Week 10: Debaters address digitization as a vital part of the gender equality issue

During the last week, many debate and editorial writers focused on women's rights in conjunction with International Women's Day on March 8. Several debaters discussed digitization and gender equality as it was the main issue discussed at the meeting of the UN Commission on Women (CSW) in New York on 10 March.

- Digitization can be linked to gender equality and it is important that more women get access to the digital world, writes Ulrika Grandin and Paulina Modlitba from UN Women Sweden in the newspaper Omvärlden in connection with International Women's Day on March 8 and the UN Women's Commission meeting.

Despite the fact that the world is globalized and the internet has become a "commonly" used tool in many people's everyday lives, it is still men who have the most access to digitization in marginalized areas, Ulrika Grandin and Paulina Modlitba point out.

- Solutions to "the gender digital divide" must also focus on changes to institutions and societies in terms of gender stereotypical norms, they write.

Even the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, emphasizes the importance of an equal society even in the digital world in a debate article in Aftonbladet. He also focuses on the importance of breaking gender stereotypical norms by encouraging decision makers to include women in contexts related to science and technology.

- They should be creative, broaden the recruitment channels and employ people with competence. And they must be persistent. Equality will not happen by itself; it must be prioritized and pursued, he writes.

Representatives from Kamratdataföreningen Constellationen writes in Dagens ETC that digital surveillance should also be recognized as part of equal digitization and women's rights. They bring up abortion legislation in the United States as an example, where the police can use user data to prosecute women who want to have abortions. They believe that Sweden should have clear legislation that makes it impossible to use digital media in this way. They also raise the proposal of "Chat Control 2.0", a system that makes it possible to collect all information about public chats in order to be able to track criminal behavior, as an example of the beginning of a surveillance system.

- The big problem is the shift in purpose, that the technology will most likely be used for other purposes in the future, then usually with less heart-worthy motives, they write.