Breaking the walls of social exclusion of women rural by means of ICTs: The case of ‘digital divides’ in Galician

• We examine the digital divides for women in rural areas in the Information Society.
• We study the impact of ICTs to explore the social exclusion in rural women.
• ICTs are key to achieve the participation of rural women on social life and labor.
• Employment, education and income are the main barriers to the Internet penetration.
• Policy measures are needed to avoid social exclusion and gender inequality.

This paper examines the digital divides for women in rural areas within the Information Society, referring particularly to the Galician experience (Autonomous Region in the North West of Spain). In order to explore the barriers to social and labor exclusion it was elaborated a survey relating with the use and impact of ITC in social and labor experiences of rural women. The results showed that rural women are aware of the key role played for ITC on their way to achieve the participation on decision making process as well as in social life and labor. The main barriers to the Internet penetration in women social life were employment, education and income. From an individual point of view, the existence of non-users was explained by a combination of access problems, lack of ICT skills or rather negative attitudes towards ITC. Finally, a bunch of policy recommendations is proposed focus on providing better Internet access in rural areas and to sensitize the population, particularly the oldest, about the importance of gender equality in access to technology in order to avoid digital barriers for rural women and reduce social exclusion of this group.