According to Equal Access International, digital technology, including the internet, has had an immeasurable impact on the lives of many across the globe. However, access to and use of technology is neither universal nor equitable. Women and girls are the most disadvantaged with economic, social, and cultural obstacles both limiting and preventing women’s access to technology and the benefits it brings. A literature review publication on gender and ICTs highlights barriers to women’s access to and use of digital ICTs of which our focus will be on material, psychological, social and cultural barriers in northern Nigeria.
In northern Nigeria, women are taught their roles and responsibilities of taking care of their homes right from childhood and while growing up they are expected to carry out these domestic responsibilities by giving in their time and energy to be seen as hardworking or fit to take care of their future home. This task at the end of the day takes away the time they need to dedicate towards learning a skill or getting involved in tech; going against such known norms can serve as a form of rebelliousness for the woman.
Several efforts are being made by both individuals and organizations to tackle the roadblocks to digital penetration in northern Nigeria. In this article, our case study is on the AboCoders digital training programme – a programme implemented by Aspilos Foundation in a bid to close the existing digital divide in the technology space in Nigeria. AboCoders is an empowering program that trains young women on software development, graphic design, hardware engineering and data science. Part of the goals of the program is also to increase employability of young women by equipping them with digital skills for access to better income generating opportunities. Through this program, we have seen firsthand the many challenges that hinder digital penetration in northern Nigeria, many of which are social, religious, and cultural. For example, there are instances where beneficiaries of AboCoders project had to withdraw from the program because their parents or relations feel the training is taking them away or distracting them from their “main” tasks in the house. The cultural belief is that a woman’s responsibility is to take care of the house, this means she is expected to depend on her spouse or other members of the family to provide her basic needs. This also means she is not even able to afford basic needs for herself much less the “luxury” of technology access. Most of AboCoders beneficiaries do not have access to technological devices nor are they able to subscribe for enough data to work from home in situations where they cannot go to the training centre. This limits their ability for continuous and constant practice to improve their skills beyond what they have been taught in the class.
Women have been made to believe that professional courses and jobs such as science, engineering, manufacturing, construction, or digital ICT are for men – a typical example of the kind of socialization that limit young girls in these communities from achieving to their fullest potential. This has made young women from these communities less confident about enrolling in such fields and they become even less keen to engaging in any way with technology. The AboCoders project is creating an enabling environment for women by enrolling only young ladies to the program, so seeing only the gender that is same as theirs in the program has motivated the interest of beneficiaries in the program. The project which also enrolls beneficiaries who have little or no experience in terms of digital literacy to learn the basic of computer before diving into either web development, data science, graphic design and animation etc. has boosted the confidence of those who have never used a computer and made it easy for them to collaborate with each other.
In conclusion therefore, for digital penetration to reach places where they are very well needed (as in underserved communities in northern Nigeria), a lot of social and behavioural change has to occur, culture shift has also to happen. And although, these will not be easy, it requires a lot of education and grassroots enlightenment; it requires a deliberate and sustained effort at changing mind sets and adjusting value patterns, but most importantly, it requires intense efforts by all and sundry – private organizations, governments and local authorities, opinion leaders, NGOs and think-tanks, etc. – in investing resources that will incrementally spiral the success of digital penetration all over the world, but particularly in places that are way behind.
Read more:
- https://www.equalaccess.org/our-work/projects/closing-the-gender-digital-divide-tech4families/
- https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9622.pdf
- http://www.oecd.org/digital/bridging-the-digital-gender-divide.pdf
- https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WRGS/GenderDigital/HRBDT_submission.pdf
This article is written by Salama Jatau
