The sudden closure of educational institutions in 2020 brought multiple financial and learning challenges for Pakistani female students. In our experience, not only formal and informal learning realms of female students have been affected in the post pandemic educational landscape, but a distinct gender and digital divide (GDD) is also noticeable between technology-equipped and deprived students. Considering the theoretical perspectives of digital divide, this paper will essentially explicate the chasms existing within female students of Mass Communication in Pakistan.
Given Pakistan’s conservative and patriarchal culture, it is very important to study how female students of Mass Communication, from both urban and rural areas, responded to the change after the pandemic. Through in-depth interviews of twenty female students, we argue that the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated already existing GDD in Pakistani educational landscape. Especially the first order GDD in education can be seen frequently in Pakistani rural locations. Moreover, economic limitations and socio-cultural norms also play an essential role in exacerbating second order GDD in the Mass Communication education. Thus, in this sense, the pandemic has brought a change that is charged with exclusion and disparity. Moreover, we argue that digital divide is a gendered concept for a periphery country such as Pakistan.