Mexico. Gender and access to telecommunication and information technology services is a topic still little explored, but data from organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) indicate that last year 58.3% of men used the Internet worldwide, while in the case of women, only 48.8% used this service, that is, almost 10 percentage points less.
However, it is not the only service where there are disparities as GSMA, an organization that groups mobile telecommunications operators indicates that approximately ten percentage points fewer women in the world own cell phones compared to their male counterparts in emerging regions such as Asia, Africa and Latin America.
These data make inevitable a question, how is the digital gender divide in Mexico? A few weeks ago the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) published the results of the most recent National Survey on Availability and Use of Information Technologies in Households (ENDUTIH) 2019, which records the access and use of information technologies in homes, which allows to have recent data on access to telecommunications services and data in the country.
The first news is encouraging for our country because the survey found that the gap is practically non-existent in the use of computers given that almost half (50.1%) of the 49.4 million users of these devices are women and the rest are men. As for the use of cell phones, the good news continues, the study reports that of 88.4 million estimated users, women are 51.7% of the user population and the rest are men.
As if that were not enough, with respect to internet access throughout the population, the ENDUTIH shows that of 80.6 million users estimated in the national territory, 51.6% are women and the rest are men. Even when dividing the data between rural and urban areas, the results are more interesting because in these rural environments the female group of internet users covers 52.9% of the total, surpassing men.
However, the survey shows other types of disparities. 49.6% of women in the lower socioeconomic stratum are internet users while in the upper stratum the female component rises to 50.8%. Something similar happens with access to cell phones: in the lowest stratum 48.2% of women are users of these devices while in the upper stratum the figure rises to 52.1%.
So far we could breathe a sigh of relief since the DATA of the ENDUTIH show us almost a parity in the access of various telecommunications and information services between men and women. A rare case where Mexico is a leader and not a laggard. But before throwing the bells on the fly it is necessary to point out that the full use of information technologies does not only depend on access to devices and services; other factors such as geographical location, educational level and income have a very relevant weight when determining the use of information technologies by Mexican women.
A tool presented in 2018 by the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT) called Calculator of probabilities of use of ICT and Internet activities in Mexico takes into account these variables to calculate the probability of using different information technologies and indicates, for example, that a woman in Nuevo León residing in an urban area with an income of more than 23,968 pesos per month has almost an 89% probability of use the internet, while a woman living in a rural region of Chiapas in a household with an income of less than 12,203 pesos has a probability of only 18.3% of being a user of this service.
This situation is replicated in other cases. With the same calculator we can know that a woman who lives in León, Guanajuato, with an educational level of bachelor's degree has a 37.6% probability of making payments online, while a woman with the same characteristics based in a rural area of Oaxaca has only a 10.1% probability of carrying out this type of digital operations. Even occupation influences the use of these technologies: a woman based in Aguascalientes with a high school education and who works has a 31.4% chance of interacting with the government online. The same woman, but dedicated to the home, decreases her likelihood of digital interactions with the government to just over 21%.
In a country like ours, the equitable use of telecommunications and data services requires a comprehensive approach that undoubtedly includes policies that increase women's access to these services. But the task will be incomplete if actions are not carried out that generate a floor of income, skills and even cultural acceptance that allows Mexican women to take advantage of the educational, economic and social benefits derived from the use of information and telecommunications technologies.
Text written by the Institute of Telecommunications Law, IDET.
