ICANN has published results of a study on it's official website dedicated to potential problems of gender inequality in ICANN community. Reproaches that the community consists mainly of men and that it's harder for women to enter and occupy a high-ranking position made the corporation's management seriously study the issue. The study was conducted over the summer and lasted for over a month. 584 individuals answered the questions of the extensive questionnaire. Since the participation was voluntary, it turned out in the end that more female respondents answered the questions. This might cast doubt on the scientific value of the research (since in ICANN community men do actually prevail); nevertheless, the results deserve attention.
75% of respondents claimed that they never faced sexism themselves or bore witness to it within the ICANN community. However, 30% of women said that they were victims or witnesses to sexism. 17% of men answered affirmatively to this question. It should be noted that the questionnaire didn't provide the definition of sexism; therefore, individuals answered according to their own views, which, apparently, differed. For example, the older the respondents were, the more often they would notice sexism, while young people barely noticed anything.
In addition, there was a question about existing barriers to active participation in the life of ICANN community. 60% of respondents claimed that these barriers exist. The number one was the high cost of participation in ICANN events. It was followed by the language barrier, while the gender inequality ended up on the third place. However, only 9% of women claimed that these issues prevented them personally from participating in the life of ICANN community.
