The United Nations World Summit on the Information Society: Empowering Women as Shapers of the Information Society?

Abstract

The new information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been the driving force of “globalization”. This process has led to a worldwide reorganization of fundamental transactions and relationships, including within the division of labor, the financial markets and the knowledge market. Globalization has had direct or indirect impacts on all cultures and societies and as such has affected women’s and men’s lives profoundly and in manifold ways. The United Nations (UN) acknowledged the importance of ICTs in restructuring the world when in 2001 they decided to hold a World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This summit was to articulate a vision of the “Information Society” and steps to bring it about. The UN organization responsible for WSIS was the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which coordinates global telecom networks and services.