INTRODUCTION

Technological innovations have always been treated as a gender-neutral phenomenon, though in reality they affect women and men differently and often unequally. Due to their inferior status within the household and the community, women always lacked access to and control over technological advancements in countries like India. Consequently, they have always lagged behind in benefiting equally from technological advancements. This problem is acquiring new dimensions with the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which has brought in an age of information and knowledge where information is the new wealth and access to it and the capacity to use it is power. It has brought about a revolutionary change in the way we interact with each other in all spheres with unprecedented possibilities of empowering the disadvantaged. However, despite such potential to empower disadvantaged groups and despite the massive investments in ICT in every country, there are evidences of a gender imbalance in the use of ICT at the global level that might prevent women from being equal partners/beneficiaries of the emerging information society. There is a digital divide and a gender gap within the digital divide in several developed and developing countries. The access to and use of ICT by women should perhaps be included as one of the parameters in the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) and the Gender Related Development Index (GDI) in the information age.