A literacia digital da Geração X em Portugal

: as diferenças entre homens e mulheres

Abstract

In a world where digital transformation is ever more present, digital literacy is becoming an ever-greater necessity in education, in organizations and in social, cultural and media life. Therefore, the promotion of digital literacy, first through diagnosis, and then through training and promotion processes and programs, is fundamental. Digital literacy varies from individual to individual, but it varies above all according to gender and generation. There are currently few studies on digital literacy levels in Portugal, particularly focusing on gender and generation. Given that Generation X is the main workforce in the Portuguese market today and that this is the generation that has witnessed the most technological revolutions in its lifetime, it was the generation that this research focused on.
Focusing on the Portuguese reality, and using a conceptual framework based on gender, generations and digital literacy, the research sought to answer the question "Are men's levels of digital literacy higher than women's in Portugal, in Generation X?", and it was found that this is not the case. The qualitative research was based on Doug Belshaw's model of the 8 essential elements
of Digital Literacies (2014) in order to create a questionnaire survey that could gauge the level of digital literacy of each gender in the Portuguese Generation X. As a result, it was found that the female gender outperformed the male gender in cultural literacy, constructive literacy, communicative literacy and confidence literacy. Cognitive literacy was the only one where males outperformed females. Additionally, in creative literacy, performance was similar between the two genders. Finally, regarding critical literacy and civic literacy, their performance
turned out to be a constraint, so no comparative conclusions were reached between the genders. Opening up knowledge on the subject of Digital Literacy through a diagnostic study of a specific population seeks to contribute to a fairer, safer and more inclusive society.

Date of Award	18 Dec 2023
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Carla Ganito (Supervisor)