How do technologies influence the socio-cultural role of women in society?

Social media networks, like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter gives have become a field of open communication, which has given people the opportunity to draw attention to an issue, or raise awareness of a problematic topic. In this essay the issue of gender inequality and the role of women in society will be reviewed from the perspective of technologies, and social media networks. Have they affected the issue in a positive way? What has changed since technology and social media networks have become one of the tools for changing the expected role of a woman in the society?

Since social media and technologies have become an irreplaceable part of our daily lives, it has also become an important tool, for raising awareness of millions of people in the topic of the unfair role of a woman in the modern society. Such topics as domestic abuse and sexual assault aren’t whispered about anymore, they instantly and openly are talked about as a serious problem on the social media, which further brings global attention to the topic, involving serious organizations like UN into standing with women against the crisis, and raising global awareness of the problem.

Gender inequality creates numerous problems and obstacles in world economy, as it was reviewed in an research article by SIDA- «Background paper: Gender Equality and Pro-Poor Growth., October 2010»: «Empirical evidence shows that gender-based inequalities limit both economic growth and poverty reduction. At the same time, countries that improve the status of women tend to have lower poverty incidence and stronger economic growth». At the time when the article was published, it was instantly spread across the social media and created global discussion of the topic, multiple independent women rights organizations were raising awareness of the issue on every platform of social media. Through social media millions and millions of people from every part of the world got the attention of countries governments which led them to increase workplace quantities, raise the salary and add more career paths for women to chose from. In the last 15 years according to the ILO (International labour organization), the gender gap in global employment decreased by 50%, which was proved to have a positive impact on the economics.

Research shows that up until 2012 about 80% of women in Senegal, South Africa, Brazil and India didn’t have access to technology, as an experiment, various telephone companies granted them access to telephones and computers, the results of these experiment show that most part of these women used technology and access to the internet for education, furthermore, a group of these women in Brazil opened their own radiostation, and used it to raise awareness on gender inequality and breaking barriers in the topic of women’s role in society. According to data and global research, women from India have reported that they have gained respect in their local communities since their involvement in ICT (information and communication technology), it also helped breaking their communication barriers.

It was also documented that with access to technologies women began to approach the job market with more confidence in getting the job. Regarding technologies and the internet, they were proven to be one of the most convenient ways for women to get educated in any field, without feeling uncomfortable or harassed. They can safely access any information across the internet. Research and study shows that major percentage of women in Arab countries, gain education online Social media platforms are widely used in involving media and the public in the problems of sexual assault and harassment cases against women, turning a previous unacknowledged topic that most people would rather avoid, into a topic that is discussed globally, bringing worldwide importance to this subject across all of the social media. Nowadays there are multiple movements against domestic abuse and violence, where any woman can share her personal experience with the world and receive help.

The internet is full of forums and pages, which stand against gender discrimination and help in questions of increasing the role of a woman in the society, strengthen their political role and impact. It is a fully open platform where any person can share their opinion on finding a solution in the question of gender inequality, hate and discrimination.

Unfortunately technology and social media doesn’t always have a positive impact in gender equality issues, and can often have an impactful backlash on women. Across the world social media and other online platforms are used for luring or using women for their body. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the «Absher App» was used by men to know the women’s location and online activities, besides this initiative was fully acknowledged by the government. Also, the creation of technologies and social media, has given many men across Arab countries a reason to restrict their wives or daughters from going to the outside world. The involvement of women in social media platforms has created many unpredicted risks, for example an Iranian girl was arrested only for posting a dance video on Instagram. These girls become an easy target, because of their public social media profiles, and the regime finds ways to use it against them.

In conclusion, technologies and social media were proven to have more of a positive impact on the gender equality issue, than anything else throughout history. It provides a global platform, where every opinion can be written and every voice can be heard. To this day with the help of technology various gender inequality issues have already been resolved, with the help of social media organizations became a strong tool in a dialogue with the government. Since the creation and accessibility of technology and social media, the role of a woman in society has become more important than ever. In my opinion, it will take much more time for the global society to accept gender equality as a fact, nevertheless the mechanism is in action and hopefully humanity will get there.

1. Danielle Robertson; Mena Ayazi, «How Women Are Using Technology to Advance Gender Equality and Peace», (United States Institute of Peace).
2. Alina Sorgner, «The impact of new digital technologies on gender equality in developing countries».
3. Ana Nonikashvili, «Gender Equality Issues Displayed In The Social Network Facebook».
4. Aslop, R; Healey, P., (2009), «Gender Equality and Economic Growth for Poverty Reduction, in Poverty in Focus No 13: Gender Equality, International Poverty Centre: Brazilia».
5. Tembom, M; Fort L. (2008), «Girls’ Education in the 21st Century. World Bank: Washington DC».