UN commission calls for closing gender digital gap
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N.’s premiere global body fighting for gender equality on Saturday called for wideranging efforts to close the gap between men and women in today’s technologydriven world and urged zero tolerance for gender-based violence and harassment online.
In a document approved by consensus after all-night negotiations at the end of a two-week meeting, the Commission on the Status of Women expressed grave concern at the interrelation between offline and online violence, harassment and discrimination against women and girls – and it condemned the increase in these acts.
It called for a significant increase in investments by the public and private sector to bridge the gender digital divide. It also called for the removal of barriers to equal access to digital technology for all women and girls, and new policies and programs to achieve gender parity in emerging scientific and technological fields.
Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, an entity of the United Nations focusing on gender equality and empowerment, called the document “game-changing” in promoting a blueprint for a more equal and connected world for women and girls. The challenge now, she said, is for governments, the private sector, civil society and young people to turn the blueprint “into reality for all women and girls.”
At the start of the commission’s twoweek meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said its focus was very timely because women and girls are being left behind as technology races ahead.
“Three billion people are still unconnected to the internet, the majority of them women and girls in developing countries, (and) in least developed countries just 19% of women are online,” Guterres said. “Globally, girls and women make up just one-third of students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics” and men outnumber
women two to one in the tech industry.
Bahous told the opening meeting that “the digital divide has become the new face of gender inequality,” with 259 million more men than women online last year. She also cited a survey of female journalists from 125 countries that found three-quarters had experienced online harassment in the course of their work and a third had engaged in self-censorship in response.
The “agreed conclusions” document adopted Saturday by the 45-member commission calls for equal quality education for women and girls in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, information and communications technology, and digital literacy so they can thrive in the rapidly changing world.
During lengthy negotiations on the document, which has 93 paragraphs, U.N. diplomats said language on women’s rights was challenged by Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Holy See, and human rights language was also challenged by those countries as well as Cuba and China. There were also intense debates over language on genderbased violence facilitated by technology, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were closed.