Can India answer the call Addressing the gender gap in mobile phone access
0Can India answer the call Addressing the gender gap in mobile phone access.
by Charity Troyer Moore and Rashi Sabherwal
When we compare various measures of well-being across women and men in India, we quickly see many gaps that highlight how India’s women are being left behind. Recently, the widely covered release of the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index raised major concerns about life for women in India, which ranks near the bottom out of 144 countries on measures of women’s relative health and survival, and economic participation and opportunities. Alarmingly, its overall standing slid 21 places in the past year alone.
Amidst these growing gender gaps, our research team has been examining yet another gap: that of women’s mobile phone ownership and engagement. One might ask, in a world of limited time and resources, why should closing yet another gender gap be added to India’s list of policy priorities? And should the private sector focus on pulling women in as users of mobile technology?
Our work to date suggests these questions should be considered. At 46 per cent, India’s gender gap in mobile phone ownership is quite large compared to countries with similar levels of development and mobile costs. To understand this gap better, we conducted interviews and focus groups with 125 men and women across five sites in urban and rural India. We found that women are often only able to own a phone when a male family member buys her one, or passes along an old model after he buys a newer one.