Annexes

• Author: European Institute for Gender Equality (EU body or agency)
• Pages: 75-90

Annexes

75

Gender equality and youth: opportunities and risks of digitalisation

Annexes

Annex 1: Methodology

(68) EIGE uses here the denition of the 12th International Conference on Grey Literature: manifold document types produced on all

levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats that are protected by intellectual property

rights, of sucient quality to be collected and preserved by libraries and institutional repositories, but not controlled by commercial

publishers; i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body. Available at: http://greyguide.isti.cnr.it/wp-content/

uploads/2017/04/GL12_Conference_Proceedings.pdf

1.1. Principal aim

The overall aim of the study is to explore the st atus

of the girl child w ith regard to the risk of violence,

as well as opportunities for social and political par-

ticipation in the digital domain. The topic of digi-

talisation is core to this study due to youths ever

increasing and evolving role in the phenomenon.

1.2. Objectives

The objectives of the study are as follows.

Conduct a literature review in order to gain

an in-depth understanding of extant research

regarding the intersection of youth, gender

equality and digitalisation.

Identify existing s tatistical data related to

youth, gender equality and digitalisation; an-

alyse gender gaps with regard to access to

and/or usage of digital technologies, as well as

skills.

Collect qualitative data on how girls and boy s

use (or do not use) digital technologies in order

to participate socially and politically in society;

gain up-to-date, first-hand knowledge from

youth and experts regarding the gendered

and intersectional risks that are associated with

youths usage of digital technologies.

1.3. Methodological approach:

EIGE, in collaboration with Open Evidence, devel-

oped the methodology for the literature review,

quantitative analysis and qualitati ve data collection.

ÖSB subsequently executed the qualitative study,

following the methodological guidelines of EIGE.

1.3.1. Literature and desk review

The purpose of the literature review was to cap-

ture existing discourse on the opportunities and

risks posed by digitalisation through a gender lens .

Furthermore, it revealed the interaction and de-

velopment of research on gend er equalit y, youth

and digitalisat ion since 2000. The literature rev iew

sought to include both scholarly publications as

well as project or policy reports from international

and European institutions.

In order to be included in the literature review,

scholarly articles and grey literature (68) were re-

quired to:

focus on children and youth (up to the age of

25) (studies which also included data about

adults above this age were considered in the

literature review as long as the data for the two

were analysed separately);

involve the access to or use of digital technol-

ogies;

take or include a gender perspective;

be published no earlier than 2000 (this date

was selected as it is recent enough to provide

the latest information on technologies and

their associated opportunities/risks and dated

enough to capture some transformations and

change in technologies).

Annexes

European Institute for Gender Equality76

Four databases were used in the production of

the literature review: Business Source Complete

(EBSCO), Communication & Mass Media Complete

(EBSCO), ISI Web of Science, and Scopus. Boolean

search strings (AND, OR, NOT) were employed

in order to create key word combinations captur-

ing the research questions comprehensively. Once

articles and grey literature were identified, based

on the Boolean search strings, researchers subse-

quently screened titles and abstrac ts to ensure ad-

herence to criteria. The review was not restricted

to English materials, although most sources were

in English. After initial screening, the following data

were gathered on articles in order to maintain con-

stancy in the documentation of the literature: study

details; dimension and sub-dimension(s) related to

research questions; indicator(s); main findings and

conclusions; implications for policymakers; strength

of evidence.

Complementary desk review

The complementary desk review focused on rele-

vant secondary literature, including reports from

international/national/EU projects, curricula and

guidance documents, and other relevant sources

from the grey literature that were deemed insight-

ful and relevant to the topic but that do not nec-

essarily appear on scholarly databases. Potential

sources of secondary literature included works

conducted and publicly accessible by: governmen-

tal agencies; universities; corporations; research

centres; civil-society organisations and profession-

al organisations.

1.3.2. Quantitative section

In the first phase, a comprehensive list of 255 indi-

cators relevant to youth, digitalisation, and gender

equality was generated. Then, based on the follow-

ing four selection criteria, the list was narrowed

down to 93 indicators.

1. Availability of data across Member States for

the age group in question (16-24), and disag-

gregated by sex.

(69) http://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index

(70) https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/desi

2. Relevance of indicators in relation to the re-

search questions.

3. Reliability and assessment of limitations (e.g. if

data are flagged as low reliability by Eurostat,

they are not included); data from Eurostat is

preferred over that of Eurobarometers. Limita-

tions on data are also assessed.

4. More recent data are preferred. 2015, 2016 and

2017 data are used. In some cases, data from

2013 and 2014 has been included because the

topic was particularly relevant and was not cap -

tured by other more recent indicators.

Indicators were divided into the following four pri-

mary categories for analysis of exis tence of gender

gaps.

1. Access to use.

2. Opportunities.

3. Risks.

4. Digital skills.

1.3.3. Qualitative section

To ensure that the qualitative case studies would

reflect the variet y of circumstances characteris-

ing EU countries in terms of childrens access to

digital technologies, risks and opportunities asso-

ciated with such technologies and gender-equali-

ty conditions, the selection of countries for expert

interviews and focus-group discussions has been

based on three variables: the Gender Equality In-

dex (2015) (

69

), the Digital Economy and Society In-

dex (DESI) (2017) (

70

) and the online risks from the

EU Kids Online survey (2010). DESI is a compos-

ite index that includes 31 indicators on Europes

digital performance grouped in five dimensions:

connectivity (e.g. mobile broadband take-up), dig-

ital skills (e.g. internet users, ICT specialists), use

of the internet (news, social networks, shopping,

etc.), integration of digital technology (e-invoic-