A Tough Call: How Can We Close the Gender Gap in Mobile Phone Use in India?
By Simone Schaner and Natalie Theys
January 22, 2018
Emerging economies are in the midst of a mobile revolution: phones and associated add-on services have been found to improve the functioning of rural markets, boost educational outcomes, and even reduce poverty. However, the ability to access and own a phone, and thus reap its benefits, is not equally available to men and women, particularly for women in South Asian countries. India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh continue to have exceptionally high gaps in cell phone ownership, even compared to countries with similar costs of cell service (International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2014) and income (World Bank, Gross National Income (GNI) per capita averaged across 2014, 2015, and 2016). According to data from Intermedia’s 2015 and 2016 Financial Inclusion Insights Surveys, India’s gap in ownership is 33 percentage points, and nearly half of women who report having access to a phone must borrow one to use one, as compared to only 16 percent of men. This gap is worrisome, as it runs the risk of exacerbating other gender inequalities in a country where women already lag behind men.
Currently there is little research on what is driving India’s mobile gender gap, what can be done to address it, and what closing the gap would mean for women’s welfare.
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