A report by GSMA states that “Women in low and middle-income countries often begin using mobile phones later than male members of the family and are less likely overall to own a mobile phone,” contributing to the high digital gender divide in the world. The digital gender divide is summarized by limited access and use of technology by women. Increasing the way women access and use technology through mobile devices will improve women’s digital connectivity and provide social and economic benefits.
According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), sixty-four percent of women in sub-Saharan Africa do not own a mobile phone, which is approximately 304 million women. Mobile phones are an easy way to connect to the Internet and can bridge the gender digital divide. Empowering women with mobile phones and mobile services will improve low-income families’ social and economic well-being.
Most women in Africa either work on the farm or remain at home to care for their families, which exacerbates the digital gender divide. Eighty percent of the women in Africa live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Women and girls do not have access to consistent electricity and Internet at home or on the farms, so many do not interact with a computer or laptop.
Therefore, access to technology through mobile phone presents an opportunity to get women and girls connected. Husbands, fathers, and brothers tend to work or move around more, giving them more avenues to access the Internet. Since boys usually have the opportunity to access education over or before girls, this furthers stalls women’s and girls’ ability to use technology.
To close the gender digital divide in sub-Saharan Africa, governments, development partners, and the private sector must collaborate to remove or minimize the following obstacles – affordability, social barriers, and digital literacy. Limiting these obstacles will help close the gender digital divide and increase the number of women who can access technology through mobile phones.
Provide Affordable Phones and Data
The mobile phone and mobile data cost to give women access to technology through the Internet can be expensive for women in Africa who often struggle to feed their families. According to the World Bank, the number of people living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 416 million in 2015 to 431 million in 2017. IT News Africa listed the top 5 cost-conscious mobile phones for Africans, with the least expensive being the Techno L9 at USD 104. The USD 104 equates to approximately 11,317 Kenyan Shillings, 40,000 Nigerian Naira, 606.32 Ghanaian Cedis, and 3,882.32 Ethiopian Birr.
A report by the Alliance for Affordable Internet found that nearly 2.5 billion people live in countries where the cheapest available smartphone’s cost is a quarter or more of the average monthly income. The A4AI report showed a sharp divide between countries, with the average person in Sierra Leone having to save six months’ salary to buy the cheapest smartphone.
It is one thing for women to purchase a smartphone. It is another thing to buy mobile data to use the phone. Our research showed that women identified the cost of phones and mobile data cost as the cause of their limited use of mobile phones. TechPoint Africa notes that the average price of one gigabyte of data in Nigeria and South Africa are relatively expensive at $2.22 and $7.19. Mobile data providers in Africa charge, on average, $3.30 per gigabyte, according to a survey by Cable UK.
To address affordability, phone manufacturers could produce smartphones for the African market targeting women and girls. Huawei & Techno have supplied the African market with cheap phones, but not affordable. Samsung and other phone manufacturers can enter this market and develop phones that would positively impact Africa in closing the digital gender divide. In Kenya, Safaricom partnered with Google to deliver affordable smartphones at the cost of $55.75.
More initiatives and partnerships like these will tackle the issue of affordability and get more women and girls across sub-Saharan Africa connected to the Internet through mobile phones. Equally important is, providing financing options to make the phones affordable for young women. In addition to low-cost smartphones, phone companies like MTN, Orange Cell, and GLO can develop affordable data plans for females. Governments and partners can collaborate on subsidizing mobile data plans for women, especially in rural communities.
Tackle Social Barriers
Social norms are the accepted rules of behavior in society. Social norms can be a barrier to women’s full participation in society and play a role in the digital gender divide. One example of a social norm says, “the man is the head of the household,” which makes it easy for only the man to control the home and make decisions that affect the whole family. This lone leadership role or control encourages or leads the man to keep or own the single phone in the family, limiting the wife’s use or access.
Social norms that constantly relegate women and girls to being the unimportant family member and weak should be discouraged. As the saying goes, “if the man is the head, the woman is the neck that keeps the head moving.” This saying shows that the woman is as important as the man because, without the neck, the head is worthless.
Women have so much to offer, and if society tells them continually (in different ways) that they are not worthy, they will shy away from taking on other roles outside the home. Addressing social norms that affect women’s full participation in society could help close the gender digital divide. Removing social barriers would allow women to take on other roles that use technology, which would help close the digital gender divide.
Provide Digital Literacy
Digital literacy is the knowledge and skills needed to connect to, navigate, and use Internet services. To close the digital gender divide, women must have the knowledge to use and navigate a mobile phone and access and use the Internet. Eighty percent of the women in Africa live in rural areas with very little access to formal education. UN Women notes that women worldwide make up more than two-thirds of the world’s 796 million illiterate people. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest level of female literacy in the world, at 57 percent.
The literacy skill of African women is 19 percent. Developing the digital skills needed to get women and girls to connect to and navigate the Internet safely will require providing them digital skills through training.
Existing institutions should add digital skills training to all early education curriculum. Elementary and High Schools should also be required to include some digital literacy training in their curriculum so girls can access those skills at an early age.
Also, governments should establish vocational training centers to cater to teaching women and girls’ digital skills. These training centers should be available to women during and after market hours because women are busy either on the farm, in the market, doing domestic duties, or making a living. The vocational training centers should provide childcare access to allow women to bring their children if they have no one to provide childcare.
In addition, the digital infrastructure divide plays a significant role in access across Africa. According to UN telecommunication expert Martin Schaaper, “many regions in Africa are difficult to access, and it is expensive to set up infrastructure there.” In Nigeria, for example, only 40 percent of the population has access to the Internet.
There is also an ‘access to electricity’ issue which limits the adoption of technology in sectors such as banking, education, and finance. Technology integration in these fields could increase women’s use of technology. Africa has a 43 percent access rate to electricity compared to 87 percent of the global access rate. Fifty percent of Nigeria’s population has limited or no access to the electricity grid. Consequently, the lack of electricity access can affect women and girls, keeping their mobile phones powered.
In conclusion, to close the digital gender gap in Africa, address the issues of – affordability, social barriers, and lack of digital knowledge. Women and girls must have access to low-cost phones and mobile data, stand against social barriers, and receive digital literacy training. Tackling these issues will require the consolidated effort of governments, the private sector, and development partners. Expanding women’s and girls’ access to technology using mobile phones will improve their family’s health, education, and income.
