Gender and ICTs in Zambia

Abstract

This article looks at gender equality combined with social and economic empowerment within the context of information communication technologies (ICTs). It discusses rhetoric surrounding the promotion of ICTs as tools for social and economic empowerment and subsequently challenges whether such rhetoric does mirror the real situation on the ground, especially as it relates to developing countries like Zambia. The main focus is underprivileged women, especially those in rural areas, and how access, or indeed the lack of it, to ICTs like the Internet and mobile phones does actually affect their daily existence.