Do Digital Skills and Internet Access Boost Women's Empowerment?

Abstract

Women's empowerment has become a key variable in determining the degree of development of women's rights and their importance in the social and economic development of different countries. New technologies and especially the internet have facilitated access to all kinds of information and knowledge and contribute to improving the situation of women in all areas. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze how internet penetration development and other country characteristics influence women's empowerment. The results show that empowerment increases as the number of internet users increases. It is observed that all the control variables have a positive and significant influence on empowerment in developing countries.