TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Unlawful Eskom strike costing South Africa three stages of load shedding

      1 July 2022

      Striking Eskom workers will face consequences: De Ruyter

      1 July 2022

      The AI tool that has changed my life as a developer

      1 July 2022

      Google.co.za is down and the domain is pending deletion

      1 July 2022

      US files charges over South African bitcoin fraud scheme

      1 July 2022
    • World

      Meta girds for ‘fierce’ headwinds

      1 July 2022

      Graphics card prices plummet as crypto demand dries up

      30 June 2022

      Bitcoin just had its worst quarter in a decade

      30 June 2022

      Samsung beats TSMC to 3nm chip production

      30 June 2022

      Napster plots crypto comeback

      29 June 2022
    • In-depth

      The NFT party is over

      30 June 2022

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022

      Everything Apple announced at WWDC – in less than 500 words

      7 June 2022
    • Podcasts

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E04 – ‘The story of Intel – part 2’

      1 June 2022
    • Opinion

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»News»Poor women 50% less likely to use Internet

    Poor women 50% less likely to use Internet

    News By Agency Staff21 September 2016
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Parliament in Cape Town
    Parliament in Cape Town

    High prices, gender pay gaps and a lack of education makes women 50% less likely to access basic Internet services in poor urban communities, a global technology group has told parliament.

    The portfolio committee on telecommunications & postal services held the second day of public hearings into the cost to communicate on Wednesday.

    Dillon Mann, of the Alliance for Affordable Internet, told the committee that a global survey of 10 000 people across 10 countries revealed that women in poor areas have restricted access.

    “The key barrier was price, but it is compounded by income inequality between genders,” Mann said.

    “We really must prioritise gender equality online, and we can start by setting specific gender targets in policy,” Mann added.

    Mann said the survey revealed 37% of women surveyed were Internet users, as opposed to 59% of men.

    Women who were politically active offline were twice as likely to use the Internet.

    The gender disparity also had a direct relationship with education.

    At tertiary level, the difference was marginal, with 83% of male Internet users compared to 78% of women users.

    However, 24% of men with only primary school education were active Internet users, compared to 11% of women.

    Those who completed high school, 58% of men used the Internet, compared to 43% of women.

    “As we investigate public access programmes, we must make sure they target women and girls too,” Mann said.

    Alliance regional head Onica Makwakwa said income inequality in general also masked the true picture of Internet access.

    “The lowest income earners, the bottom 20%, are spending up to 14% of their income on basic broadband access,” said Makwakwa.

    “If you look at the top 20% of income earners, they spend less than half a percent on the same broadband,” Makwakwa added.

    The UN recommends 500MB should cost less than 5% of income for all income groups, she said.

    Makakwa said that broadband policy should breakdown reporting by income groups, and expand public access programmes.

    Emphasis should also be on community-owned networks.

    News24

    Alliance for Affordable Internet Dillon Mann Onica Makwakwa
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleUber pilots dashcams in Cape Town
    Next Article Eskom’s Molefe pushes the case for nuclear

    Related Posts

    Unlawful Eskom strike costing South Africa three stages of load shedding

    1 July 2022

    Striking Eskom workers will face consequences: De Ruyter

    1 July 2022

    The AI tool that has changed my life as a developer

    1 July 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Billetterie simplifies interactions between law firms and clients

    30 June 2022

    Think herding cats is tricky? Try herding a cloud

    29 June 2022

    How your business can help hybrid workers effectively

    28 June 2022
    Opinion

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.