7 th IPID International Annual Conference Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) September 5-6, 2012; Kristiansand, Norway. Role of ICT to Promote Gender Equality in Bangladesh Mohammad Mahmudul Hasan Email: mhasan.oru@gmail.com Örebro University, Sweden ABSTRACT Gender equality promotion has been influenced by the utilization of ICT to empower socially discriminated women in the context of Bangladesh. This paper highlights the role of ICT to promote gender equality through the gender equality conceptual framework. A literature review has been adopted to conduct this study. The finding of this study shows that ICT has some potential roles towards gender equality by empowering discriminating women in the socio-cultural context of Bangladesh. The utilization of ICT influences discriminated women to achieve individual satisfaction, independency and decision making role through economic participation to the household. ICT also enables the women to acquire education, knowledge and skills to earn a socially respectful reorganization. KEY WORDS Gender equality, Gender equality through ICT, Gender equality in Bangladesh, Women empowerment, Women empowerment through ICT.
INTRODUCTION Gender refers to men and women by the socially constructed classification. Gender is determined by the conception of attributes such as tasks, functions and roles to women and men in the society rather biological characteristics of women and men. Roles and norms of gender are formed by both men and women through their activities. Gender equality refers that both the women and men have the rights to enjoy the same status through equal rights, responsibilities, opportunities, benefits, treatment and evaluation of performance of women and men (UCEP, 2012). Once again the issue of gender equality became a significant issue on the global agenda during the last twentieth century. An initiative has been taken towards the integration of women into the national development where the women have a long history of discrimination on their human rights. After the end of Second World War, an optimism flourished that the world could be rebuild to eliminate poverty, injustice and ignorance through the improvement of women s live as an inevitable part of development. However, in many places across the world women s lives remain wretched. There are substantial gender gaps have been observed in the household responsibilities, limited access to educational opportunities and economic resources (Inglehart, & Norris, 2003). Bangladesh is considering one of the world s most density populated country within 150 million of population where 49 percent of the population live under the national poverty line (THP, 2012). Among the earning person in the household 10% are women followed by 90% of men earner. Women constitute the half (49%) of the population of Bangladesh. Therefore, women s participation is necessary on the achievement of comprehensive, sustainable social and economic development of Bangladesh (BBS, 2008). Islam is the state religion in Bangladesh where the majority (88%) populations of the country are following Islamic believes. The reminders are Hindus and small communities of Buddhists and Christians religions (The Bangladesh Travel Guide, 2012). There are no legal restrictions on gender to provide the freedom of women to access public space. However, the activities of women are usually limited to their home, relatives and local areas due to the discriminatory of social norms (SIGI, 2012).
Bangladesh is a developing country where the development would be impossible unless promoting gender equality and integrated women in the mainstream development process (UCEP, 2012). Bangladesh Government has distinct commitments on the policy to the promotion of gender equality by elimination of sex discrimination and advancement of women (CARE Bangladesh, 2000). In the context of Bangladesh regarding gender issue, it is not surprising that significant disparities exists between men and women related to the access of education and skills training rather it is surprising that a very little progress has so far been made towards the alleviating of gender inequalities and discriminatory practices exist in Bangladesh (UCEP, 2012). According to Aurumurthy (2004), technologies are neither gender independent nor culture neutral. In the information society gender issue covers a wide spectrum. Integrating gender perspectives and plan for gender equality into national ICT policies, promoting gender responsive e-governance, effective use of ICT to the discriminated women are some of the issues. Hence, the gender issues have gained a prominence in the recent debates on the field of ICT. Chen (2004) argues that a well established ICT infrastructure or high level of ICT availability can lead and accelerate to the improvements in gender equality in several ways. For example, ICT have the potentiality to influencing public opinion on gender equality, increasing educational opportunities for females, increasing economic opportunities for socially discriminated women. The study is aiming to identify the potentiality of ICT intervention to accelerate the promotion of gender equality in the context of Bangladesh. Therefore, the research question of the study is What is the role of ICT to promote gender equality in Bangladesh? In order to operationalize this research question, the objectives of this study are addressed to identify the role of ICT towards gender equality in Material, Cognitive, Perceptual, Relational and Technological change through the intervention of ICT. The paper is organized as follows. Conceptual framework has described through literature, methodology explains the adopted research approach and data collection, data analyzing technique. Results and Discussion section presents the research findings and analysis of it in line with research objective and conceptual framework to answer the research question. And finally conclusion section wraps up the research aim and objective along with major findings.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Since promoting of gender equality is a critical understanding and complex entity to measure, the conceptual model of Laizu et al. (2010) is considering appropriate. The framework has been developed for South East Asian countries to empowering women towards promoting gender equality through the interventions of ICT. Figure 1 presents the independent variables of women behavior such as personal characteristics (Education level, Age) together with motivation level (Information Type, Purpose of Involvement and Access Level) which has a variation between each person. These independent variables are affecting dependent variables (Material, Cognitive, Perceptual, Relational and Technological change). For example, an educated woman can learn ICT skills and acquire knowledge more easily than the woman who has no education and therefore can perceive changes. Similarly, the rest of the variables - age, purpose of involvement in ICT project, ICT access and information type affects women s skill and knowledge though ICT intervention to women empowerment towards promote gender equality (Laizu et al. 2010). Figure 1: Conceptual Model to promote gender equality (Laizu et al. 2010).
The 4 dependent variables of the conceptual model adopted from Chan (1997) consolidate framework which defines Material, Cognitive, Perceptual and Relational change through the intervention of ICT. The technological change has defined by Lennie s (2002) rural woman empowerment model. Material Change: Through the material pathway a changes has come towards the access or control over material resources. For example, in the earning capacity, in the level of income, in the satisfaction of basic needs. Cognitive Change: Though the cognitive pathway the changes has come into the level of knowledge, skills or awareness of wider environment. Perceptual Change: Individual confidence level, future vision as well as changes in recognition and respect by others are experienced through perceptual pathway. Relational Change: Through the relational pathway changes has come in the dependency on other, bargaining power, decision making role, participation in non-family groups. Technological Change: Technological change has come through the access of information, knowledge, skills and resources and their potential benefits and impacts. METHODOLOGY The methodology adopted to write this paper is literature study. Articles, development reports and social development web portal have been utilized to write this paper. Various literatures has been reviewed from data bases by typing key word entitled Gender equality, Gender equality through ICT, Gender equality in Bangladesh, Women empowerment, Women empowerment through ICT. We utilized three databases Google scholar, LibHub library, Science Direct, Senior Scholar s Basket of Journal (European Journal of Information System, Information Systems Journal, Information System Research, Journal of AIS, Journals of MIS, and MIS Quarterly) and Google search engine for our topic to find literatures.
The inclusion criteria of the selected articles, report and websites solely depend on gender equality and women empowerment through ICT. The required data has been retrieved through inclusion criteria. Articles and reports are categorized by the interference of ICT in the gender equality and women empowerment. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Education is an independent characteristic of each human which has significant importance in order to improve gender equality among the general population of Bangladesh. Education is considering a quality of each human to reduce gender inequality to wide their views, reduce ethnocentricity and thus improve the flexibility towards accepting modern society and norms. Female education has been discriminating in the gender biased society of Bangladesh that dictate solely domestic roles for women reasoning lack of educational institute. ICT has the potentiality to enable the women to obtain and improve their skills through some innovative ways. For example, ICT allows several types and levels of education system which can be acquired through distance learning process. The women who are facing social barriers to accesses the educational institute, distance learning via ICT is a promising educational approach for them to provide flexibility of accessing education (Chen, 2004). The ICT enabled electronic application are mostly attracting the younger generation where the older population of the society are less enthusiastic to the new technology. According to (Bonder, 2002), it is widely admitted that ICT field is an influenced area by gender and maturity perspective. In the context of Bangladesh, the ICTs education and training programs for developing economic socio-cultural environment is among particularly the involvement of younger generation. The type of information engaging with the utilization of ICT is an important factor to empower women through the development of gender equality. According to Huyer (2004), ICT project planning and implementation for social development on the way of gender equality have to consider the developing of content which speaks to the concern of discriminated women reflecting upon their knowledge valued for their daily lives, business enterprises and family responsibilities.
A shift has been given more recently from the emphasis on women as objects of information to a focus on women as controllers of information toward the development of gender equality. That is not only changing the way of women talked about, but also enabling more women particularly marginalized women to create their own information and spread this information via the ICT technologies (Burch, S. & Leon, I., 2000). The term Gender Divide has also been identified along with the recognition of the potential of ICT as tool for the promotion of gender equality through empowerment of the women. In terms of the opportunities of accessing and utilizing ICT, women are lacking behind the men in the current societies of Bangladesh. There is a high risk that ICT may intensify the existing gender inequalities and create a new form of inequality by discriminate the access of ICTs (Dalal, 2006). However, if the gender dimensions of ICT regarding the access and use of ICT, capacity-building opportunities, employment and potential for women empowerment are explicitly identified and addressed, ICT can be a potential channel for the gender equality in the context of Bangladesh societies (Sandys, 2005). While the socially discriminated women have the opportunities of access and use of ICT, they can significantly improve their lives by breaking the socio-cultural barriers exist in the current context of Bangladesh. More opportunities can be generated via ICT to promote women to participate in the development of education though e-learning, health through e- health services, financial support though internet marketing as well as participation in the policy making process. The independent variables of women such as education level, maturity level, type of information, purpose of access and access level are influenced by different role of ICT and affects dependent variables. The interventions with various roles of ICT in the women s daily lives can change their life in terms of material, cognitive, perceptual, relational and technological change towards gender equality. Material Change: The utilization of ICT enables the socially discriminated women to participate in the economy and margined the income level together with socially dominated men. The earning
capacity of women stands behind the construction of their individual satisfaction on their basic needs. In the past history of Bangladesh women were considered only for household work and they were excluded from mainstream of the development. In today s the scenario and sociocultural environment has not extensively diverse from the earlier situation. But through the advent and development of ICT the socially conservative outlook about women is diminishing gradually. As a consequence more women are participating in various knowledge based industries such as computer-aided designing, graphic designing, composing, online free lancing etc (Ahmed et al., 2006). Cognitive Change: In the context of Bangladesh women are discriminating to acquire knowledge and skills by the socio-cultural barrier. They have lack of knowledge and awareness of the wider environment because of the limited involvement to the outside environments. The utilization of ICT enables the women to earn knowledge and skills by e-learning and be aware of the wider environment by participating and involvement through various ICT applications. The activities of mass media have up righted the women position in the ICT sector all the more. Various sort of ICT based advertisement, cartoons; telecasting, broadcasting projects are operating to improve female awareness in the society. Women are not more lack in knowledge and skills to fitting themselves in the right place which is positively highlighting the influences of ICT (Ahmed et al., 2006) Perceptual Change: Traditionally, the Bangladeshi women are considered for only family interests as their own well-being interests (Kabeer, 1991). The women are struggling with individual confidence level and lack of future vision because of being isolated from the outer world as their interests are limited to the house hold oriented. The utilization of ICT provides the women a respectful recognized to the outer world. For example, women are involving ICT oriented education for better employment to make a socially respected and recognized position which improve their individual confidence level and wide their future vision.
Relational Change: The role of women in the family affairs particularly in the decision-making process are no longer been ignored. Now-a-days women are able to earn for their family by means of ICT. This substantial revenue in the family economy has elevated the position of women in their own households and the society they belongs to (Ahmed et al., 2006). The women in the context of Bangladesh are mostly dependent on the other persons in the household to meet their basic financial needs. The earning capacity of women through ICT oriented employment eliminated their dependency on other person in the house hold. Therefore, a bargaining power has come to the women which consider their role in decision making process in the household. Technological Change: In the framework of Bangladesh women are ignored towards the access of information, new knowledge, skills and resources. Wajcman (1991) argues that an important factor in the gender equality through the empowerment of discriminated women is the development of knowledge and skills that enhance their technical competence and expertise. Through the access and utilization of ICT the women can have effective information about their lives and be compatible with the new technology to achieve its effectiveness. According to Lennie (2002), technological empowerment increasing women s internet use to access government information and important information about social, economical and environmental awareness issues. Internet surfing provides the opportunity to the information discriminated women to have important government information via government web portal as well as online newspaper and other web portals provides them the effective information on the national and global environment.
In summary, based on the above discussion, we can present the following findings: Table 1: Summary of the role of ICT towards promoting gender equality. Material Change ICT plays a vital role towards the margined of economy by providing earning capacity to the socially discriminated women together with socially dominated men. Through the economic participation on the mainstream development of household women have their individual satisfaction to their basic needs. Cognitive Change ICT influences the discriminated women s knowledge and skills by their ICT-based involvement to the outer world. E-learning and various types of ICT based advertisement, cartoons, telecasting and broadcasting enables the women to obtain effective knowledge and skills on their social environment. Perceptual Change ICT utilization promotes the gender equality by providing discriminated women to a socially reorganization and respect to the outer world beyond their household interest. The socially isolated women have their individual confidence and future vision through the ICT based involvement to the outer world environment. Relational Change ICT enables the discriminated women to a bargaining position in the decision-making process. The substantial revenue by means of ICT in the family economy has elevated the position of women in their own households and the society they belongs to. As well as the earning capacity of women through ICT oriented employment eliminated their dependency on other person in the house hold. Technological Change ICT plays an important role on the way of promote gender equality by providing access of information, knowledge, skills and resource to the discriminated women to enhance their technical competence and expertise on the new technology.
CONCLUSION On the way of promoting gender equality in the context of Bangladesh women empowerment through the utilization of ICT is a highlighted issue where men are dominated to women in every spare of life. The aim of the study is to reveal the role of ICT to promoting gender equality in Bangladesh through literature study. Based on the discussion regarding the variables of gender equality conceptual framework we can conclude that ICT has a potential role towards the promotion of gender equality in the context of Bangladesh. The utilization of ICT enables the socially discriminated women to participate in the economy of household and achieve individual satisfaction to their basic needs. ICT has a strong contribution towards women s knowledge, skills and social awareness acquirement via e-learning. The socially isolated women have the opportunity to earn their social respectful reorganization, confidence, future vision through ICT involvement to the wider environment. Substantial revenue by means of ICT has elevated the position of women in their own households and the society they belongs to which eliminate their dependence and provide them a bargaining power in the decision making process. ICT plays an important role by providing access of information, knowledge, skills and resource to the discriminated women to enhance their technical competence and expertise on the new technology. Limitation of this study is that the study is based on literature review. For time and distance constraint the study could not integrated survey or interview technique into the data analysis. The findings of this study are based on the retrieved information from previous research on the gender equality and women empowerment. This study suggests the future researcher to integrated survey or interview data collection technique into the data analysis.
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