Towards digital citizenship: Women’s participation in digital environments

Authors

Abstract

The use of digital technologies is different between men and women. Women’s use of digital technologies is more relational, and they do not feel comfortable in competitive digital environments. Less is known about how women participate, think and feel as citizens in digital environments. The aim of this study is to understand how women engage in digital environments, in terms of participation and membership of on-line communities. To do this, female experts in participation and digital environments were interviewed, and co-design sessions were also held with women from different backgrounds. The results reveal women’s views on this topic, notably the possibilities they identified regarding participation, communication, organisation, visibility and empowerment. The results also highlighted the obstacles that women face in engaging with the on-line world and ways of overcoming them through digital literacy and awareness programmes differentiated by age groups. Finally, the study identified the need to adopt an intersectional perspective in relation to promoting digital participation and to incorporate an element of self-care and care for others in digital involvement.

Keywords

empowerment, education, women, digital citizenship, digital skills

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/educar.2296

Published

2025-04-10

How to Cite

Escofet Roig, A., López Costa, M., & Sanz Martos, S. (2025). Towards digital citizenship: Women’s participation in digital environments. EDUCAR, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/educar.2296

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Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Escofet Roig, Marta López Costa, Sandra Sanz Martos

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