Various surveys over the years have highlighted the value placed on Internet access among the general public, with people holding it in higher regard than everything from water to sex.  As such there has been a concerted push among policy makers to connect up rural communities and ensure that broadband reaches into all parts.

This is generally seen as one of those initiatives with no real downsides, but a recent study from Bocconi University suggests it may have unintended consequences for inequality.

The researchers examined data from a European Research Council funded project, called DisCont, which enabled them to compare data on broadband deployment in Germany to various other lifestyle information.

Digital divide

The analysis suggests that when communities gained access to broadband, higher-educated women became much more likely to give birth.  What’s more, they also suggest that it coincided with higher life satisfaction and even the amount of time they spend with children on weekends.

This boost was only evident in higher-educated women however, as their less-educated peers didn’t see any change to either their fertility or their general satisfaction with life.

“We find that the channel through which high-speed Internet increases fertility is a better work-family balance, due to the spread of teleworking, smart working and part-time working among educated women,” the researchers explain.

Indeed, the availability of high-speed Internet raised the likelihood of working from home by around 30%, whilst also facilitating flexible working in terms of hours, thus making it more likely that higher-educated women would participate in the labor force.

“Summing up,” the authors conclude. “Broadband Internet access allows higher-educated women to better reconcile work and motherhood, which in turn may promote fertility. This may be particularly important in countries such as Germany, or the best part of Southern and Central-Eastern Europe, where total fertility is below replacement.”

The authors believe this is an important finding, as they suggest that lower-skilled people are often in jobs with lower levels of flexibility, therefore broadband access could exacerbate social inequality challenges.  If so, it’s important that policies such as child care are adapted to mitigate this risk and prevent the digital divide from growing.