INTERNET AND GENDER: AN EMPOWERMENT TOOL FOR WOMEN?

Abstract

This paper analyzes the extent to which women benefit from the use of "the Internet" taking into account both the gender gap in access and use of the Internet and the virtual reproduction of practices that derive from a culture of inequality and violence against women.
The analysis was divided into three sections. The first section addresses the importance of access and usage of the Internet as an indispensable tool for exercising human rights and inclusion of disadvantaged groups. The second section focuses on the advantages provided by this tool for the empowerment and advancement of women as well as determining what women are mainly using the Internet for, while identifying gender gap as the main obstacle to access and use the Internet. Finally, the third section focuses on the repetition of gender stereotypes and violence against women through the Internet as factors derived from a culture of gender inequity and violence -that still exist outside the Internet- and its impact on how women use the Internet.
The analysis shows how, in spite of the advantages offered by the Internet as an instrument of collaboration and empowerment, social norms and gender stereotypes limit women's use of the Internet to only entertainment and consumption of services -instead of using it as a tool for their own empowerment and participation in social and political topics.