The recently concluded RightsCon held in Toronto, Canada as a platform that values respect, diversity, and inclusion in the digital age was a remarkable event that saw wonderful discussions and insights into the current contemporary challenges facing the globe ranging from free expression to online rights, cybersecurity, women and gender, and ICT Policies and perspectives among others.
The Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) alongside the Research ICT Africa Network based in South Africa organized a session that aimed at exploring key issues and constraints facing marginalized women; often invisible groups rarely talked about and catered for. These groups include the rural women, the refugee women, young girls, and the LGBQIT communities among others. The session also aimed at interrogating such constraints encountered by the so-called invisible women with policies and measures informed by evidenced-based research in the global South.
The session was moderated by WOUGNET Program Head, Moses Owiny (@mosesowiny) alongside experts from the APC, World WideWeb Foundation, Equal Measures 2030, Research ICT Africa, and ISOC Uganda Chapter. Participants interrogated issues of gender digital divide across different heterogeneous groups of invisible women including rural women, refugee women, young women, and LGBQIT communities. Policy recommendations and the call for wider and multi-stakeholder partnership in addressing concerns around the gender digital divide was considered instrumental in closing the gender digital gap
