The impact of the gender digital divide on sustainable development: Comparative analysis between the european union and the maghreb

Abstract

Today, the relationship between gender and information and communications technologies (ICTs) is a very important element in achieving sustainable development, since ICTs play a key role in attaining gender equality and empowering women by allowing access to important information and involving them as actors in social, economic and environmental development. This participation is closely linked to the degree of education, training and employability, and so women bring added value to the technology sector and not only to it, but also to all sectors associated with it, through their contribution to R&D and Innovation. The 17 goals adopted in Agenda 21 constitute a roadmap that aims to involve all actors and impose gender equality in each one of these goals. In this study, we compare the innovation and gender index of four Mediterranean countries (France, Spain, Morocco, and Algeria) and analyze how some indexes related with "the gender digital divide" affect the achievement of these sustainable development goals. It has been observed that Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10 are the most influenced by ICT and the gender digital divide, and that none of the countries in our study have achieved them, although France and Spain present a moderate trend towards their achievement by 2030, and to support this statement, a multiple linear regression has been performed at a global level for the countries that have all of the indicators' data available. The empirical results show that the gender digital divide has a negative effect on this accomplishment and that the technology disposition has a positive effect on them.