Post-pandemic Asean must bridge the digital gender divide

Seeking digital equality: Policies and programmes can be revamped to empower women and girls to attain the necessary tools and to remove barriers that inhibit their full participation in a new digital world that is unfolding.

ASEAN states have a unique opportunity to meaningfully address the digital gender divide through emerging Covid-19 recovery plans. Early indications from Covid-19 research as well as evidence from past epidemics suggest that women, on average, are likely to suffer greater economic and social impact during the crisis.

That is for several reasons: women represent the majority of health and social workers who are in a high-risk category due to significantly higher exposure to the virus; school closures induced by lockdowns automatically translate into extra burdens for women, who are most likely to be responsible for child-care; and domestic violence, which affects women primarily, has increased due to lockdown measures in both developed and developing countries.