Determinants, Impacts, and Regional Perspective of the Gender Digital Divide: A Review and Future Research Agenda

The gender digital divide, known as real-world gender inequality replicated in the digital world, has become “the new face of inequality”. Bridging digital divides is vital for achieving the United Nations’ 5th Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality. The objective of this research is, by using a feminist approach, to review the existing literature on the gender digital divide published between 2010 and 2022 through keyword searching on ScienceDirect, Proquest, Sage Journal, JSTOR, EconLit, Google Scholar databases, and research from international organizations. 42 articles were selected in total and analyzed using a systematic review method. Results show that extant research could be divided into three categories: 1) determinants of the gender digital divide; 2) impacts of ICTs and bridging the gender digital divide including positive effects on sustainability, gender equality, empowerment of women, economy, education, and politics; 3) the regional perspective consisting of case studies on specific regions and countries. The results from a feminist perspective analysis indicate a lack of pragmatic policy implications. The findings can provide an innovative perspective for future researchers to consider in gender digital divide studies, especially for policy recommendations and future research agendas. Therefore, the results contribute to the literature on digital inclusion, women’s empowerment in technology, as well as gender and feminist studies altogether.