Closing the Digital Divide Is About More Than Technology
James Marlin reporting from the United Nations during CSW70
Coverage from United Nations Headquarters in New York, focused on multilateral dialogue, digital public life, and the institutional dimensions of gender equality in the digital age.
- United Nations
- CSW70
- Digital governance
- Civil society and inclusion
UNITED NATIONS, New York — The digital world increasingly determines who participates in public life and who gets left behind. That reality was front and center this week at the United Nations during the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
In a side event titled “Women Participation in Digital Public Life: From Commitment to Systems that Deliver,” leaders from governments, international organizations, private companies, and civil society gathered to talk about something both technical and deeply human, the gender digital divide.
At first glance, the topic sounds like infrastructure or policy. But as the discussion unfolded, it became clear that the stakes are much larger. In a world where participation, opportunity, and even political voice increasingly happen online, access to digital tools is becoming a form of access to society itself.
The session was organized under the EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age, and moderated by Maud Aba, Associate Gender Affairs Officer at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The panel included Ursula Weinhoven, ITU Director and Representative to the United Nations; Yayatma Vikramanayake, Senior Policy Advisor at UN Women; His Excellency Simon Thomas, UK Ambassador to the UN General Assembly; and Dr. Anna Cody, Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, among others.
Early in the conversation, Weinhoven put the challenge in stark terms.
“When participation shifts online, the digital divide becomes a participation divide,”
Ursula WeinhovenAccording to the ITU, 28 million fewer women than men are connected to the internet worldwide. That gap represents far more than missing devices or weak signals. It reflects barriers to education, economic opportunity, civic participation, and leadership.
To address this, the EQUALS Partnership unveiled a renewed strategy known as EQUALS 2.0, focusing on three priorities: 1. Creating safer digital spaces, 2. Expanding digital skills and leadership opportunities for women and girls, and 3.Ensuring emerging technologies contribute to inclusion rather than exclusion.
For Vikramanayake of UN Women, the issue is not whether the world will become more digital. That shift is already underway. The question is whether gender equality will be built into that transformation or treated as an afterthought.
“Gender equality must not be an afterthought of digital transformation. It must be one of its guiding principles.”
Yayatma Vikramanayake — UN WomenThe most powerful moment of the session came when the conversation shifted from policy frameworks to lived experience.
Ikmat Tsungene-Messani, founder of Paahibo Space in Ghana and an ITU Gender Champion, challenged the room to confront who digital systems are really designed for. She described women in northern Ghana whose smartphones are confiscated by their husbands and digital tools priced in foreign currencies that many local women simply cannot afford.
“It should not require an exceptional story to get a practitioner from the Global South into this room. What are you going to do differently tomorrow?”
Ikmat Tsungene-MessaniThat question lingered in the room.
The panel also addressed emerging technological risks. Dr. Anna Cody, Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, warned about the rapid spread of AI-generated deepfakes targeting women, urging governments to adopt a “safety by design” approach similar to Australia’s eSafety Commission.
Bart De Wolf, Deputy Permanent Representative of Belgium, raised another concern: digital systems themselves can amplify inequality. Algorithms that embed bias and platforms that amplify misogyny can push women out of online spaces that increasingly function as modern public squares.
Private sector voices acknowledged the same challenge. Megan O’Neil of Microsoft noted that women still hold less than 12 percent of STEM C-suite roles, a gap that shapes who builds and governs emerging technologies.
“You do not need a computer science degree to shape how AI is built, governed, and deployed,”
Megan O’Neil — MicrosoftData presented by Christine Eckmann of UNICEF underscored the urgency. According to UNICEF research, 75 percent of girls and young women aged 13 to 24 report experiencing harmful encounters online.
Despite the sobering statistics, the conversation was not without solutions.
Daisy Washira of Women’s Worldwide Web highlighted the Her Digital Skills initiative, a training program helping women in emerging economies build digital capacity and access new economic opportunities.
It is about participation.
It is about safety.
It is about whether the systems shaping our future reflect the full diversity of the people who live in that future.
Closing the gender digital divide will not happen through a single program or a single summit. It will require sustained cooperation between governments, technology companies, international organizations, and civil society.
But conversations like the one held this week at the United Nations are where that work begins.
And the question posed in that room remains worth asking far beyond it.
What are we going to do differently tomorrow?
