communication must translate into relevant engagement with these technologies to be able to achieve the set goals. Engaging with technologies for leisure purposes (digital leisure) are likely to be of little significance to serious Internet activities relevant to women empowerment drive (digital business). The purpose for which women engage these new technologies should reflect issues that are in tandem with women empowerment drive. This Chapter examined what area Nigerian women are engaging the Internet. Findings showed that more Nigeria women access the Internet through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Nigerian women engage the Internet for both digital leisure and digital business but they do more leisure-based Internet activities than serious activities that facilitate women empowerment (their Internet activities are more leisure oriented than business oriented) The women Internet empowerment drive can only be realised if Nigerian women up their game in digital business activities on the Internet.

Challenging or Reinforcing the Gender Divide?

This chapter aims to deepen the understanding of how the appropriations of new communication technologies in dramatic changing communication ecologies interrelate with social and cultural changes in contemporary rural and urban Kenya, focusing on gender and space. The study, which is set in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya, is based on a 799 household's survey concerning gendered access and usage of media and ICT and 80 life-world interviews with men and women on their appropriations of new media. The chapter concludes that the interrelation between new media and gender is complex. To a large extent the media usage reflects the patriarchal structure in Kenya and reinforces gendered spaces but new media also offer new spaces that challenge prevailing norms. Suggesting that new technologies can simultaneously function as vehicles of transformation and reproduce power relations and cultural patterns.

Mobile-Based Social Media Platforms and Women Mobilisation for Political Participation in Nigeria

There is volume of literature and growing studies on the roles and responsibilities of conventional mass media and to some extent computer-based social media in enhancing political engagement, mobilisation and participation in developed and emerging democracies such as Nigeria. However, a few studies exist that provide insight about the intersection between mobile-based social media platforms and political mobilisation and participation in various democracies (liberal and non-liberal, developed and developing). It is therefore pertinent to examine such relationship especially from Nigeria's perspective as emerging democracy that is struggling to mobilise and absorb people from all sectors and sections to ensure acceptance and institutionalisation of democratic ideals in the country. Thus, the focus of this chapter is to examine the roles, significance and application of mobile based social media platforms that can only be registered and used on mobile phones. The chapter also evaluated strategies and techniques required to enrich engagement, mobilisation and participation in democratic processes particularly in the Northern part of the country through these mobile-based social media. Thus political actors can use mobile based social media to engage and mobilise youth and women to participate keenly in political discourse, electioneering, policy formulation and implementation at various levels.

Mothers' Domestication of Household ICTs

ICTs such as television, the Internet and mobile phones have assumed a growing presence within the modern households and have made an undeletable imprint on family dynamics and parenting. Though, several gender studies have vouched to understand ICT domestication from the perspective of mothers, however the influence of social and cultural factors on the adoption and appropriation of ICTs has not been as widely studied as expected by scholars in the field. Therefore, in order to better explicate the influence of socio-cultural factors on mothers' domestication of ICTs, this paper delves to explore how mothers incorporate ICTs into their household routines and how they utilize ICTs as they fulfil their matrimonial responsibilities in managing their homes, coordinating schedules, fostering family interaction and supervising their children. Also, the paper highlights on how mothers screen and oversee their children's ICT use. The paper argues that cultural conceptions of motherhood and maternal responsibility, the premium placed on academic achievement by children, as well as the society's highly positive outlook on technology, greatly influence how mothers use and supervise their children's use of ICTs. The chapter professes that the mothers are creative in deploying ICTs in coordinating schedules with, disciplining and monitoring their children. The chapter concludes that perpetual mothering which is ICT-based could be burdensome and stressful.

Does Whatsapp Use By Female Students Ruin their Morality?

Many different social media platforms exist today. Some are, but not limited to Facebook, Flicker, Twitter, Instagram, Badoo, Skype, and Whatsapp. Of these applications, research has proven that majority of the world's population patronise the Whatsapp messenger more than the other apps. Secondly, students are noted to be the main patronisers. Nonetheless, since research has proven that students are the main subscribers to Whatsapp use globally, there is the need to examine the effects associated with its use. In this regard, the question the paper raises is, does Whatsapp use by JHS female students ruin their morality or moral life? The findings of the paper inform its conclusion that the use of Whatsapp by Junior High School female students negatively affects their morality/moral foundations. This is because the paper revealed that about 90% of the Junior High School female students who use Whatsapp mostly exchange pornographic materials, abusive contents and engage in unhealthy acts (e.g. phone sex) with their peers who are online. The consumption of these contents has introduced them to the practice of some social vices of which they were naïve about before their contact with the app.