Global Gender Gap Index: Is It Time to Measure Technology Access Gap Also?

The Gender Gap Index was introduced by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2006 as “A framework for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress over time”, based on the idea that the equal contribution of women and men is critical for societal and economic development. The Gender Gap Index is presented yearly in a WEF report and measures the relative gap between women and men across four key areas: health, education, economy and politics - 149 countries are covered by the 2018 report. However, the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) brings unprecedented opportunities as well as new challenges. In this article we are questioning whether it is time to include another key monitoring area important for the context of 4IR? The question of technology access gap arises in the form of horizontal segregation not only in terms of choosing the field of education and job participation, but also in disparities in the use and application of new technologies and the choice of dominant business field when starting a business. Technology access is essential in order to take full advantage of new technologies and therefore gender-based disparity in this area is important to measure and track, for both academic researchers and policy makers.