UNESCO releases 2024 gender report of the Global Education Monitoring Report, titled “Technology on her Terms”

Posted 26 Apr 2024

2 min read

The report looks at impact of technology on girls’ education opportunities and outcomes, and role of education on the shape of future technological development.

Impact of technology on girls’ education:
- ICT can overcome barriers to education access for girls in crisis context.
  - For instance, in Kenya, M-shule platform delivers education through text message without need for internet connection.
- Digital divide: Girls and women are less able to access technology with 130 million fewer women than men owning mobile phone and 244 million fewer women having Internet access.
- Social media negatively affects well-being and reinforces gender norms. Greater interaction on social media at age 10 is associated with worsening socioemotional difficulties with age among girls.
- Cyberbullying is common and is exacerbated by the danger of deepfakes made using AI.

Role of Education in shaping technological development:
- Average share of STEM is 15% among young female graduates and 35% among young male graduates.
- Underrepresentation in technological design and deployment: In 2022, women held less than 25% of science, engineering and ICT jobs.
- Negative gender stereotypes, reinforced by low expectations from parents and teachers, impact girls’ STEM aspirations.

Establish bodies to evaluate education technology and algorithms, to assess where they may be amplifying negative gender stereotypes or negatively affecting well-being.
Encouraging more girls to study towards scientific careers and promote female leadership in artificial intelligence and technology development.
Avoid infrastructure-only approaches and invest in gender-responsive education and training programmes to enhance digital literacy and skills for all.

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