IV. Gender differences in Internet use
3. Data and main patterns
Before turning to the empirical approach, this section shows the main patterns of the gender differences in Internet use and access in the different countries considered. The data used in this study comes from recent National Household Surveys in six Latin American countries, namely, Brazil and Costa Rica (2005), Chile (2006) and Honduras, Mexico and Paraguay (2007). Except for the case of Mexico, where the data are from an ad-hoc ICT survey, the information comes from regular household surveys which include ICT related questions.
All the surveys are representative at national level and contain household and individual level information for many variables like position in household, age, education, income, labor market status, occupation, sector of activity, etc. Table V.1 gives details on data sources.6
Table V.1
National household surveys description
Country Year Survey Institution
Brazil 2005 Pesquisa Nacional por
Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) Fundacao Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE)
Chile 2006 Encuesta de Caracterización
Socioeconómica Nacional (CASEN) Ministerio de Planificación Nacional (MIDEPLAN)
Costa
Rica 2005 Encuesta de Hogares de propósitos
múltiples (EHPM) Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC) Honduras 2007 Encuesta Permanente de Hogares de Propósitos
Múltiples (EPHPM) Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE)
Mexico 2007 Encuesta Nacional sobre Disponibilidad y Uso de las Tecnologías de la Información en los Hogares
(ENDUTIH)
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI)
Paraguay 2007 Encuesta Permanente
de Hogares (EPH) Dirección Nacional de Estadísticas, Encuestas y Censos (DNEEC) Source: Author’s elaboration.
6 More information about the data is available at the OSILAC website. The statistics presented in this section were obtained using appropriate weight factors to make them representative at the country level.
(a) Gender differences across demographic and socio-economic groups characteristics
Figure V.1 presents the main patterns of Internet use and access for both men and women. For each country, the bars represent the percentage of the population who use Internet -regardless of points of access- and have Internet access at home. In order to explore the extent of gender differences the dots show the percentage difference between the fraction of women and men in each category. Besides the gender discussion, there is significant heterogeneity in the access and use of Internet across countries (see Figure V.1). There are also important differences between use and access within countries. That is, while in Honduras and Paraguay Internet use is around three times more prevalent than Internet access, in Brazil the fraction of people who use the Internet is only around 35% greater than the fraction of the population with Internet access at home.
Figure V.1
Patterns of Internet use and access (Percentages)
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on National Household Surveys.
There are also wide dissimilarities across countries regarding gender differences in Internet use and access. On the one hand, it is observed that an equal or higher fraction of women than men access and use Internet in Honduras and Paraguay, the countries with the lowest levels of Internet prevalence in the sample. On the other hand, in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica, the fraction of users among men is between 7 and 16% higher than the counterpart fraction of women. When considering access instead of use, it is noted that
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40
Use Access Use Access Use Access Use Access Use Access Use Access
Brazil Chile Costa Rica Honduras Mexico Paraguay
Total Women - Men, % Difference
all these differences are reduced or even reversed, like in the case of Brazil. This pattern arises as a result of a household composition effect; it indicates that there are women who can potentially use the Internet (because they have access at home) but for different reasons (household time allocation decisions, preferences, skills, etc.) they do not do it.
Additionally, it is interesting to explore the gender digital divide in Internet use among other dimensions like geographic area, income distribution, age, education, labor status and employment category. Figure V.2 presents data on the fraction of Internet users according to area of residence. Confirming the results of previous studies, Internet use in urban areas is far more common than in rural areas across countries. This is a result of infrastructure restrictions to access and different characteristics of the population in rural areas. Paraguay, Brazil and Honduras are the countries with the greatest urban vs. rural relative inequalities in Internet usage. What is remarkable is that while there is evidence of a gender difference in Internet use against women in urban areas, the difference applies to all countries and is significantly smaller and in some cases even reversed in rural districts. Moreover, in four countries there is a digital divide against men in rural areas (see Figure V.2). These patterns probably help to explain the small gender differences in Internet use in Honduras and Paraguay emerging from Figure V.1, since both are countries with large rural areas.
Figure V.2
Internet use by rural-urban areas (Percentages)
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on National Household Surveys.
There is substantial evidence of a strong positive correlation between Internet use and income. The information presented in Figure V.3 is consistent with this evidence and shows that the intensity of Internet usage is increasing with household income quintiles
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50
Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural
Brazil Chile Costa Rica Honduras Mexico Paraguay
Total Women - Men, % Difference
in all countries. This trend is particularly strong in Honduras, Paraguay and Brazil where the rates of Internet use among the fifth quintile is at least 14 times higher than the corresponding for the first quintile. The country with the lowest inequality in use by income is Chile. Despite this result, there is not a common relationship between gender differences in Internet use and income quintile for all countries. Notwithstanding, it seems to be the case that in general the gender digital divide against women is more frequent in the highest quintiles of the household income distribution. Even in countries like Brazil, Honduras and Paraguay, a greater percentage of women than men use the Internet in the lowest income quintiles. Given the positive association between education and income, it is not surprising to find higher Internet use rates for people with higher education levels in all countries. This is what comes out from Figure V.4 which displays the corresponding data for groups classified according to the highest attained education level. The gender differences in Internet use rates consistently favor men across all formal education categories in all countries.
Figure V.3
Internet use by quintile of household income (Percentages)
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on National Household Surveys.
-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Brazil Chile Costa Rica Honduras Mexico Paraguay
Total Women - Men, % Difference
Figure V.4
Internet use by educational groupsa (Percentages)
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on National Household Surveys.
a Data for Paraguay is not available for individuals with university and postsecondary education separately.
Figure V.5 shows Internet use rates and the related gender disparities by age groups. It is interesting to note that for all the countries surveyed, the rates of Internet use are greater for women in at least one of the groups of people under 24 years old. The continuation of this demographic aspect of Internet use over time would then imply a trend towards the disappearance of digital inequalities, at least in the use versus not use dimension. Turning to a different perspective, Figure V.6 reports the percentage of Internet users for three groups of individuals classified according to their labor market status: employed workers, unemployed workers and students. Several results must be emphasized. First, the data show similar rates of Internet use for employed and unemployed workers but higher rates for students. This occurs because students are presumably younger and they are more likely to use Internet (see Figure V.5). Second, employed women consistently present significantly higher rates of Internet use than men in the six countries under analysis. Third, this trend is maintained when looking at the use rates for the unemployed in all countries but Mexico and Brazil, where unemployed women exhibit lower Internet use rates than men.7 Fourth, there are similar rates of Internet use for men and women among students.
7 The case of Mexico is particularly striking, where the use rates for unemployed women is 37% lower than the Internet use rate for unemployed men.
-40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100
Primary Secondary Post Secondary University Primary Secondary Post Secondary University Primary Secondary Post Secondary University Primary Secondary Post Secondary University Primary Secondary Post Secondary University Primary Secondary Post Secondary +
Brazil Chile Costa Rica Honduras Mexico Paraguay
Total Women - Men, % Difference
Figure V.5
Internet use by age group (Percentages)
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on National Household Surveys.
Figure V.6
Internet use by labor market status (Percentages)
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on National Household Surveys.
-80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80
5-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 + 5-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 + 5-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 + 5-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 + 5-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 + 5-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 +
Brazil Chile Costa Rica Honduras Mexico Paraguay
Total Women - Men, % Difference
-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Employed Unemployed Student Employed Unemployed Student Employed Unemployed Student Employed Unemployed Student Employed Unemployed Student Employed Unemployed Student
Brazil Chile Costa Rica Honduras Mexico Paraguay
Total Women - Men, % Difference
Finally, Figure V.7 disentangle Internet use rates for the following categories of employed workers: employer, salaried employee and self employed. The data exhibit similar or slightly higher Internet use rates for employers than for wage workers in all countries, and significantly lower rates for the self employed. Interestingly, when considering gender differences, a much greater rate of Internet use among women than men in all employment categories is observed.8 This pattern is more pronounced among salaried workers, explaining the “advantage” of employed women in Internet use relative to men reported in Figure V.6.
Figure V.7
Internet use by employment category (Percentages)
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on National Household Surveys.
(b) Gender differences in points of access and types of Internet applications
Figure V.8 reports the percentages of male and female Internet users who access the web at work, at home and at other points of access like communal and education centers, cybercafés, etc. The three categories are not exclusive; that is, it can be the case that a user is in all three categories at the same time. In all the countries examined, at least half of users access the Internet in common access places compared with much lower fractions of accesses at home and work. It is interesting to note that the patterns of
8 The only two exceptions are employers in Chile and self employed workers in Mexico.
-40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Employer Self employed Salaried Employer Self employed Salaried Employer Self employed Salaried Self employed Salaried Employer Self employed Salaried Employer Self employed Salaried
Brazil Chile Costa Rica Honduras Mexico Paraguay
Total Women - Men, % Difference
gender differences in fractions of users in the three categories are quite consistent across countries. Indeed, it is observed that there is a higher fraction of users at work among male than female users (see Figure V.8). This is probably a result of the lower labor force participation rates among women. Also, there are no relevant differences between male and female users accessing Internet at home. Finally, female users seem more likely to get into the Internet from other common access points than men, as the fraction of accesses in the category “Other” is greater for women than men for all countries.
Figure V.8
Internet use by point of access (Percentages)
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on National Household Surveys.
Table V.2 gives and idea about what male and female do when they surf the web. There are five categories of applications: Entertainment, Search of Information, Communication, Commerce and Education. Table V.2 displays the percentages of individuals reporting usage in the different categories. Like in the case of Figure V.8, the categories are not mutually exclusive. The results suggest notable country and gender differences in Internet use by type of application. Results regarding gender differences are though similar between countries and they are in line with the international evidence mentioned in the previous section. The main results arising from Table V.2 are: i) males are more (less) likely to use the Internet for entertainment and e-Commerce (educational purposes) than females; and ii) similar fractions of males and females use the Internet for search of Information and Communication, with slightly more weight on women for the former application and men for the latter.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Work Home Other Work Home Other Work Home Other Work Home Other Work Home Other Work Home Other
Brazil Chile Costa Rica Honduras Mexico Paraguay
% of Men Users % of Women Users
Table V.2
Internet use by main applications (Percentages)
Country Users Entertainment Search Communication Commerce Education
Brazil Male 74.0 23.9 68.8 16.5 68.4
Female 67.1 25.0 68.4 10.8 75.0
Chile Male 54.7 90.9 58.8 7.3 12.1
Female 50.5 90.8 60.2 5.5 12.4
Costa Rica Male 49.3 72.2 70.5 9.5 56.1
Female 40.9 69.1 70.3 5.4 63.2
Honduras Male 41.7 68.4 69.6 5.0 60.9
Female 32.8 63.7 71.4 3.3 63.1
Mexico Male 19.9 51.0 48.4 7.2 41.5
Female 14.2 49.1 49.5 3.3 44.9
Paraguay Male 11.0 10.3 51.8 2.3 39.7
Female 4.9 4.6 55.7 1.2 49.3
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on National Household Surveys.