An Example of a Social Justice Issue

An Example of a Social Justice Issue

Choose one of the social justice issues in computing discussed above and find out to what extent it is an issue in the Philippines. Then find out what is being done to address it in specific countries. For example, in the case of the digital divide due to language differences, Soriano reports the adoption of the ‘Unicode Standard, “a character coding system designed to support the worldwide interchange, processing, and display of the written texts of the diverse languages of the modern world.” Developed, extended and promoted by a non-profit organization, the Unicode Consortium (www.unicode.org), the Unicode Standard makes international communication easier.’

An example of a social justice issue in computing discussed in the module is “Are women more disadvantaged in the Information Age?” In the Philippines, women are generally more disadvantaged in computing relative to the men not because women are less entitled to computing facilities but because women have more responsibilities (like childcare) that lessens their time to do computing-related activities. Among the factors listed in the module (literacy and education, language, time, geographical location) social and cultural norms are the least likely to be factors applicable to Philippine women. Specific countries like the Philippines and the US have laws addressing the equality of men and women in general. There are also various active women’s rights groups in both countries that specifically fight for gender equality in the field of ICT. In the Philippines, there are two Republic Acts formulated during the term of Corazon Aquino addressing general gender equality issues.