ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses key gaps in the information communication technology for development (ICT4D) debates today that discuss the provision of ICTs for women and the subsequent impact that they have on their lives (Salazar 2009; Hafkin 2002). There is currently a great tension regarding the extent to which ICTs can serve as a “liberator” for women (Pavarala et al. 2006). On the one hand, ICTs are seen as drivers for women’s empowerment (Yuen et al. 2010; Hassanin 2009a; Friedman 2006); on the other, some feminists and development prac - titioners suggest that they widen the gender digital divide and “create new sociological pressures, new cultural paradigms” (Pichappan 2003: 7).
