ITU Regional Workshop on ICTs for Womens Empowerment in the Arab Region Kuwait, 5-6 October 2011 Gender oriented websites : its role in empowering Arab women and enriching Arab digital content By Hanane Boujemi

Why female Oriented Websites?

Business Perspective Female consumer is affecting technology innovation Its an investment opportunity if the web product embraces what a woman need in her daily life. Women are an important audience segment for content creators and marketers

Outcome Increase in market opportunities

Bridging Gaps To bridge the existing information & knowledge gap about women related topics. To have content that responds to the Arab woman needs

Orientation is key to success Female oriented online content can help Arab women be empowered to : Carve their knowledge about topics they need more information about. Exchange experiences and expertise benefit from new career opportunities

Defining the needs of Arab women Developing online content relevant to Arab women requires extensive analysis of the current online search trends In 2010, a study conducted by YouGovSiraj about the evolving online attitudes and behaviors of Arab women. The findings are:

34% of the 1251 surveyed women spend 10 hours weekly surfing the net about issues not related to their work Lebanon is leading the way with 68% of those surveyed spending more than seven hours online weekly, followed by UAE with 55%, Kuwait 53%, Egypt 50%, Qatar 47%, Saudi Arabia and Jordan 44%, Bahrain 42%, Syria 34% and lastly by Oman with 30%.

Arab Women Preferred Activities 37% of the women surveyed are active on social networking sites and participate in blogs and forums (such as Facebook, twitter, hi5), while 45% are reading articles and magazines online. FaceBook in the leader Social Networker for Arab women with : 91% in Lebanon, followed by 80% in Egypt, 78% in the UAE, 70% in Jordan, 68% in Kuwait and Qatar, 66% in Bahrain, 64% in KSA, 55% in Oman, and 45% in Syria.

Survey findings There is a lack of portals that offer high- quality content in Arabic for Arab women. There is almost no competition, as the portals that exist are very traditional or local. Most Arab women consult specialized international websites if they need specific information.

Arabic Digital Content According to Google, Arabic content represents less than 1% on the web and most of it is not useful to peoples everyday lives Arab women can be trained to develop online content which meets their needs to: Increase their online representation at the regional level form useful and reliable Arabic online content

Role of government? Encourage public-private partnerships to develop content and online content platforms Launch initiatives for book digitazion to increase the percentage of Arabic content online.

How can women help ? Creating online Arabic content in their area of expertise and not only about women related issues namely: Education Health Family & Children Environment Business

Reflection ICT is the 21 st century tool for Arab women to accomplish milestone achievements Thank you