Technology: Friend or Foe for Women of Myanmar
enables sexual predators to violate laws prohibiting gender-based violence with
impunity. Hence, new technologies have enabled the creation of online communities
where any and every incident of online gender-based violence and online misogyny
is possible. According to UN Women (2020), during the COVID-19 pandemic, ICTfacilitated violence has increased exponentially against women and girls. Moreover,
some groups of women, including human rights defenders, women in politics, journalists,
bloggers, women from minority ethnic communities, and women with disabilities face
disproportionate threats and experiences of ICT-facilitated violence (OHCHR, 2018). A
leading advocate against online and ICT-facilitated gender-based violence (GBV) (Dunn,
2020) has concurred: “Technology-facilitated GBV makes it unsafe and unwelcoming
for women and LGBT+ people to express themselves freely in a world where digital
communication has become one of the primary modes of communication, particularly
during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
While ICTs bring threats, they also bring opportunities to empower and enhance the
quality of women’s lives in developing countries. Many recent studies argue that ICTs
can be a powerful catalyst for the political and social empowerment of women and the
advancement of gender equality. Cyberfeminists from diverse backgrounds share the
belief that women should take control of and appropriate the use of ICTs to empower
themselves. They urge women all over the world to learn how to use computers,
to get connected, and to use the internet as a tool for feminist causes and feminist
personal power of resistance. Increasingly, women’s empowerment is viewed as a
process that leads women to perceive themselves as capable of making decisions and
taking actions about their lives. As explained by Huyer and Sikoska (2003), women’s
empowerment embodies challenging patriarchy at all levels of expression: social
systems and relationships, social and cultural values and norms, and institutions and
power structures. Defenders of the potential of ICTs for women’s empowerment argue
that ICT could be a tool for gender transformation 2. If, however, the factors that
contribute to the current gender digital divide are explicitly identified and addressed,
ICTs could offer the potential for enhancing incomes; women’s active participation in
improving their situations; overcoming isolation; transcending social restrictions; and
2
It involves a process where harmful gender norms and values are shifted by redressing
unequal power structures to promote a more equitable environment for both sexes. Redressing
power disparities between women and men involves changes in social order, institutions,
discourses, and people’s ideological and mental constructs. (Sikoska & Kardam, 2000)
11