What Works to Close Digital Gender Gaps?

Key Findings

• Phones provide crucial access to  information, networks, and resources,  but women in India lag men in ownership and usage.
• Researchers in the Inclusion Economics network evaluated a large, state-run phone distribution program in India and a complementary digital literacy training to assess their potential to close  digital gender gaps.
• Despite initially reversing the gender gap in smartphone ownership, the smartphone distribution program had no long-term impact on digital gender gaps.
• In contrast, low-cost digital literacy training had lasting impacts, increasing women’s smartphone use and their use of advanced phone tasks.
• Digital literacy training also improved women’s mental health and connections with others, highlighting how phones can improve women’s well-being in settings where their mobility and networks  are limited. 

Click here to view the full pdf version of the policy brief here.