The Role of Technological Change in Increasing Gender Equity with a Focus on Information and Communications Technologyy

Joyce Jacobsen ()

No 2011-007, Wesleyan Economics Working Papers from Wesleyan University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper considers the potential role of various transformative general-purpose technologies in affecting gender equity. The particular technologies considered at length and contrasted are four network technologies: electricity and water provision on the one hand, and the newer information and communications technologies of the Internet and mobile phones on the other. Available evidence on the effects of transformative technologies, both historically and in recent developing country contexts, is surveyed. The results indicate difficulties in finding cleanly measurable factors due to the complex nature of the effects of the technologies, as well as the containment of many effects in the household/nonmarket sector rather than the market sector. However, there is some optimism regarding continued expansion of electrification and the use of mobile phones in particular for improving women’s empowerment.

Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2011-04
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://repec.wesleyan.edu/pdf/jjacobsen/2011007_jacobsen.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Role of Technological Change in Increasing Gender Equity with a Focus on Information and Communications Technology (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wes:weswpa:2011-007

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Wesleyan Economics Working Papers from Wesleyan University, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Manolis Kaparakis ().