This paper explores the meanings of women’s empowerment and gender equality

in the information society, looking at the opportunity for progressive change and

critically unpacking the Information and Communication Technology for Development

(ICTD) discourse on gender and development. It also seeks to articulate

a rights-based framework to policy and action that takes on the specific

question of what models of access and connectivity will work for the marginalised

peoples and countries, in a manner that promotes gender justice. The paper was

written for the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development

(UN-GAID) Annual Meeting and Global Forum 2008.