Women in the Digital Age : Final Report

Abstract

This study aims to identify key factors and trends in the participation of women in ICT and its dynamics and analyses the practices enabling women's participation in the digital world. 57% of tertiary graduates in the EU are women, but only 24.9% of them graduate in ICT-related fields, and very few enter the sector. Women make up 13% of the graduates in ICT-related fields working in digital jobs compared to 15% in 2011. Globally, figures indicate that women's participation in the ICT and digital sector are not improving significantly. Data trends and qualitative analysis suggest that gender inequality in the digital sphere is essentially a result of the persistence of strong unconscious biases about what is appropriate and what capacities each gender has, as well as about the technologies themselves. Therefore, to address this situation, cultural change and initiatives at micro level can help develop female digital entrepreneurship. If existing biases are not addressed, rapid economic advances achieved by digital transformation will not take into account existing gender gap in the sector which will simply amplify and, possibly perpetuate gender stereotypes.