WOMEN EXCLUDED OR EMPOWERED? A CASE FOR DIGITAL LOCAL AGENDA IN EUROPE

The paper explores the issue of eInclusion of all into eGovernment services with the help of Digital Local Agenda (DLA). Information and Communication Technologies are essential for today’s society and economy; however, the problem of exclusion of various groups from the emerging digital society – the digital divide – persists. The paper explores causes for the digital gap focusing primarily on exclusion of women. Exclusion of this group is brought into focus in particular because women represent roughly half of the population. Solutions to the problem are then explored noting that many experts look to DLA as being one of the remedies, since it is designed to be customized to local conditions. This paper therefore explores the option of DLA as a solution, providing the reader with several examples of the Agenda being applied. The paper concludes that DLA seems to be effective in a number of settings and should be taken into consideration when policies to close digital divides are being devised

Keywords:

Digital Divide, Digital Gap, Digital Local Agenda (DLA), eGovernment eInclusion, Gender Digital Divide,

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