Scant Penetration of Women in the Fourth Industrial Revolution : An Old Problem in a New Context

Abstract

A study of every industrial revolution would be incomplete without any reference to the scant inclusion of women in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. It remains true that a plethora of women are still not extricated from the obfuscation of social inclusion in the technological space. The gender inequalities in ICT remains a perennial problem, consequently prompting a new debate. Closely related to this debate is the scant rate of the inclusion of women in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). This article opines that men have more freedom to utilise technological devices than women due to, inter alia, limited knowledge regarding technological infrastructure. The article is conceptual in nature and relied on critical scholarship review as a methodological approach to obtain insights. The objective is to argue that gender inequality in ICT is most likely to persist in the 4IR. Furthermore, it provides a summation and conclusion on the 4IR.