Connected Unequally: The Digital Gender Divide and Violence Against Women Online

Abstract

Access to digital networks is now a condition of participation in education, employment, banking, welfare and public debate, which makes exclusion from those networks a form of civic exclusion. This article examines two connected problems. The first is the gender gap in connectivity, which has narrowed in aggregate while remaining wide in the regions where most unconnected people live, and which is produced less by the absence of infrastructure than by the cost of devices, restricted control over household resources, gaps in literacy and digital skills, and norms that treat women's independent connection as a risk to be managed. The second is the abuse that women encounter once online, which is prevalent, distributed unevenly across groups of women, and consequential in its effect on public participation. The article argues that the two problems are usually treated separately and should not be, since the anticipation of abuse is itself a barrier to use and the withdrawal of women from public platforms shapes what those platforms contain. It examines the design of the systems in question, including the documented failures of classification technologies on darker-skinned women's faces and the operation of search and recommendation as amplifiers of existing bias, and it assesses the regulatory instruments available. The conclusion argues for treating connectivity, safety and design accountability as a single policy problem rather than three.