Well Place Worry; Girls Digital Literacy Trending down says ECLAC

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, May 5, 2023 – Even as countries celebrate International Girls in Information and Communication Technologies Day (ICT) 2023, a newly published report is warning that COVID-19 may have exacerbated the gender gap in digital accessibility in the Caribbean which in turn facilitated an increase in online and offline violence against women and girls, and pushed more females away from the fields of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM ).  Simultaneously, the Turks and Caicos Government is introducing a new pilot program to tackle gender inequality.

Despite data showing equality for digital access in the Caribbean in some age groups, an Op-ed penned by Diane Quarless, a director at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), indicated a worrying trend.

“Globally, we see a large, and expanding, gender gap in internet use. The COVID-19 pandemic, which increased inequality in societies across the world, is partly responsible for this widening gender gap. Digital and social inequality are inextricably linked,” she said.

ECLAC says not only does this gap increase inequalities globally, it could mean women felt the brunt of the adverse effects as reduced income and the rise in domestic violence observed during the pandemic go hand in hand, with more limited access to and use of digital technologies and the Internet.

Globally not only are girls less encouraged to enter stem fields despite having equal ability, they are exposed to more harassment and violence on the internet than boys.

“Research from around the world show that they receive three times as many unwanted sexual messages from peers, are more likely to be targeted by groomers, and are featured in 93% of sexual abuse imagery,” the report said.

It’s an issue that the International Telecommunication Union found also drives them away from the STEM field. An integral part of protecting girls online and herding them into the STEM fields is collecting data on gender gaps and using resources to correct the issue.

In the Turks and Caicos, the Government will be practicing “Green and Gender Budgeting” in the coming years, the announcement came from E Jay Saunders, Finance Minister and Deputy Premier as he presented this year’s budget in an April 26th sitting of the House of Assembly.