Technology as the Key to Women’s Empowerment: A Scoping Review
Background: With women’s empowerment and information and communication technologies (ICTs) being the subject of global discussions for many decades, there is a need for a clearer and deeper understanding of existing gender gaps. Despite these prolonged discussions, there remains limited in-depth understanding of the use of ICTs for women’s empowerment. ICTs having made communication and networking a possibility between and among people on a global scale, a digital divide has emerged.
Research Objectives: To determine how the concept of empowerment is defined, utilized, and measured in research studies; explore existing evidence regarding the use of ICTs as interventions towards achieving women’s empowerment; and explore the gaps in knowledge and research on this topic from an individual, community, and global perspectives.
Methods: We conducted a scoping review using the Arksey and O’Malley methodology. The search identified papers from ten databases, including Scopus, Embase, ABI Inform, Soc Index, Sociological Abstracts, Gender Studies, Springer Link, PsychInfo, Science Direct, and Academic Search Complete over the period of 2012-2018. Search criteria included articles that focused on women’s empowerment and utilized technologies as interventions. Out of a total of 4481 articles that were initially identified, 51were included in the final review.
Results: Technology played a variety of roles in supporting the development of women’s capacities and resources. Results revealed the use of ICT interventions in the following areas: outreach, education, lifestyle, prevention, health challenges, perceptions of barriers. However, despite the positive use of technology to support women in their daily lives, there was a lack of consensus regarding the definition and use of the term empowerment. The concept of empowerment was also inconsistently and poorly measured among individual studies which led to issues in measuring whether or not empowerment was achieved.
Conclusion: This scoping review provides a comprehensive review of current and emerging efforts to use ICTs to empower women, as well as highlighting opportunities for collaborative efforts between researchers, program implementers and policy makers to address the persistent gender disparities with respect to ICTs.
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Posted 14 Jan, 2021
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Received 09 Jan, 2020
On 05 Jan, 2020
On 02 Jan, 2020
On 11 Dec, 2019
Invitations sent on 11 Dec, 2019
On 11 Dec, 2019
On 11 Dec, 2019
On 04 Dec, 2019
Technology as the Key to Women’s Empowerment: A Scoping Review
Posted 14 Jan, 2021
On 23 Feb, 2021
On 27 Jan, 2021
Received 22 Jan, 2021
On 06 Jan, 2021
On 31 Dec, 2020
Invitations sent on 31 Dec, 2020
On 31 Dec, 2020
On 31 Dec, 2020
On 05 Nov, 2020
On 08 Sep, 2020
Received 05 Sep, 2020
On 02 Sep, 2020
Invitations sent on 02 Sep, 2020
On 02 Sep, 2020
On 01 Sep, 2020
On 01 Sep, 2020
On 14 Jul, 2020
Received 06 Jul, 2020
On 02 Jul, 2020
Received 25 Jan, 2020
Received 09 Jan, 2020
On 05 Jan, 2020
On 02 Jan, 2020
On 11 Dec, 2019
Invitations sent on 11 Dec, 2019
On 11 Dec, 2019
On 11 Dec, 2019
On 04 Dec, 2019
Background: With women’s empowerment and information and communication technologies (ICTs) being the subject of global discussions for many decades, there is a need for a clearer and deeper understanding of existing gender gaps. Despite these prolonged discussions, there remains limited in-depth understanding of the use of ICTs for women’s empowerment. ICTs having made communication and networking a possibility between and among people on a global scale, a digital divide has emerged.
Research Objectives: To determine how the concept of empowerment is defined, utilized, and measured in research studies; explore existing evidence regarding the use of ICTs as interventions towards achieving women’s empowerment; and explore the gaps in knowledge and research on this topic from an individual, community, and global perspectives.
Methods: We conducted a scoping review using the Arksey and O’Malley methodology. The search identified papers from ten databases, including Scopus, Embase, ABI Inform, Soc Index, Sociological Abstracts, Gender Studies, Springer Link, PsychInfo, Science Direct, and Academic Search Complete over the period of 2012-2018. Search criteria included articles that focused on women’s empowerment and utilized technologies as interventions. Out of a total of 4481 articles that were initially identified, 51were included in the final review.
Results: Technology played a variety of roles in supporting the development of women’s capacities and resources. Results revealed the use of ICT interventions in the following areas: outreach, education, lifestyle, prevention, health challenges, perceptions of barriers. However, despite the positive use of technology to support women in their daily lives, there was a lack of consensus regarding the definition and use of the term empowerment. The concept of empowerment was also inconsistently and poorly measured among individual studies which led to issues in measuring whether or not empowerment was achieved.
Conclusion: This scoping review provides a comprehensive review of current and emerging efforts to use ICTs to empower women, as well as highlighting opportunities for collaborative efforts between researchers, program implementers and policy makers to address the persistent gender disparities with respect to ICTs.
Figure 1
Figure 2