Gender Gap in Mobile Ownership

[Arzak Khan]

According to a report, 'Women and Mobile: A Global Opportunity', produced by the GSMA Development Fund and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and published at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday. There is a 300 million subscriber gender gap that is, 300 million fewer women than men worldwide own mobile phones. Addressing the gender gap in mobile phone ownership across middle and lower-income countries could provide a valuable new revenue stream for mobile operators.

Based on ARPU calculations for mid/low-income countries, defined as those where income is less than $11,000 per annum, that upside comes in at $13 billion per year, the revenue opportunity can range from $740 million per annum in Latin America to $4 billion in East Asia. According to the report, a woman is 21% less likely to own a mobile phone than a man in low and middle-income countries; in Africa the figure stands at 23%, in the Middle East 24%, and in South Asia 37%.

GSMA believes applications based around education, banking, healthcare and the like will attract a global female audience. But the question remains whether women will be able to afford to own a mobile phone.

[Arzak Khan]

Marla,

The information presented in the report was to entice operators in the regions to address the gender gap by luring them in to the 4 billion dollar market as incase of East Asia. Unfortunately, all business being capitalist in nature will most probably not address the issue of gender gap of such magnitude without having any financial benefits.

Mobile can certainly improve community health, education, economic opportunity, social interaction etc but most of the research and policy focus till now has been on the very important issue of benefiting from technology but it is also imperative that research and policy should focus on addressing the gap that exists within technology adoption, diffusion and usage as in the present case of gender gap of mobile ownership. This gap will not disappear on its own unless serious policy efforts are made to address the situation.

I believe the closed initiative that comes to mind is in Bangladesh with Grameen Phone. But I hope more people can contribute and enlighten my limited knowledge of the issue.

Warm Regards,

Arzak

[Marla Coffey]

Arzak,

The information presented here seems geared to commercial interests, and how to increase the female audience by creating apps that women will use. But I wonder if mobile ownership could be encouraged and supported for women in low income countries just as micro loans and small businesses have been, to support t the womens' financial interests.

They seem to fit well together and adding mobile could certainly improve community health, education, economic opportunity, etc., while also benefiting the providers, manufacturers, developers, etc. who make the technology possible.

I wonder if there are any initiatives in place for this already. :)

Warm regards,

Marla