ICT Online Education and Women Empowerment Breaking Barrier for Girls in Higher Education
Abstract
The present study examines the role of ICT-based online education in increasing female students’ empowerment and in overcoming social and economic barriers in educational institutions at the District Bannu Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. It consists of two main objectives: understanding the role of ICT-based education in women’s academic, psychological, and social empowerment; and examining the role of online education in women’s social and economic mobility. A quantitative cross-sectional survey research design was employed, and data were collected from 357 undergraduate women from four girls’ degree colleges and one public women’s university in District Bannu, Pakistan, through the use of proportionate stratified random sampling. A validated structured questionnaire was used in data collection. The data were analyzed by means of IBM SPSS Statistics, through the use of the multiple linear regression and descriptive statistics. The results indicate that ICT-based online education is a significant predictor of the overall women’s empowerment (β = 0.571, p < .001, R2 = .326), with the majority of the gains made in women’s empowerment in the areas of academic self-efficacy and intellectual autonomy. Online education has dealt a significant blow to traditional barriers (β = 0.485, p < .001) and economic barriers (β = 0.384, p < .001) by offering women a safe, flexible and culturally acceptable alternative of domestic based learning. Higher education through information communication technologies (ICTs) plays a major role in increasing gender equality and access to education in a rural, conservative area; however, some challenges continue; such as poor Internet, and women sharing one device.
KEYWORDS: ICT-based online education, female student empowerment, higher education, District Bannu, socio-cultural barriers, gender equality, digital divide
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22126078
