Developing women: why technology can help.

Technology & women; Gender; Sex differences (Biology); Communication & technology; Employment forecasting; South Asians

The paper introduces a concept of household production technology that shows why Internet and communication technology (ICT) have the potential to increase the equity and efficiency of female participation in the labor force. Since inputs of female labor are required at short intervals in the production of the household good, female labor supply and earnings in the production of external goods fall below those of males. Household consumption at a point in time is maximized, but loss of potential learning-by-doing leads to dynamic inefficiencies, which power relations, bargaining, perceptions and self-perceived limitations reinforce. ICT helps restore flexibility in female external labor supply since it facilitates distance work, flexi-time and location activity, making it easier to match skills to jobs and to maintain and upgrade skills. But social structures and perceptions require intervention to become supportive. ICT has the potential to contribute to overall development for poorer women in less-developed regions of the world with appropriate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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