Engendering the Knowledge Society: Measuring Women's Participation

This report, funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), provides a framework for policy makers to use in establishing what sectors of the economy and society are the most strategically relevant to women's development goals. The overall goal is to encourage the mainstreaming of gender in data collection, statistics, and indicators for the knowledge society so that gender issues can be taken into account more readily in policy planning and implementation.

As stated in the Executive Summary, the report intends to:

• "Define the parameters of women and the knowledge society, suggesting and prioritizing indicators that can be effectively monitored.
• Raise data issues related to the development of gender-sensitive data, gender and composite indexes and the relation of gender to the knowledge society.
• Facilitate analysis of gender equity and sex-specific issues as countries move toward knowledge societies.
• Serve as the starting point for future work on identifying a core set of globally relevant indicators on women and the knowledge society that could be used by governments, international organizations, research institutions and individual researchers to identify and raise awareness of issues and to improve the evidence base for policy development and decision-making."
  

The development of the Framework on Gender Equality and the Knowledge Society intends to assist policy makers with the following tasks, among others: assessing the degree to which women and girls can access education at all levels; collecting data to identify the gaps in human capacity development and pinpoint where investment can leverage the greatest results; identifying the areas where boys and men are lagging; and elucidating policy priorities and national capabilities to inform donors and multilateral agencies. Chapter 1 sets the context for answering "Why measure women’s participation in the knowledge society?" Chapter 2 defines gender statistics and indicators; examines current data collection and the establishing of indicators in information and communication technology (ICT) and science and technology; and assesses the existing indexes. Chapter 3 addresses the gaps in the current indexes by setting out a framework for measuring gender equality and the knowledge society.

According to the document, "the framework is organized into two categories of indicators - input and outcome. Input indicators enumerate the base conditions affecting the ability of women to participate in the knowledge society. They are organized into seven main dimensions: health, social and economic status; access to resources; agency, opportunity and capability; and enabling policies. Outcome indicators, which measure the degree of women’s participation in the knowledge society, are: knowledge society decision-making; participation in the knowledge economy; participation in science, technology and innovation systems; and lifelong learning. The combination of gender equality and knowledge society indicators allows for analysis of gender equality coupled with the recognition of sex-specific trends within a knowledge-based society that may lead to insights on the closing of various knowledge divides. It also makes explicit the close relationship between them.” (See page 7 - 9  for the input and the output indicators summary charts organised as: Dimensions, Indicator topic areas, and Comments.)

In conclusion, the document calls for organisations, partnerships, and the research community to raise its awareness of gender in collecting and analysing data and bringing it forward to advocate for knowledge society issues, especially around the usage, skills, and affordability of information and communications technologies by both women and men. In short, the developers of the framework state that: "By highlighting the importance of this work and making suggestions for moving forward we have taken the first step. We call on advocates and policy makers to join us in this vital effort to improve the lives of all members of the knowledge society of the future.”