Exploring the Gender Digital Divide: A Study to Measure Digital Literacy and Digital Access of Females

Purpose of the study: ICT plays a vital role in enhancing the knowledge and skills of the workforce in various sectors of the economy. In a report by UNICEF in 2017, there is a 42% digital gender gap in India which is very high compared to the global average. The proposed research paper aspires to measure the extent of digital literacy and digital access, assess the barriers to female digital literacy and examine the government policies toward digital literacy to empower women.Data and Methodology: The current research is based on a mix of primary and secondary data collected. The primary data is collected from females from the household, organised and unorganised sectors with ages of more than 18 years in the district of Ghaziabad. A sample of 209 females has been collected. The two-way ANOVA is used in the study.Findings: The study finds out that there is a lack of digital literacy and digital access across the region. The study shows the significant differences in digital literacy among different sectors and income groups while there is a significant difference in digital access among income but no difference among sectors.