Technology, by the wider internet rights and research community, is assumed to be a neutral tool, especially of development. The emerging sub-field of research around gender and digital technology is united in its understanding that gender biases and stereotypes are embedded in technology, and that this reproduces the existing problems around gender parity, gender-based violence, discrimination and exclusion on the internet. It is largely because of this that the notion of a feminist internet has wide resonance with a range of groups and people – activists working around gender, feminist individuals and collectives, content creators, researchers and academics, policy advocates and reformers.
This publication is a summary of Mapping research in gender and digital technology, a research report produced as part of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) project “Mapping gender and digital technology”, funded by the International Development Research Centre.