Change toward a Creative Society in Developing Contexts—Women’s Barriers to Learning by Information and Communication Technology

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought about a “learning revolution” that provides conditions of changes for a “creative society.” However, due to issues such as, the digital divide and gender gap, in developing countries, women face barriers to learning using ICT. As ICT spans diverse technologies, this article focuses mainly on the Internet. It aims to provide an analysis of barriers to Internet usage that have implications for the future improvement of women’s education in developing contexts. Theoretically, the barriers can be attributed to two levels of factors: the first-order factors that arise due to technical and economic issues, and the second-order factors that are the result of socio-cultural–psychological issues. This further has implications for practical efforts to improve the education of women by ICT tools on the Internet in developing contexts. It is important for educational strategies to explore both social and gender approaches to ensure that women become a part of the “creative society.”