Understanding Barriers to Women’s Mobile Use in Low-Income Settings

In gender-inequitable societies, women are less likely to own and use phones than men - and women may fail to realize the benefits of mobile technology. What policies can close India's digital gender gap, and what does this mean for women’s broader well-being? Research by the team at Inclusion Economics sheds light on the interplay of barriers that restrict women’s phone use and levers to close digital gender gaps as a part of a study in Chhattisgarh, a state in central India.

Research to bridge the digital gender divide

In addition to their value in communication, social connection, and entertainment, smartphones and other mobile devices increasingly serve as portals to opportunity, information, and employment. But there is often a gender gap in access to mobile technology, particularly in parts of South Asia: in 2015–16, for example, only about 33 percent of Indian women owned or used mobile phones, compared to 67 percent of men.

Although norms against Indian women’s phone use are prevalent, government support for women’s access to phones may reduce these gender-biased views.

In 2017, a team including researchers from Inclusion Economics at Yale University and Inclusion Economics India Centre – in collaboration with researchers from Duke University, Harvard University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Warwick – launched a multi-pronged initiative to understand the sources of India’s digital gender gap and identify potential solutions. Leveraging experimental and quasi-experimental research in rural Chhattisgarh, a state in central India, the team is building evidence on the different ways in which men and women engage with mobile services, the socioeconomic consequences of women’s access to mobile technology, and how to overcome barriers to women’s adoption and use of mobile phones. A key objective of the research, which began collecting endline data in late 2021, is to understand how economic incentives and norms affect women’s mobile phone engagement in ways that may exacerbate, or reduce, the digital gender divide.

Highlights

Indian women gathered in a circle using a mobile phone. — EPoD Harvard Flickr

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