Effect of the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies on gender gaps in access to education in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study empirically investigates the effect of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) adoption on the gender gap in access to education in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 2006-2021. Three indicators of ICT adoption are considered: Internet usage, mobile phone subscriptions, and fixed broadband subscriptions. Gender disparities in education are measured using the gender disparity in education index. Employing Instrumental Variable Quantile Regressions (IVQR), the main findings are as follows: (i) ICT adoption reduces the gender gap in access to education in SSA; (ii) the effect of ICT adoption on gender inequality in educational access is more pronounced in countries with medium to high levels of inequality (from the 50th to the 95th quantile); (iii) specifically, ICT adoption reduces gender disparities in access to primary, secondary, and higher education, with the effect being particularly significant in narrowing the gender gap in higher education; and (iv) when accounting for cultural and religious factors, the interaction between ICT adoption and Muslim religion is found to be more conducive to reducing gender inequality in access to education than Catholicism, while ethnic diversity may hinder progress toward gender equality in educational access in SSA. Therefore, policies aimed at accelerating ICT adoption are essential for reducing gender disparities in access to education across SSA.