In the U.S., the gap between the number of men and women who use the internet is about 4 percent. A study conducted by Intel, the United Nations and the U.S. State Department finds that in developing countries, the gap climbs to 23 percent.
The report surveyed 2,200 women, most of whom live in Mexico, Uganda, India and Egypt. The biggest gender gap is found in Uganda and other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, where only 9 percent of girls and women have internet access, compared to 16 percent of men. India and other southern Asian countries have the lowest numbers of women online overall, at just 8 percent.
The No. 1 reason the women surveyed said they don't go online is because they don't have access to a computer or Internet-enabled phone. Those that could go online say they choose not to because they don't understand the technology and no one has showed them how to use it. Especially in Egypt and India, culture plays a major role with one in five women saying that it would be inappropriate for them to go online. In the same countries, around 10 percent of women felt their families wouldn't approve of them using the Internet.
Intel is pushing to get more women online in the next three years, to empower them with more knowledge and to spread the Internet to more countries. The report estimates doubling the number of women that have Internet access could add $13 billion to $18 billion to the GDP across 144 developing countries, and "open up a market opportunity of $50 billion and $70 billion." That would mean more women online looking at ads and shopping in the same way Americans have done for the last decade. And in Intel's case, selling a lot more chips.
