Flash: Gender differences in ICT use

According to the EU report Gender differences in the use of computers and the Internet, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has become an essential feature of both economic and social activity across Europe. In nearly all European countries and in all age groups, however, men are more regular users of both computers and the internet than women and many more men than women are employed in computing jobs throughout the EU. The concern here is to examine the differences in the regular use of ICT among women and men in different Member States.

Main findings:
• The difference between the proportion of young women (62%) and young men (67%) in the EU-25 using computers daily in 2006 was relatively small. Differences in computer usage were greater between women and men in the age groups 25–54 and 55–74.
• Slightly more young men (53%) than young women (48%) used the Internet daily. A much smaller proportion of older people used the Internet and there were larger differences between women and men. Only 9% of women aged 55–74 used the Internet daily compared to 18% of men.
• In all age groups, the proportion of women with medium or high levels of basic computer skills was smaller than that of men.
• The proportion of women employed as computing professionals is very small (0.7%) and remained unchanged between 2001 and 2006, whereas the proportion of men increased slightly from 2.3% to 2.6%.