The African nations remain the poorest in the world with subsistence in many countries becoming very difficult. Burdened by external debts, poor infrastructures and the AIDS epidemic, the future of many sub-Saharan African nations remains tenuous. Furthermore, other than small regional pockets worldwide, Africa's women are among the least advantaged globally in terms of access to education, gainful employment and equality in their families. Although many regions of Africa have adopted measures to alleviate the situation (e.g., CEDAW), change is slow and compounded by the complexities of the serious situations these nations are facing economically, politically and socially. Some countries such as South Africa and Mozambique have made impressive gains in the promotion and implementation of new policies in favor of women. However, due to the conservative patriarchal nature of most tribal or religious cultures throughout Africa, there is much work to be done to reach equality for women. Additionally, when these countries become further marginalized in the world's economies, girls' educational attainment suffers and women's participation in the work force is negatively impacted. Despite this, progress is being made overall as has been documented by the UN and the World Bank.

Northern Africa
In Northern Africa, the situation for education of girls is better (76% have primary and secondary access) than in many of the Sub-Saharan countries. Because of oil exports, higher levels of overall education, and fewer cases of AIDS amongst the population, progress in some aspects of women's lives is occurring more quickly. For example, tertiary education is at approximately 12% as compared to South Africa's at 7%. However, according to the UN 2000 report, women in these countries suffer from underemployment in the workforce (only 26% in 1997). Northern African women's access to and use of information technology is determined largely by their access to education and their socio-economic status in society. The cost of schooling, the tradition of early marriage, norms prioritizing the family over education and a career for women, and geographical distance continue to constrain girls and women's access to education. During the past twenty years, women's education attainment levels have risen significantly due to modernization, investment by the state in education, and some political reforms. Girls' enrollment in primary and secondary education is close to par with female education in other regions, but many countries still have comparatively low female primary and secondary enrollment. Female and male literacy rates in the region indicate that basic literacy is still a struggle for both men and women. Yet, gender gaps are evident, particularly in Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia. Little gender data are available on Internet use for specific countries in Northern Africa. However, women's current participation in IT is presumed to be low. Internet use is growing in the region, but currently, few users exist.

Sub-Saharan Africa
AIDS has left much of this region devastated both socially and economically. These African nations have amongst the lowest rankings by the UN for gender equity apart from traditional Middle Eastern nations. Women in these countries are further marginalized as many nations simply fight for survival. African women have, on the average, the least chance for education, and those who receive it are generally from the more privileged families. Of those few women who do go to the university, math and computer science majors are at 20% of the total. Women currently constitute about 43% of the labor force, yet many women work in the informal labor market as either non-paid employees or self-employed. Although many women's groups and organizations are fighting for equality, in reality, these countries have a long difficult road. Moreover, the infrastructures, expenditures in IT, number of personal computers (12 per 1,000) and Internet users (<3%) is very low compared with the rest of the world. IT development will be very slow in coming to many of these nations; however telecommunications and phone lines do exist with 15 lines/1,000 which is almost on par with India. It should be noted that these countries are extremely diverse and it is impossible to capture them all in one category. Clearly, some countries have made impressive gains in girls' education such as Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Congo and Zimbabwe. Others are beginning to make gains such as Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda. Countries such as Chad, Niger and Bukina Faso, don't appear to be progressing much at all toward educational equity.

South Africa
Just a note that of all countries in Africa, South Africa has the highest levels of female education at all stages as well as a much larger percentage of women participating in the economy (40%) and in the political arena (30%). Females combined enrollment in primary and secondary schools is now at 99% as of 1996 compared with 95% for males. However, women's access to tertiary education is at about 7%; however, this figure denotes slightly less than half of the total enrollees. Women in South Africa are positioned relatively well to take leadership roles in the Internet economy, at least compared with women in other emerging market countries. The most recent statistics indicate that women constitute 51% of the total Internet users in South Africa, higher than all other African countries, and not far below women's use in India, which is 23%. Within this context, women in South Africa are underrepresented in the IT workplace, mirroring the current reality for women across the globe. It should be noted that in South Africa, the lower representation of women in certain high tech jobs has as much to do with race as it does with gender. Whites clearly dominate IT jobs in all categories and males within that group have the advantage.

This synopsis references these three works:

• Moghadam, Valentine. Women, Work, and Economic Reform in the Middle East and North Africa. Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. Boulder, Colorado: 1998.
• The World's Women. Trends and Statistics. United Nations, 2000.
• Nua Internet Surveys 2000.