Technology is fostering individuality, leveraging democratic participation, and it has expanded women’s voices around the world, supporting global change movements and activism campaigns1. A paradigmatic illustration of this is the #BringBackOurGirls social networks’ movement around Boko Haram’s kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria back in 20142 (read more about it here or here) or, more recently, the movement of retaliation about the repression of women in Iran (see Ivona’s article on the subject).
Mobile phones in particular have gained undisputed prominence for their potential to reduce inequalities and enable transformative change. Increasing popularity, widespread connectivity, and the portability of a device that meets people’s needs where they are, whatever their social, cultural and economic conditions3, make mobile technology a big promise in addressing development challenges, perfectly summed up by Melinda Gates in the video below.
But… is technology equally accessible for everyone?
The immense potential of ICTs in reducing inequalities and fostering development is undeniable, but access to technology in LMIC (low- and middle-income countries), mobile phones in particular, does not equal development and, most importantly, isn’t equal for everyone.
Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022 highlights, GSMA [source]
According to GSMA’s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022 recently launched, progress in closing the mobile internet gender gap has stalled in LMIC. While in 2017, 25% of women were less likely than men to use mobile internet, this figure dropped to 15% in 2020, but witnessed a 1% rise in 2021.
Regarding ownership, women are now 18% less likely to own a smartphone than men (315M fewer women), and 7% less likely to own a mobile phone. The report states a slowdown in the awareness of mobile internet, after a rapid growth from 2017 to 2019.
Currently, 60% of women use mobile internet but there are still 264M fewer women than men accessing it. Despite both men and women using their mobile phones for a wider range of activities in most of the countries surveyed, a gender gap still persists.
The top 3 barriers responsible for preventing women from owning a phone and/or adopting mobile internet are affordability, literacy and digital skills, and safety and security. A conclusion states that, in some countries, a significant proportion of smartphone users don’t use mobile internet, particularly women.
Are mobile phones really game-changers for women?
Mobile phones show positive signs of closing the gender gap, but not without its downsides. Next, we will look into some widely discussed pros of Mobile for development (M4D), drawn from multiple studies, articles, and reflections on ICT4D interventions in LMIC countries, confronting them with threats and challenges raised.
Greater financial independence and economic opportunities
Mobile phones improve women’s access to employment/entrepreneurship opportunities. They allow higher financial control through the use of mobile phone-based bank accounts, money transfer services, digital payments, micro-financing, and rotating saving systems4 (see successful and revolutionary M-Pesa in East Africa here or here).
⚠ But…
The use of mobile technologies in entrepreneurship and job seeking does not completely eliminate the difficulties experienced by women, because of intense market competition together with male control5. Also, financial technology (fintech) potentially enables additional challenges such as indebtedness, gambling, fraud, or weakening of essential social ties6. Fintech fee-based business models may extract significant and much needed resources from poor communitiess7.
Access to non-financial opportunities
Through mobile communication, women can nurture bigger informal and resource networks that provide support to overcome the lack of services and mobility, and the fragility of official institutional support. Thus, they can build resilience and agency, seeing their well-being and sense of security increase, along with their opportunities.
Technology also facilitates access to information and services, potentially reducing asymmetries. For example, parents can register their children, or farmers can receive agricultural information through their mobile phones8.
⚠ But…
Mobile phones can be used as tools of social control, allowing surveillance practices and harassment of female users by their families, partners, or employers, justifying mobility restrictions and discouragement9. Phones can be used in exchange for sex and to propitiate sexual relationships, exposing gender gaps and making unsupervised communication problematic in patriarchal cultures. They can also be a source of conflict in relationships, creating tensions and enabling deceptive tactics.
Access to health
There are several examples of mobile-health (m-health) projects that intend to increase community participation, bring people closer to service providers, improve treatment adherence and attendance, and simultaneously enable capacity building of healthcare professionals10. Improved access to information can contribute to strengthening sexual and reproductive rights, and positive changes in gender norms and better cooperation within couples have been identified in some interventions11.
⚠ But…
M-health interventions may reinforce prior relational practices and dependence on men, without impacting gender norms. Increased autonomy and decision-making may have a potentially negative impact on women by affecting conjugal relationships, exacerbating gender inequalities, and exposing women to a higher risk of domestic violence.
Women also face difficulties in distinguishing trustable sources among a myriad of misinformation, unsolicited information and hoaxes12, the Covid-19 infodemic being a paradigmatic example.
Access to education
Mobile phones may enhance the acquisition of knowledge, increasing women’s basic literacy skills and supplementing school-education by opening access to content.
⚠ But…
The use of phones in educational settings may be a source of distractions and hamper learning, increasing social pressure related to phone ownership, and intensifying bullying or harassment. Sleep disturbance, inappropriate propositions by teachers, and widespread of pornography and sexting increase female objectification and reinforce sexism among males13.
At the same time, the usual commoditization of social relations can lead to the expansion of sexual networks, early marriages or the engagement in transactional sex, what could result in a disinvestment in education14.
In short, what is hampering women’s empowerment through mobile phones and perpetuating social imbalances?
Infrastructural deficiencies, cost, and affordability are still major obstacles to mobile adoption, as stated by the latest GSMA report on the subject. Phone sharing is an answer to the lack of affordability, impeding access to services, increasing dependence and limiting exploration time. Mobile adoption is also hampered by the lower likelihood of women having the necessary documentation for getting a SIM card or opening a bank account4.
Education-related barriers, such as lack of literacy, the gendered division of labor and domestic responsibilities impair learning and handling devices, and there is no recorded reduction in women’s workload resulting from the use of smartphones.
Evidence suggests that mobile technology can reinforce patriarchal power relations. Men are better prepared and in a better social position to benefit from the new possibilities, which may further widen the divide between genders. Also, they dominate the digital world, shaping it to their own interests and needs, setting back the potential to improve women’s lives. The use of mobile phones can also facilitate luring practices for transactional sex, promote the initiation of relationships and influence relational dynamics by introducing etiquettes of calling and airtime purchase13.
Thus, despite the enormous potential of technological advances, it would be reductive to consider technology as the solution to address poverty and inequality because it, too, is intertwined with social and cultural dynamics, shaping and being shaped by the contexts where it is implemented.
Are you an advocate of mobile for development? Have you ever thought about the less discussed aspects of mobile technology use raised above?
It is clear that multidimensional inequalities require comprehensive and inclusive solutions. What do you think should be the role of the development industry, governments and technology companies in achieving gender equality? Share your thoughts!
Notes:
* Some of the content in this post was inspired by the essay “M4D in developing countries: an empowerment opportunity for women?”, written by the author in the context of the course “Media, Globalisation and Development” (Master’s in Communication for Development, Malmö University), in November 2021.
[1] Stark, L. (2020). Gender, Empowerment, and Mobile Phones in the Developing World.
[2] Olson, C. C. (2016). #BringBackOurGirls: digital communities supporting real-world change and influencing mainstream media agendas.
[3] Crentsil, P. (2015). Casting the net wider: Mobile telephone mediation and participation in HIV/AIDS initiatives in Ghana.
[4] Klapper, L. (2019). Mobile phones are key to economic development. Are women missing out?
[5] Porter, G. et al. (2015). Mobile Phones and Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: From Youth Practice to Public Policy.
[6] Boamah, E.F., et al. (2021). A network understanding of FinTech (in)capabilities in the global South.
[7] Zimmerman, J. M. & Meinrath, S. (2012). Mobile Phones Will Not Save the Poorest of the Poor.
[8] Klapper, L. (2016). How mobile phones are changing women’s lives.
[9] Larsson, C. W. & Svensson, J. (2018). Mobile phones in the transformation of the informal economy: stories from market women in Kampala, Uganda
[10] Rotondi, V. et al. (2020). Leveraging mobile phones to attain sustainable development.
[11] Jennings, L., & Gagliardi, L. (2013). Influence of mhealth interventions on gender relations in developing countries: a systematic literature review.
[12] Hampshire, K., et al. (2015). Informal m-health: How are young people using mobile phones to bridge healthcare gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa?
[13] Porter, G., et al. (2019). Mobile phones, gender, and female empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa: studies with African youth.
[14] Stark, L. (2013). Transactional sex and cellphones in a Tanzanian slum.
[15] O’Donnell, A. & Sweetman, C. (2018). Introduction: Gender, development and ICTs, Gender & Development, 26:2, 217-229
