Remote Connections to Empowerment

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Gender Studies grade: 1st Class with Distinction(93%) University of Cambridge course: BA Geography - Gender and Development language: English abstract: Whilst the development of ICTs in Ethiopia has proved in many instances to be a promising tool for women's empowerment a complex web of factors (Buskens & Webb 2008) that determine access to these facilities has caused the scope of their benefit to be limited. In Ethiopia engagements with ICTs in education and society continue to show a marked gender gap. To identify the obstacles to ICTs faced by women the focus of analysis must extend beyond women themselves. Hence this research has taken a multi-perspective approach sampling a diverse range of respondents including men women youth University students IT professionals and government officials. This cross-section was taken from Gondar Town in the Amhara Region of Northern Ethiopia in order to situate the gendered barriers to ICT amongst a broader social cultural economic and political landscape. Therefore since ICT usage represents a social reality (Wood 2001: paragraph 5.7) a gender lens alone becomes insufficient: other forms of social exclusions [...] have to be considered (Rowbotham 1995:65 Morgan Heeks & Arun 2004).