Explore Resources and Materials on Gender Equality in STI

The Observatory houses a wide range of reports, policy briefs, videos and infographics shared by stakeholders supporting gender mainstreaming in STI.

Technology adoption and gender-inclusive entrepreneurship education and training

This article uses social feminist theory to explore gender-related barriers to ICT adoption within entrepreneurship education and training (EET) programs. Based on 21 semi-structured interviews with 22 informants experienced in digital technology training for women entrepreneurs, the study applies an open-coding technique to analyze common themes and patterns in ICT adoption challenges. The findings identify specific gender-based barriers in the digital economy and suggest strategies to overcome them through EET. The study further references a large-scale Canadian ICT adoption program to contextualize its findings. While limited by the type of technology analyzed, the research offers valuable insights for creating gender-inclusive ICT support systems and informs policies that could assess the socio-economic impacts of ICT adoption programs. This study is among the first to examine the intersection of gender barriers in ICT with entrepreneurship training, providing actionable recommendations for ICT support programs aimed at small business owners and entrepreneurs.