Today in India, 67% of men own mobile phones, but only 33% percent of women do.
Throughout the report, the researchers examined two broad, intersecting classes of barriers: economic and normative.
By Wayan Vota on February 13, 2019
ICT Works
South Asian countries in general are clear outliers among countries of similar levels of development, with India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh exhibiting some of the world’s highest gender gaps in access to technology.
While the mobile phone gender gap matters in its own right, it is particularly problematic because it can exacerbate other important forms of inequality — in earnings, networking opportunities, and access to information.
A Tough Call: Understanding barriers to and impacts of women’s mobile phone adoption in India uses a range of sources – 125 original qualitative interviews, a literature review, and analysis of secondary quantitative data – to identify leading barriers to Indian women’s use of mobile phones, assess the importance of these barriers, and propose directions for further research into how to reduce them.
Why the Indian Mobile Phone Gender Gap?
Throughout the report, the researchers examined two broad, intersecting classes of barriers: economic and normative.
- Economic barriers refer to factors directly related to the financial and human capital needed to own and operate mobile phones, as well as the economic “pull factors” that increase use, such as needing a phone for work.
- Normative barriers include the social norms, customs, and individual beliefs that shape and constrain men’s and women’s roles in the household and society.