For a long time there has been a concern that women are excluded from computers and thus from the information society. Still, women are relatively absent from computer science and the design of ICT products. However, there are important changes going on: the transformation of ICTs and their penetration into the home, education and the workplace means the level of use of computers, the internet, mobiles phones and other systems by women and men is converging. Moreover, in many European countries this is the result of explicit public and private initiatives to include women.
This project has analysed 30 such initiatives and related processes of inclusion, partly to study the strategic features, partly to learn from relative successes, and partly to provide a knowledge base to support and encourage development of new inclusion efforts. This is needed to safeguard the development of an information society for all, but it is also an important prerequisite of commercial success of many new ICT projects.
These cases cover education, training, and support networks for professional women in ICT sectors; training and empowerment of the social excluded; design of new products, including mobile phones, web publications and games for female audiences; and experiences of ICTs and the meanings that they have for men and women in everyday contexts. The analysis of these cases will help policy makers, businesses, NGOs at local and national levels, and individuals deal with the challenges of new and not so new technologies. They illustrate the diverse ways that women and men think about and use new technologies, and the continuing imbalance in the employment of women in this most dynamic sector.