Gender issues and the use of information and communication technologies in the educational context – a literature review

Abstract

This article presents a literature review on gender issues and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The review presented, which does not claim to be over extensive, presents a set of national and international studies that contribute to the identification and characterization of gender differences in the use of technology. The literature review done indicates that there has been extensive research in this area and, despite the fact that at national level the relationship between gender and the use of technology has not been a subject of much research, it shows that some publications devoted to this issue have recently began to appear. In general, various studies point towards the existence of an a weak female participation in specific ICT sector, although is decreasing the digital divide and gender stereotypes in the use of technology.