GENDER AND SOCIETY OF INFORMATION	Οικονομικός ΤΑΧΥΔΡΟΜΟΣ FINANCIAL ΤΑHYDROMOS
	1.4.2004

 

A series of events of historical importance connected with the explosive developments in technology and the globalization of economy are fast transforming our every-day life and redefining the relationships between economy, state and society. Social and cultural changes are just as dramatic as technological and economic changes. Information technology is creating new channels of communication and re-defining human relations. Social activity, however, continues to be structured around the fundamental identities determined by nationality, language, religion, sexual preference and gender.

 

The International Meeting of the UN for Women in 1995 in Bejing referred to the media and new technologies as a "crucial sector" with regard to gender equality and the reinforcement of the position of women. Since then it has become apparent that the gender dimension needs to be incorporated in the developing Society of Information as a means by which the relationship between the sexes can achieve equilibrium, and social development can be advanced. It is a fact that the benefits of new technologies are unequally distributed, both on an international and local level and between different social groups. Gender-based discrimination however, constitutes one of the most significant asymmetries.

 

Unfortunately, there is a paradox, because while women triumph on all levels of education and surpass men in student numbers and performance, they are in danger of remaining on the margins of the Information Society. One has to wonder, what forces are acting to discourage the relationship between women and technology? What are the ways and the policy measures by means of which this already negative prospect of women in the new digital economy can be reversed? "Just like we once planned and applied programmes for the eradication of female illiteracy, today we need to promote programmes to fight digital illiteracy", answered George Papandreou in his first meeting with working women, himself a "worshipper" of new technology. The recent vote of the Women's Committee of the European Parliament moved much along the same lines, as it introduced the gender dimension for the first time in the discussion concerning digital discrimination and the formulation of an IT policy.

Unfortunately, in the public dialogue concerning the development and impact of new technologies, the focus is purely on the economic repercussions. The gender dimension is not considered, and as a result technology issues are mistakenly treated as neutral with regard to gender. In other words, the fact that restricted access to new technologies and digital illiteracy are developing into new forms of social exclusion and that women are in danger of being its victims, is totally ignored.

 

The Internet continues to be dominated by men and is primarily addressed to men. Warlike video games for young children contribute to the establishment of new technologies as male-dominated fields. The explosion of pornography on the Internet is a factor which aids the perpetuation of stereotypes and violence against women, and confirms the inequalities and discrimination they suffer.

 

Gender-based inequalities in the job market are cause for concern in all European countries, even those with low unemployment. The work ethic in the new technology sectors, with its insistence on "faster, better, modern" results, leaves women in a disadvantageous position. The constant pressure arising from the need for continuous information, post-graduate education and the acquisition of further qualifications, given the speed at which changes occur in the field, create conditions of extreme work-related stress which put immense pressure on women's careers. Though the digital economy offers opportunities, it also offers challenges to women – challenges which differ from those facing men and are based on the different roles and the continuing unequal and unfair distribution of time and responsibility between the two sexes in the private sphere.

 

It is certain that the relationship between women and the Society of Information can be greatly facilitated if men take on their share of family responsibility, in terms of parental leave, child care and housework. It is also of vital importance that greater care is taken concerning social infrastructures. The incorporation of the gender dimension in the development of new technologies poses the issue of access, quantitative participation and equal representation of women. However, it also poses deeper questions and advances an overall critical evaluation of the culture of the Information Society and its values, developmental strategies, aims, and the role it provides for the human work force. Traditional approaches to new technology, based on economic, business, or purely technological factors, must be re-examined and complemented with regard to issues of gender, participatory democracy and quality of life.