Will policy help close the digital gender divide? An intersectional feminist policy analysis of Ethiopia's national digital policy

Motivation

Digital technologies can enable development, but they risk further entrenching inequalities in society, such as through the digital gender divide. The divide can not only slow development, but also slow progress towards gender equality. As digital technologies become increasingly used by governments for economic development, the gendered aspects of digital technologies need to be considered.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate how Ethiopia's current national policies involving digital technologies consider the digital gender divide. It asks the following research questions: (1) how do Ethiopian government policies relating to engagement with digital technologies consider gender and gendered issues? And (2) how do Ethiopian government policies capture the causes of the digital gender divide?

Methods and approach

I critically analyse Ethiopian policies using an intersectional feminist lens, adapted from the work of Kanenberg et al. (2019). I applied this to the Ten Years Development Plan (10YP), Digital Ethiopia 2025, Ethiopian Education Roadmap 2018–2030 (EEDR), and Education Sector Development Programme VI (ESDP VI).

Findings

The four policies show little consideration of gender and gendered dimensions of digital technologies. They rarely address the causes of the digital gender divide. Above all, they do not consider the underlying sociocultural barriers women face if they want to engage with digital technologies. The policies are thus unlikely to help close the digital gender divide. Ethiopia's integrationist approach to gender, as well as the patriarchal structures within which the policies are designed, probably explain these findings.

Policy implications

A transformational gender policy paradigm, one designed to position women and men to challenge the patriarchal structures they live within, is suggested as a means of capturing and confronting the barriers women face to engaging with digital technologies in the long term.