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Published on 2024-03-09
65.9% of Spanish women have a basic or advanced level of digital competencies, 0.6 percentage points less than men, but more than 11 points above the average of the female population of the European Union (54.3%).
This is one of the conclusions of the 2024 edition of the report on gender gap and new technologies prepared by the National Observatory of Technology and Society (Ontsi), a consultative collegiate body of the Red.es entity, attached to the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function.
In the field of education, women are the majority among university graduates, but only 12.8% of those who complete ICT degrees. Within STEM degree groups, women are only the majority in life sciences, with 62.3%. The lowest representation is seen in engineering and computer science, where there is a low percentage of women. Specifically, 14.3% of computer science graduates and 28.3% of engineering graduates in the 2021-2022 academic year were women.
The data shows that Spain is above the European Union average in areas such as regular access to the internet or the level of digital competencies, further reducing the gender digital gap for another year, although the study notes that "there is still a way to go," for example, in the labor sector, where the majority of digital specialists are men, both in Spain and across the EU.
Women and men now use the internet with almost the same frequency, though they do not use it for the same activities. Specifically, in 2023, 94.6% of Spanish women aged 16 to 74 used the internet regularly (at least once a week), compared to 94.3% of men.
Compared at the European level, Spanish women use the internet more regularly than the average, with a difference of 4.6 points, ranking sixth and having achieved gender equality in this area, close to universal use.
USE BY AGE
Regarding its use by age, a greater difference is observed among older people. Girls use the internet more than boys, with 95.4% and 94%, respectively. However, the trend reverses from the age of 75 onwards, when the percentage of women reaches 37.1% compared to 40.2% for men.
The greatest differences are found in its use. For women, searching for health information, communicating with teachers or students, and using social networks are more prominent. For men, the main activities are reading news and newspapers, expressing civic and political opinions, and using online banking.
Furthermore, the report notes that, for the first time, with 80.2% in 2023, women interacted online with the Administration more than men (79.1%).
Regarding e-commerce, Spanish women buy physical goods online more than men (55.2% vs. 54%). Conversely, purchasing services online is higher among men (30% vs. 23.4%). Women are the majority among those who spend less, and men in the higher spending brackets.
EMPLOYMENT
On the other hand, the report highlights certain differences in the labor field. In 2022, 18% of digital specialists in Spain were women, representing a decrease of 1.4 percentage points compared to the previous year, nine-tenths below the European average.
In 2023, of the 16.4% of companies that had ICT specialists on their staff, 38.7% employed women in this professional profile. Moreover, the average hourly earnings of women in this field are 8.9% below those of men in Spain, compared to 12.7% across the EU.
Regarding internet security, in 2023, women had less confidence in the internet (40.7% claim to have little or no confidence in the internet, compared to 37.7% of men). Meanwhile, 25.7% of women in 2022 felt quite or fully prepared to face security problems, compared to 38.7% of men.
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