Empowering Women Through Mobile Technology. This is the slogan for the organization, mWomen, which was established and funded by the GSM Association after identifying the significant gender gap in mobile phone ownership in middle and lower income countries. Across all countries, women are 21% less likely to own a mobile phone and this percentage is higher in sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, and South Asian regions.
A report launched by the GSMA Development Fund and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women depicted that 93% of women reported feeling safer because of their mobile phone while 85% of women reported feeling more independent. 41% of women who own a mobile phone reported increased income and professional opportunities. (To view the full report: http://www.gsmworld.com/documents/Women_mobile_web.pdf) Mobile phones are a tool of empowerment for women in rural areas and/or in developing countries. Mobile communication transcends time and space, which saves time for its user, and as the old saying goes, “time is money.”
Alice T. Liu, an ICT specialist, spoke to us last week about the benefits and the increase purposes mobile phones can serve in the area of finance and banking. Mobile phones are promoting efficiency and safety for individuals and families in transferring money and accessing their money sources. Mobile financial services have expanded to bill payments such as utilities and children’s school fees. Moreover, women who have access to mobile phones demonstrate a more significant role as an individual in their community. By being able to fulfill these types of duties from their own household, women have seen increases in responsibilities and independence.
However, as mobile phone use begins to increase among women in developing countries, so their gender roles also evolve. Undoubtedly, mobile phones give these women empowerment and independence, but unfortunately, their male counterparts do not always look upon these traits so kindly. In an article published last week by Bloomberg news, Aleeda Fazal, a mobile money specialist who helped establish M-Pesa, reported that, “In the Afghan woman’s mind, mobile phone technology helps her to keep in touch with friends and can help her be entrepreneurial…in the Afghan man’s mind, the technology means he loses control of the woman” (To view the full article: http://bangordailynews.com/2011/07/18/news/world-news/cellphones-empowering-women-in-developing-world/). While mobile phone use protects women from getting robbed in the streets when they walk to the schools to pay their children’s school fees, another type of violence and danger has ensued. Husbands are becoming outraged at the type of freedom a mobile phone gives their wives and many have prohibited the woman’s use of this technology as well as physically punished or abused them because of it. It is difficult and deplorable to see that a tool that should be used for benefits are causing harm and damage in the inner community. Especially because these actions are occurring inside family households, there is not much the government or distributors of the mobile phones can effectuate. With any new advancement or progress, there is always a drawback, and in the case of mobile phones, these incidents of female figures suffering are a part of the battle to equality. These represents the greater complexity of the revolution of mobile phones. Culture and innovation lines are blurred, and societal structure and standards are difficult and take more time to surpass. Nevertheless, mobile phones still have the power to extend and heighten women status in these developing countries. mWomen’s reports have encouraged more mobile vendors, governments and NGOs to partner and administer programs and projects to continue to narrow the gender gap. With these types of programs, mWomen has two main goals: 1) addressing the barriers to ownership for women and 2) encouraging the development of products and services that appeal specifically tow omen in the areas of health, education, finance, and entrepreneurship.
As women in the developed countries continue to lobby for the top positions and careers in finance opportunities, women in developing countries will continue to fight to manage personal money. With the increasing inexpensiveness of the mobile phone and the advanced technologies, which include mobile banking, there is great hope that women will be a part of the powerful changes and effects in the near future. Already, we see the profound impact mobile phones have on developing countries as well as the rapidity of technological programs, as agencies and vendors push for ownership for women in these areas, there will no doubt be an advance in education and autonomy. The mobile phone is and will continue to be a driving force in fostering gender equality in both developed and developing countries.
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