Intersectional digital inequalities after the pandemic: Tackling digital gender gaps in France and Italy

The chapter compares how France and Italy have addressed the digital divide in light of the recovery from the pandemic and how the structural inequalities lying at the heart of them might intercept with the gender gaps. The basic argument is that the idea of digitalization is used as a discursive dispositive, a “magical wand” that hides the dimensions of social conflict, and we use the gender gaps as a case in point. The chapter deals with secondary data taken from international indexes and relies on the cultural discourse analysis of the National Plans for Recovery and Resilience (drafted in the wake of the Next Generation EU Plan). By focusing on a gender lens, the chapter sheds light on the lines of continuity and the emerging trends in the cultural discourses surrounding the recovery after the pandemic and which are the cultural resources mobilized and challenged through the plans.