Abstract
The Gender Gap Index was introduced by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2006 as “A framework for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress over time”, based on the idea that the equal contribution of women and men is critical for societal and economic development. The Gender Gap Index is presented yearly in a WEF report and measures the relative gap between women and men across four key areas: health, education, economy and politics - 149 countries are covered by the 2018 report. However, the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) brings unprecedented opportunities as well as new challenges. In this article we are questioning whether it is time to include another key monitoring area important for the context of 4IR? The question of technology access gap arises in the form of horizontal segregation not only in terms of choosing the field of education and job participation, but also in disparities in the use and application of new technologies and the choice of dominant business field when starting a business. Technology access is essential in order to take full advantage of new technologies and therefore gender-based disparity in this area is important to measure and track, for both academic researchers and policy makers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Schwab, K.: The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Crown Publishing Group, New York (2017)
WEF - World Economic Forum: The Global Gender Gap Report (2018). http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2018.pdf. Accessed 22 Dec 2019
OECD: Evolution of Student Interest in Science and Technology Studies, Policy Report (2006)
OECD: Closing the Gap - Act Now. OECD Publishing, Paris (2012)
UNESCO: Cracking the code: girls’ and women’s education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (2017)
NCES IES: The Condition of Education https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2015/2015144.pdf. Accessed 15 Dec 2019 (2015)
Smallbone, D., Wyer, P.: Growth and development in the small firm. In: Carter, S., Jones-Evans, D. (eds.) Enterprise and Small Business, pp. 409–433. Financial Times/Prentice Hall, Harlow (2006)
Demartini, P.: Innovative female-led startups: do women in business underperform? Adm. Sci. MDPI, Open Access J. 8(4), 1–15 (2018)
Ozkazanc-Pan, B., Muntean, C.S.: Networking towards (in)equality: Women entrepreneurs in technology. Gend. Work Organ. 25(4), 379–400 (2018)
Breda, T., Napp, C.: Girls’ comparative advantage in reading can largely explain the gender gap in math-related fields. PNAS 116(31), 435–440 (2019)
Reinking, A., Martin, B.: The gender gap in STEM fields: theories, movements ideas to engage girls in stem. J. New Approaches Educ. Res. 7(2), 148–153 (2018)
Kang, J., Hense, J., Scheersoi, A., Keinonen, T.: Gender study on the relationships between science interest and future career perspectives. Int. J. Sci. Educ. 41(1), 88–101 (2018)
Fish, G.: Women in Technology: Ways to Close the Gender Gap (2016). www.techchange.org
Lee, I.H., Marvel, R.M.: Revisiting the entrepreneur gender-performance relationship: a firm perspective, special issue: small business, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Small Bus. Econ. 42(4), 769–786 (2014)
Bowen, D., Hirsch, D.: The female entrepreneur: a career development perspective. Acad. Manag. Rev. 11(2), 393–407 (1986)
Klapper, L.F., Parker, S.C.: Gender and the business environment for new firm creation. World Bank Res. Observer 26(2), 237–257 (2011)
Accenture Research: Tech Experience: Women’s Stepping Stone to the Corporate Boardroom? http://accenture.com/_acnmedia/pdf-29/accenture-tech-experience-womens-stepping-stone-corporate-boardroom.pdf. Accessed 22 Mar 2019 (2016)
Diekman, B., Brown, E.R., Johnston, A.M., Clark, E.K.: Seeking congruity between goals and roles: a new look at why women opt out of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. Psychol. Sci. 21(8), 1051–1057 (2010)
Sadler, P.M., Sonnert, G., Hazari, Z., Tai, R.: Stability and volatility of STEM career interest in high school: a gender study. Sci. Educ. 96(3), 411–427 (2012)
Su, R., Rounds, J.: All STEM fields are not created equal: People and things interests explain gender disparities across STEM fields. Front. Psychol. 6, 189 (2015)
Card, D., Payne, A.A.: High School Choices and the Gender Gap in STEM, NBER Working Paper No. 23769 (2017)
Mouganie, P., Yaojing, W.: High-Performing Peers and Female STEM Choices in School, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn, Discussion Paper No. 12455 National Center for Educational Statistics: STEM education by Gender, NCES 2015-075, USA (2019)
Kuhn, P., Shen, K.: Gender discrimination in job ads: evidence from China. Q. J. Econ. 128(1), 287–336 (2013)
Kelley, J., Singer, S., Herrington, M.D.: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2016, Global Report, Global Entrepreneurship Research Association, London Business School (2016)
Goldstein, M., Gonzalez Martinez, P., Papineni, S.: Tackling the Global Profitarchy: Gender and the Choice of Business Sector, World Bank Group, Policy Research Working Paper no. 8865 (2019)
Fatourou, P., Papageorgiou, Y., Petousi, V.: Women are needed in STEM. Eur. Polices Incentives 62(4), 52–72 (2019)
EIGE: Economic benefits of gender equality in the EU: How gender equality in STEM education leads to economic growth, Publications Office of the European Union (2017). https://doi.org/10.2839/652355
Pavlidou Koutroumpis, O.: The Role of Women in 4th Industrial Revolution, EUW Legal and Human Commision, European Institute for Gender Equality (2019). www.eige.europa.eu. Accessed 04 Feb 2019
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Šestić, M., Rahimić, Z., Bičo Ćar, M., Hodžić, D. (2020). Global Gender Gap Index: Is It Time to Measure Technology Access Gap Also?. In: Karabegović, I. (eds) New Technologies, Development and Application III. NT 2020. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 128. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46817-0_104
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46817-0_104
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-46816-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-46817-0
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)