Gender and ICT has participated in the VII Catalan Congress of Sociology, held at University Rovira i Virgili, in Tarragona, on 21 and 22 April. Under the tittle ‘Post-truth and the lack of reflection: a new reality of XXI century?’, the congress was a meeting point for researchers working in different research fields that aim to explain, understand and handle the social challenges and questions we are facing to, using reflection, method and specialized analysis.

Lidia Arroyo, researcher in Gender and ICT and PhD candidate, offered a communication on the effects of the acquisition of digital skills in the labor market analyzing the case of female users of digital inclusion programs for adults. Based on a qualitative study with 30 semi-structured interviews to women and 3 focus groups, the results show that, even though the digital inclusion does not necessarily imply a better position in the labor market, many women report that these new digital skills have increased their confidence in their personal and professional capacities. However, age discrimination, the incompatibility of jobs’ schedules with family responsibilities or the required education level are obstacles for labor inclusion that cannot be overcome solely by the digital courses.

José Luis Martínez-Cantos, postdoctoral researcher in Gender and ICT, presented his work on the evolution of the gender skills gaps in Catalonia between 2007 and 2014, based on microdata from the ‘Encuesta sobre equipamiento y uso de las tecnologías de la información en los hogares’ (INE). By using multivariable methods to estimate gender differences, his work finds that the gender gaps are slight in the most basic and widespread skills, but women are significantly disadvantaged in the more complex and less generalized digital tasks.

In his turn, Sergi Fàbregues, Professor of Psychology (UOC) and researcher at Gender and ICT, together with Marie-Hélène Paré (UOC), offered a communication revising the criteria that determine the quality of mixed methods research. The results of their study show that there is an agreement between disciplines on the key criteria that should guide the evaluation of mixed methods. Also, two opposing perspectives on quality do exist, and there is a relationship between these two perspectives and the researchers’ discipline.

Finally, Jörg Müller and Lidia Arroyo presented the engagement and communication strategies of the GenPORT project, an international and collaborative Internet community on gender and science that currently has 460 users, 248 organizations and 1000 shared resources.