And if the women did the wiring?

How many women are wired able to use online communication, hooked into the Internet and part of the Information Society ? Not enough, of course, but how many? The bodies that should know, such as the UN s International Telecommunications Union, do not, being unaware of one of the keys to progress in development: the gender disaggregation of data (GDD). Without GDD, in any field, you cannot see how many women or men are using a service, and so you cannot properly plan any measures towards achieving gender equity. And these data are essential for empowering rural women through giving them access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). It requires well-targeted, pro-active interventions, because ICTs are otherwise doomed to join the list of assets denied to most women: credit, land, technology. The issue of Gender and Agriculture in the Information Society exercised a group of 20-odd experts at the fifth meeting of the CTA Observatory on ICTs, held in Wageningen, The Netherlands, from 11 to 13 September 2002. Some observatory! This was an action-oriented group, the majority women, all set to go. Wired in all senses of the word, and keen to do more than just reflect on how to improve women s access to ICTs , it gave some no-nonsense advice to CTA staff on how to walk that long path from noble intention (genderise!) to actual projects. The resource persons shared their viewpoints and the meeting drew up a policy brief for the Third World Congress of Rural Women to be held a few weeks later in Madrid, plus topics which, some felt, could be considered the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS), which starts in Geneva in December 2003. The main thrust: infrastructure, training and attitude. As such, the meeting added substance to an earlier call by a WSIS preparatory meeting in Bamako, Mali in June 2002 for 'investment and funding in content creation and democratisation of access with particular emphasis to women and youth'. And, feet on the ground, fingers on the keyboard, eyes on the sky, it set down some guidelines for a new, modest fund for CTA to stimulate more use of ICTs by the women (the majority) in its constituency. The well-documented report, including a resource-rich set of preparatory papers, is due out early in 2003. If you cannot wait, much is already available on www.agricta.org.How many women are wired able to use online communication, hooked into the Internet and part of the Information Society ? Not enough, of course, but how many? The bodies that should know, such as the UN s International Telecommunications..