Gender and its Digital Discontents: Decolonial Perspectives from the Global South

Abstract

In the age of digital modernity, the internet and its associated technologies are often heralded as tools of empowerment, connectivity, and freedom. Yet, these same technologies also reproduce historical hierarchies, exclusions, and violence. In particular, gendered experiences in digital spaces reveal how colonial legacies persist in new technological forms. This paper explores the multifaceted intersections of gender, digital technology, and decolonial thought from the vantage point of the Global South. While mainstream discourses on gender and digitalization often emerge from Euro-American paradigms, this study critiques the coloniality embedded in digital infrastructures and gendered online experiences. Drawing upon postcolonial, feminist, and decolonial frameworks, the research interrogates how digital spaces reinforce, disrupt, or reimagine gender hierarchies, especially in formerly colonized societies. This paper argues that a decolonial analysis of gender and digital technology is imperative to understand and counteract the structures of power that govern digital interactions, representations, and access in the Global South.

Keywords: Gender, Digital Technology, Global South, Colonization, Decolonization.