Abstract

What is the link between information communication technology and women's empowerment in today's development context? How can ICT facilitate the pursuit of a better world? Exploring the rich complexity of the contexts in which they live and work, the authors of Women and ICT in Africa and the Middle East offer a multitude of perspectives and experiences, avoiding simplistic answers and solutions. Based on analyses from twenty-one research teams in fourteen countries, this much-needed, human-centred contribution to the fields of gender, development and information communication technology questions, demonstrates and suggests what it takes to wield the emancipatory potential of ICT.
Ineke Buskens is a cultural anthropologist working internationally as research methodologist and gender consultant, currently residing in South Africa. Aligning herself with a sustainable, just and loving world, Ineke designs and facilitates research, capacity building and gender awareness processes that foreground self-awareness, intentionality and dialogue. Born in the Netherlands, her degrees are from Leiden University, where she co-designed and co-facilitated the first Women's Studies majors in the country. After having been Head of the Centre for Research Methodology of the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa for five years, Ineke established her consultancy Research for the Future in 1996. Ineke has led several transnational, interdisciplinary and multi-method research projects, of which the GRACE Research Network, involving 28 teams in 18 countries in Africa and the Middle East, has been the latest. She has published on qualitative and emancipatory research methodology, women's health, Gender and ICT4D and Open Development. Anne Webb focuses on the design and coordination of qualitative research and learning processes to address and reduce gender inequality in Canada and internationally. To this end she has been working with communities and research teams for over twenty years, involving people from many walks of life and locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Anne’s approach to feminist qualitative research brings together elements of participatory action research, socio-economic analysis and critical self-awareness. She is currently designing and coordinating a two-year multi-country research and learning process. From 2005 to 2013 she was the research coordinator of GRACE.
'This remarkable book offers a diversity of rich case studies of women using ICT for empowerment in Africa and the Middle East within contexts which are normally male-dominated in their norms and values. The book is a valuable antidote to both technological utopianism and dystopianism, and should be required reading for those interested in ICT and development, both women and men.' Geoff Walsham, emeritus professor of information systems, University of Cambridge 'A valuable book offering innovative new ways of approaching the impact of ICT on gender relations in the Middle East and Africa. Weaving together issues of women's empowerment and freedom, as well as the fight against violence, the book opens up new avenues of personal and social transformation and uncovers challenging new female voices.' Professor Fatima Sadiqi, University of Fez, and director of the Isis Center for Women and Development 'Technology supports transformation, a connection not to be merely assumed but examined, and the evidence in this book is coherently and convincingly communicated. Balanced and brave, realistic yet hopeful, and data-based while human-centered, this book epitomizes excellence.' Michael Quinn Patton, co-author of Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed 'This book is far from the usual hyperbole about the wondrous transformation that ICT can make in women's lives. The transformations are there, but so too are the trials at the intersection of ICT, gender and society. The individual chapters by researchers from both Africa and the Middle East are fascinating for their insights and for the complexities that they reveal.' Nancy Hafkin 'This book, written by researchers from African and Arab countries, reveals new challenges regarding the decolonization of these regions and the liberation of both women and men.' Nawal El Saadawi 'How do women use information and computer technologies to empower themselves and contribute to social development? In this welcome addition to the growing literature in the field of women, development and ICT, a range of case studies elucidate both the emancipatory nature of ICT and the formidable structural and cultural obstacles that remain.' Professor Valentine M. Moghadam, Northeastern University 'This is a rich, challenging and rewarding read for anyone interested in better understanding the role of ICT in women's empowerment. This book offers reasons to be optimistic about the transformative potential of ICT without losing sight of the power structures in which they are embedded.' Martin Scott, author of Media and Development