What: Katy Pearce: The reproduction and amplification of gender inequality online - The case of Azerbaijan. When: Tuesday, October 15th at 12 noon Where: The Allen Center, CSE 203 Join us for this weeks Change talk by Katy Pearce,<http://www.com.washington.edu/pearce/>assistant professor in the Department of Communication on online gender inequality in Azerbaijan. *Abstract* Inequalities found offline are replicated and are often amplified online. Results from a nationally representative survey in Azerbaijan, an authoritarian post-Soviet petrostate with a tradition of gender inequality, demonstrates that being female is not only a barrier to Internet use, but the strongest barrier to Internet use, frequency, and capital-enhancing online activities. While this study cannot explain why being female has such an effect on access, use, and Internet activities, acknowledging the relative importance of can provide insight into potential targets or entry points for an intervention. *About the Speaker* Katy E. Pearce is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington and holds an affiliation with the Ellison Center for Russian East European, and Central Asian Studies. She specializes in technology and media use in the Former Soviet Union. Her research focuses on social and political uses of technologies and digital content in the transitioning democracies and semi-authoritarian states of the South Caucasus and Central Asia, but primarily Armenia and Azerbaijan. She has a BA (2001) in Armenian, Arabic, Persian, Turkish & Islamic Studies as well as American Culture from the University of Michigan, an MA (2006) in International Studies from the University of London School for Oriental and African Studies, and a PhD (2011) in Communication from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and was a Fulbright scholar (Armenia 2007-2008). The main thrust of my research is adoption and use of information and communication technologies in diverse cultural, economic, and political contexts, mainly authoritarian post-Soviet states. The adoption side, I look at barriers to use – often socioeconomic, but sometimes political or cultural. On the outcome of ICT use side, I study outcomes like decreasing or increasing inequality due to ICTs, cosmopolitanism, capital enhancement, civic engagement, demand for democracy, and social activism.