As countries chart their digital futures, they should include women not only as users of digital systems but also as co-creators of the rules, standards, and datasets that shape them
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This article is part of the essay series - Nations, Networks, Narratives: World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2025.
Marking 30 years of progress, the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) on 17 May 2025, is set to emphasise ‘Gender Equality in Digital Transformation’, bringing the convergence of two global imperatives into focus. The digital revolution, while touted as the great equaliser, continues to replicate—if not reinforce—some of the structural gender inequalities embedded in our society. At the same time, the struggle for gender equality increasingly hinges on how women’s lived realities are represented—or responded to—within our digital and data-driven systems. At the heart of this intersection lies a paradox: We are generating more data than ever before, but we still do not know enough about women.
We are generating more data than ever before, but we still do not know enough about women.
The women palpably seem to be at the receiving end of the global digital divide. Today, 2.6 billion people remain unconnected to the internet, and the majority are women and girls. As of 2023, women in low- and middle-income countries are 7 percent less likely to own a mobile phone and 19 percent less likely than men to use mobile internet. For South Asia, the gap widens to 15 percent and 42 percent, respectively. This is not merely a question of access to devices or bandwidth—it is a manifestation of a deeper, structural inequality. When women remain digitally excluded, their economic agency is stifled, their participation in the digital public sphere is curtailed, and their capacity to influence the development of inclusive technologies is fundamentally undermined. Moreover, the lack of opportunities, social prejudice and structural hurdles for women make holistic and comprehensive data availability on women related to a host of crucial developmental parameters challenging.
Consider this: as artificial intelligence systems become increasingly embedded in public services—from education to finance—what kind of data is used to train these systems, and who trains them? When women are absent from datasets, their needs, aspirations, and experiences are systematically excluded from the very systems shaping the future.
As artificial intelligence systems become increasingly embedded in public services—from education to finance—what kind of data is used to train these systems, and who trains them?
A core reason for this exclusion is that women have historically been invisible in data. Patriarchal structures have long shaped what is counted, who does the counting, and how the results are interpreted. Today, it is becoming increasingly clear that the future of gender equality cannot be decoupled from the political economy of data ecosystems. Reports have suggested that gender data is not only inadequate but also not updated in many instances. However, the SDGs, particularly Goal 5 on Gender Equality, brought welcome momentum to gender data, and efforts like the SDG Gender Index by Equal Measures 2030 have made significant strides. This index offers a comprehensive, cross-national gender lens on progress across 14 of the 17 SDGs, serving as a powerful accountability tool.
Yet, data availability does not automatically equate to data usability. Despite the proliferation of sex-disaggregated data, we face three interlinked economic and institutional challenges in leveraging gender data for digital transformation:
The economic cost of excluding women from the digital economy is staggering. A McKinsey Global Institute study estimated that closing gender gaps in labour force participation, wages, and leadership could have added US$28 trillion to global GDP by 2025. But persistent digital exclusion threatens to widen these gaps. When women lack access to data and digital tools, they are also locked out of the productivity and efficiency gains that digitisation brings. Furthermore, innovation itself suffers. Diverse teams are more likely to develop inclusive products, services, and solutions. For example, the underrepresentation of women in STEM and data science not only reflects a loss of talent but also perpetuates design bias, from facial recognition algorithms that misidentify darker-skinned women to voice assistants trained on male-centric data.
To truly harness digital transformation for gender equality, we must bridge the gap between data and policy design. This requires a strategic shift in reimagining gender data as a critical infrastructure. Treating gender data not as a peripheral dataset, but as a foundational layer of digital infrastructure—akin to roads or power grids—is vital, without which equitable development is impossible.
To achieve this, the collection and analysis of gender-disaggregated intersectional data must be integrated into macroeconomic modelling, digital public infrastructure, and AI policy. This will allow for more targeted subsidies, credit schemes, digital literacy programmes, and labour market interventions. There is also an urgent need to build gender data literacy among policymakers and policy influencers, equipping them with the skills to interpret and use gender data.
Treating gender data not as a peripheral dataset, but as a foundational layer of digital infrastructure—akin to roads or power grids—is vital, without which equitable development is impossible.
Promoting open data standards and data collection through digital public goods can ensure that gender datasets are interoperable, open-source, and embedded within digital public goods platforms. Only then can they inform local innovation, start-up ecosystems, and community-driven solutions.
Gender-inclusivity in digital transformation can deliver opportunities for everyone and everywhere. As WTISD'25 aspires, gender data must not be treated merely as a technical issue, but as a question of digital justice. The pathways to an inclusive digital economy can only be paved with information, but only when that information is equitable, intersectional, and actionable. It is, therefore, crucial that as countries chart their digital futures, they include women not only as users of digital systems but also as co-creators of the rules, standards, and datasets that shape them. It will not only strengthen the informational technology architecture but will further the imperatives of gender equality, social transformation and informed policymaking.
Debosmita Sarkar is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for New Economic Diplomacy at the Observer Research Foundation.
Ambar Kumar Ghosh is an Associate Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation.
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Debosmita Sarkar was an Associate Fellow with the SDGs and Inclusive Growth programme at the Centre for New Economic Diplomacy at Observer Research Foundation, India. Her ...
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Ambar Kumar Ghosh is an Associate Fellow under the Political Reforms and Governance Initiative at ORF Kolkata. His primary areas of research interest include studying ...
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