Can technology transform women's reality?

How are girls in the Congo using SMS to stop teacher abuse?  Do Simputers in rural women´s hands empower or generate e-waste?

The GenderIT.org´s special CSW edition brings the latest recommendations on technology and education direct from women and girls on the ground read.

Chat Garcia Ramilo, the manager of the APC Women's Programme and is a specialist in gender, women's rights and information and communication technology, argues in her editorial introducing this edition of GenderIT.org that science and technology continue to be incredibly gender-biased and calls on decision-makers to pay attention to initiatives on the ground. "I think delegates need to set their sights on early adopters of technology who are trying to make a difference in women and girls’ lives on the ground.  These early adopters need support to reach a tipping point to attract more and more users until it overwhelms late adopters and resisters. This is the natural flow of innovation."

Featured articles:
Technologies for transformation : combatting violence against women in the Congo
The work of the APC WNSP with organisations in the Congo provides invaluable real life experiences that can be useful in discussions at international forums like the upcoming 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) whose theme this year is women, technology and education, writes Selina L Mudavanhu. She examines projects that are part of the MDG3 Take Back the Tech! small grants programme in the Congo.

The Gender Evaluation Methodology: Helping assess the gender impact of development work
"How exactly can GEM influence the discourse at the CSW, I think it is really to challenge the notion of development, or at least how governments understand it." The APC's Angela Kuga Thas speaks with GenderIT.org editor about the Gender Evaluation Methodology, what it is and the value it adds to grassroots work on gender and ICTs.

Science and technology in Latin America: women breaking the glass ceiling
Latin American women are attaining good levels of education and training for the labour market, including knowledge of ICTs, but APC WNSP regional coordinator, Dafne Sabanes Plou acknowledges that digital inclusion as a factor in economic progress is just beginning to appear on the regional horizon and that gender equity is still sidelined from ICT policy discussions. She speaks to GenderIT.org Spanish editor Flavia Fascendini about the progress women are making in science and technology in Latin America.

Poverty and culture: Key barriers to education and training of women and girls in Cambodia
In this article, the director of End Child Prostitution, Abuse and Trafficking (ECPAT) Cambodia, Chanveasna Chin, speaks with GenderIT.org English editor Sonia Randhawa about the challenges facing women and girls in accessing education and training, particularly in technology.

EroTICs: Sexuality and technology
Jac SM Kee and Sonia Randhawa explores the links between sexuality and the theme of this year's Commission on the Status of Women meeting, "Access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women's equal access to full employment and decent work".