ICT Initiatives, Women and Work in Developing Countries: Reinforcing or Changing Gender Inequalities in South India?

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly being seen as having the potential to foster economic growth, employment, skills generation, and empowerment in developing countries. The authors of this 23-page paper note that, however, the impact of ICTs in developing countries is not gender-neutral; ICTs as a form of new technology are socially deterministic, with varied implications for women dependent on the context within which the ICTs are utilised.

According to the authors, India's software boom and women's important role in its ICT workforce means that there is considerable interest in the role of ICTs in achieving gender equity and empowerment both as ends in themselves and as stimuli for social and economic development for women. In this context, the paper presents findings from a comparative study by the Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM) and Manchester Metropolitan University which investigated the effects of two different approaches, looking at two ICT-based projects operating within a similar social context in Kerala in South India. (A qualitative and case-based approach was taken involving two periods of fieldwork in Kerala, during 1998-99 and 2004. During both periods, interviews were conducted at three main levels: women workers, male and female managers, and male and female policy-makers. Documentary analysis was also undertaken; observational periods were also spent in a small number of organisations.)

Specifically, the first initiative is the state's creation of a technology park for over 50 private information technology and service companies involved in software-related activities, employing about 5,000 professionals. This approach is market-oriented and does not take gender into account, in that the role of women has not been considered specifically; however, skilled women can expect to benefit. Yet, as the industry is highly market-based and competitive, requiring frequent travel and continuous hours, traditional family and social responsibilities appear to prevent women from progressing. Thus, the workload and flexibility requirements actually reinforce gender inequalities, even when a high proportion of women are employed.

The second case study, Kudumbashree, is a poverty reduction programme for women using ICTs as the basis of some of its ventures, including training, hardware assembly/maintenance, data entry and digitisation. This state-led approach focuses strongly on gender and has been found to positively influence women's income opportunities and help empower women. Although Kudumbashree earned the women a lower salary in the short term, the range of competencies developed was considerably greater than that seen in the market-oriented approach because women have been allowed to break out of the traditional stereotypes of inequalities of power and responsibility between "women's work" and "men's work". Thus, the authors conclude that, to some extent, initiatives such as Kudumbashree can help to break down political, social and institutional bases of gender inequality. The question remains, however, of whether a highly interventionist approach such as Kudumbashree - which has required a significant degree of institutional support from government departments, banks, other financial intermediaries, and other local organisations - is sustainable in the long term.

In short, one ICT initiative - "gender-blind" and pursued within the globalised, competitive context of an increased role for markets and 'flexibility' - was found to have generally reinforced gender inequalities. By contrast, a gender-focused, interventionalist ICT initiative involving significant state intervention brought about positive changes to livelihood outcomes and empowerment of economically poor women. In conclusion, the authors suggest that programming drawing on new technologies does not benefit women equally when it fails to take men's and women's traditional and social roles into consideration. In contrast, ICT initiatives that address and include women can allow them to break out of the traditional stereotypes of unequal power and responsibility, in large part by creating flexibility requirements that are not detrimental to other aspects of women's lives.