Digital Inclusion for Better Job Opportunities? The Case of Women E-Included through Lifelong Learning Programmes

Abstract

This chapter explores the contributions and limitations of digital inclusion for better job opportunities in terms of job searching. Using a qualitative approach based on the social stratification of Internet usage approach (Sassi 2005) and including a gender perspective (Wajcman 2004), the analysis focuses on disadvantaged women who attended a basic digital skills course through a lifelong training programme in Spain.

The results show that, although the acquisition of digital skills provides them with more autonomy, the women interviewed believed that, due the presence of other social inequalities, digital inclusion was not in itself a sufficient condition for improving their labour position. This analysis offers further evidence of the politics of contradiction regarding the implications of digital technologies in terms of labour opportunities for disadvantaged women.