An analysis of the use of information Technology in Agricultural Extension With a focus on Gender differences (Case study: Gilan province)

In recent decades, empowerment has been used as a mechanism to improve
the quality of women’s personal life and career. In this respect, information technology can be used as an effective instrument to meet that end. The purpose of this study is to examine gender roles in inclination of men and women towards using Information Technology in Agricultural Extension. The study is conducted in Gilan province and it gains significance as it reveals the existing gap between men and women in terms of knowledge and skills of using information technologies. The statistical population covers 472 agricultural extension workers of Gilan province that are studied in two groups of men and women. Using Cochran formula and stratified random sampling method, some 203 people are randomly selected, of which 160 are men and 43 are women. Data is collected through a questionnaire and its reliability stands at 0.76 using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The independent variables include the amount of using information technology in agricultural extension, extension worker's level of knowledge about information technologies and their attitude towards using information and communication technologies. The dependent variables consist of gender, age, marital status, level of education, the field of study, the years of services, the organizational status, the employing status, the place of access to computer and the place of access to internet, the level of extension activities, the level of knowledge of English language, contributing in IT courses and the hours of using computer and internet in a week. The results of analysis indicate that women have less knowledge about IT and the level of using it stands at a lower level than as compared with men. Moreover, in terms of variables such as age, the years of services, the skills of using internet and computer in extension activities, there is a significant difference between men and women; namely that in each case men demonstrate higher level of skills in comparison with women. The results of diagnostic analysis reveal that the level of using internet, the level of internet knowledge, the skills of using computer to do extension tasks, have the highest importance in differentiating men and women respectively. In addition, in all cases men have higher level of skills in using IT in extension affaire in comparison with women. The results also confirm that skills of using computer in extension tasks have the highest correlation with diagnostic score and play the most important role in explaining total variance. Group mean for men is 2.121 and for women it stands at -0.908.