Gender Gaps in Peru: The Effects of Rapid Digitalisation on Tertiary-level Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In Peru, the transition of public education from in-person schooling to online classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges for students, teachers, and state officials. This study explores the difficulties of this process and its repercussions, the goal of which is to better understand the situation of public universities throughout the pandemic, specifically in the case of female students. Researchers used a qualitative methodological approach with interviews and focus groups, conducted in three different phases: the exploratory phase, the in-depth phase with students, and the phase with administrative authorities. We noted the existence of gaps that affect the entire student population and that are associated with pre-existing inequalities in two areas: (i) access to and use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT); and (ii) women’s performance at public university institutions given differences in the distribution of domestic roles and gender violence in virtual spaces. Change in class schedules, from later in the day to early in the morning was a common strategy used in the former case to mitigate inequalities. In the latter case, inequalities directly affected participation, given that they led to class desertion. The development of future public policies requires a focus that takes into account the structural inequalities that span the experience of online classes and the thematic inequalities associated with gender and its impact on studying conditions for women.