Gender Equality: Initiatives Towards Achieving Woman Participation in ICT

Abstract

Women are the heart of not just the family but the society at large because the family is the nuclear of the society. Educating women in the use and  subsequently proficiency in ICT is tantamount to providing them all they need in a modern world of the 21st century. The research problem  addressed in this paper are whether or not there are adequate resources committed to educating women on the technical skills needed to use ICT  tools for self-empowerment and economic growth; how can internet availability and affordable data enhance women participation in ICT in other to  improve on women equality; how can government policies regarding ICT affect women equality and how can user-friendly ICT devices enhance  women participation in ICT. Using keywords from the research title and applying text pre-processing using machine learning approach, the authors  scooped through literature and obtained data in form of articles used in the research. The Systematic review research method was used in this work  which therefore allowed the researchers to synthesis researches from 46 relevant publications from an initial 156 obtained from 324 academic  databases using the library portal of the North-West university, South Africa. In finding solution to the research problem, this paper  examines the critical intervention that has been made to bridge the gender inequality gap identified in literature and to outline critical factors that  will increase the participation of women in both the economy and political affairs of the society which entails but not limited to equipping them with  ICT technical skills. The paper continued by arguing that when women are trained in ICT, the ripple effect will see increase in the wellbeing of  the people and society.