Relationship between sustainable development and gender gaps in the information society

ICTs are generating more than $2 billion dollars annually for Costa Rica, and the industry is one of the fastest growing in the country.Yet, women continue to constitute a minority in the IT professional sector and their participation seems to be decreasing. Since Costa Rica considers IT to be an important opportunity for development, the continued gender imbalance within the sector creates unfavourable conditions for women’s socio-economic future. Salas suggests some tools for improving the current gender imbalance in Costa Rica’s IT industry and calls for policy that will break away from stereotypical professional roles. She underlines the need for technical training institutes, as well as centres of higher education, to encourage women to enter and remain in science and technology careers. This paper consists of seven sections. The first three are meant to give the reader the broader context in which this research takes place. Hence, the introduction provides general information regarding the Next Generations Policy Directions Project, which is the starting point for this study. The thematic justification (Section 2) explains how the research views the relationship between gender and sustainable development, as well as the connection to the information society agenda. Section 3 outlines the methodology used to produce and organize the contents. Sections 4 and 5 present results from documentation as well as fieldwork. They represent the new data that were either gathered from census and statistical institutions or generated through interviews with local key stakeholders. Section 6 highlights five case studies that illustrate some of the national experiences that are being developed in gender and information technologies. Section 7 offers research conclusions and recommendations. Read the full report IISD.

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