INTERNET, LAW AND POLITICS:

BUILDING A EUROPEAN DIGITAL SPACE

12th International Conference (Barcelona 2016)

DIGITAL SKILLS AND GENDER GAPS

IN EUROPE

José Luis Martínez Cantos

Gender & ICT Research Group
gender-ict.net
 STARTING POINTS
• Several new skills are required for handling the new ICTs,
because they are multifunctional and complex
• These so-called ‘digital skills’ are indicated by many authors
as one of the most important factors of the emergence
and persistence of unequal opportunities in the
Information Society
• The European Commission has also been concerned about
these issues -> Digital Agenda: “Enhancing digital literacy,
skills and inclusion” (disadvantaged groups)
• But the official reports of the EU have made superficial
analysis of the gender gaps in digital skills and they stop
monitoring them in 2012 (data from 2011)
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• Q1: Have there been any significant gender gaps in
digital skills in the European Union?
• Q2: Have the digital skills gaps by gender been reduced
in the last years?
• Q3: Have there been different patterns among the
European countries?
 The main contribution of this study: it is a comparison
of 30 countries between years 2007 and 2014, while
most research on this topic has covered shorter
periods of time and only one or few countries/states
(such as the USA, UK or the Netherlands).
 DATA SOURCE
• Community Survey on ICT usage in households
and by individuals database (years 2007, 2011,
2013*, 2014*)
• 30 countries are compared: the current 28 EU-
Member States (EU aggregates are available as
well), Iceland and Norway
• The survey samples are representative of the
population in the age group of 16 to 74 years
old
 DIGITAL SKILLS INDICATORS
• Percentage of population who have ever carried
out the computer and Internet related activities
• Amplitude indicators: “low”, “medium” or “high
level of skills” which are referred to the
percentage of population who have carried out,
respectively, “at least 1”, “at least 3” or “at least
5” of the 6 (computer or Internet) activities which
are stable along the period
• Gender gaps: women’s values – men’s values (in
percentage points)
 FINDINGS
• Q1. Have there been any significant gender
gaps in digital skills in the European Union?
Some significant disparities between
European women and men have been found.
The greatest differences, between 10 and 20
pp, appear mostly in the less
generalized/more complex tasks and the
highest levels of amplitude of digital skills
(more pronounced in computer skills).
 FINDINGS
• Q2. Have the digital skills gaps by gender been
reduced in the last years? From 2007 to 2014,
the gender disparities have not decreased a
lot. No more than 2 or 3 pp of variation over
the period have been detected in any of the
gender gap indicators. Therefore, the
differences between European men and
women have persisted fairly stable.
Table 4. Computer skills indicators and gender Gender gap
% of women % of men
(difference in pp)
gaps in the EU-28 (2007, 2011, 2014)
2007 2011 2014 2007 2011 2014 2007 2011 2014

Copy or move a file or folderl 52,5 60,2 62,6 58,8 65,7 68,5 -6,4 -5,5 -5,9
Use copy or cut and paste tools to duplicate or
51,1 58,9 61,4 56,2 63,2 66,3 -5,1 -4,3 -4,8
move information on screenl
Transfer files between computer and other
46,0 51,3 56,4 61,0 -10,4 -9,7
devicesl
Use basic arithmetic formulae to add, subtract,
35,4 39,6 40,6 42,6 46,4 47,8 -7,2 -6,7 -7,2
multiply or divide in a spreadsheetm
Connect and install new devices, e.g. a printer or
29,8 33,4 36,3 49,2 52,4 54,3 -19,4 -19,0 -18,0
a modemm

Compress filesm 23,0 30,3 31,9 37,8 44,0 45,3 -14,8 -13,8 -13,4

Create electronic presentations with presentation

27,1 30,2 33,9 37,1 -6,7 -6,9
software (e.g. slides)m
Modify or verify the configuration parameters of
18,3 20,4 34,3 35,5 -16,0 -15,2
software (except Internet browsers) m/h,c
Detect and solve computer problems (e.g.
15,3 31,7 -16,4
computer runs slowly)c

Install a new or replace an old operating systemh,c 11,9 13,5 30,1 31,6 -18,2 -18,1

Connect computers to a local area networkc 10,9 26,8 -15,9

Write a computer program using a specialised
5,0 6,4 6,5 12,4 13,7 14,6 -7,4 -7,3 -8,0
programming language h
Individuals who have carried out at least 1
56,4 64,0 66,7 62,8 69,5 72,6 -6,4 -5,6 -5,9
of the 6 computer related activities
Individuals who have carried out at least 3
41,7 47,6 49,1 52,0 57,3 59,4 -10,3 -9,7 -10,3
of the 6 computer related activities
Individuals who have carried out at least 5
15,4 19,7 21,5 30,7 34,6 35,8 -15,2 -15,0 -14,3
of the 6 computer related activities
l
"Low difficulty" task. m"Medium difficulty" task. m/h"Medium/High difficulty" task. h"High difficulty" task. c"Complex" task. See
Table 1 for more details
Table 5. Internet skills indicators and gender Gender gap
% of women % of men
(difference in pp)
gaps in the EU-28 (2007, 2011, 2013)
2007 2011 2013 2007 2011 2013 2007 2011 2013

Use a search engine to find informationl 53,7 68,2 72,8 60,8 73,5 77,8 -7,1 -5,3 -5,0

Send an email with attached files l 46,2 60,4 62,2 52,7 65,2 67,3 -6,5 -4,8 -5,0

Keep viruses, spyware and adware off their

21,4 38,0 -16,6
computerc
Post messages to chat rooms, newsgroups or an
20,4 30,9 35,5 27,3 35,2 39,7 -6,9 -4,3 -4,2
online discussion forumm

Find, download and install software c 18,3 34,5 -16,2

Use the Internet to make phone calls m 11,9 23,8 30,8 17,7 28,6 35,2 -5,9 -4,8 -4,3
Upload text, games, images, films or music to
24,0 27,5 29,8 33,0 -5,8 -5,4
websites (e.g. for social networking)m
Modify the security settings of Internet
15,7 17,8 30,4 31,3 -14,7 -13,5
browsersh,c
Use peer-to-peer file sharing for exchanging
8,1 10,9 10,1 17,0 18,4 18,2 -9,0 -7,5 -8,0
movies, music, etc.m

Create a Web page h 7,3 7,4 6,6 13,0 13,8 13,1 -5,7 -6,3 -6,5

Individuals who have carried out at least 1

55,8 70,3 74,6 62,7 75,1 79,2 -6,9 -4,9 -4,6
of the 6 Internet related activities
Individuals who have carried out at least 3
25,9 39,3 44,0 35,0 46,0 49,5 -9,1 -6,7 -5,5
of the 6 Internet related activities
Individuals who have carried out at least 5
4,9 7,8 8,5 11,3 14,0 15,7 -6,4 -6,2 -7,3
of the 6 Internet related activities
l
"Low difficulty" task. m"Medium difficulty" task. m/h"Medium/High difficulty" task. h"High difficulty" task. c"Complex" task. See
Table 2 for more details
 FINDINGS
• Q3. Have there been different patterns among
the European countries? The gender gaps are
wider in the countries where more people
reach high levels of skills (mainly the Nordic
countries). This pattern is even more
pronounced when considering the less
generalized/more complex tasks and the
highest amplitude indicators, as well as it is
more clear in the computer activities than in
the Internet related ones
Note: Spain (ES) coloured in red and Sweden (SE) in yellow.
Note: Spain (ES) coloured in red and Sweden (SE) in yellow.
 DISCUSSION
• These findings take to reconsider the
statements made by the EU authorities in
their reports.
• The digital skills gaps by gender are still
relevant and more detailed research is needed
in this domain.
 FUTURE RESEARCH
• Sociodemographic factors and interactions should
be incorporated (intersectionality).
• Microdata (recently available) potentialities.
• The analysis in this paper is mainly descriptive,
but it is necessary to get deeper and try to find
explanatory variables of the gender gaps and the
disparities among countries.
1) aversion to risk, lack of self-confidence and anxiety towards technology
2) gender stereotypes and differentiated expectations about the ICT fields
 THANK YOU!

DIGITAL SKILLS AND GENDER GAPS

IN EUROPE

José Luis Martínez Cantos

Gender & ICT Research Group
gender-ict.net