The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2020
Explore insights and data from the 2020 edition of this flagship report, examining barriers to women’s access to and use of mobile services.
There remains a substantial mobile gender gap across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Over 300 million fewer women than men access the internet on a mobile, and women are 8% less likely than men to own a mobile phone. But the mobile internet gender gap is narrowing in LMICs. Although women remain 20% less likely than men to use mobile internet, this represents a reduction from 27% in 2017, and 54% of women now use mobile internet.
The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2020 examines how the mobile gender gap is changing quickly in LMICs, revealing how the main factors preventing women’s equal mobile ownership and internet use are evolving over time, and demonstrating how mobile usage is quickly expanding as smartphone ownership rises.
Findings from this report are based on the results of over 16,000 face-to-face surveys commissioned by GSMA Intelligence across 15 low- and middle-income countries, and subsequent modelling and analysis of this survey data.
Regional Resources
The mobile gender gap in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has one of the widest mobile gender gaps of any region. While the mobile gender gap is higher in South Asia, considerably less progress has been made in SSA than in South Asia in the last three years.
The mobile gender gap in Asia
The mobile gender gap varies greatly across Asia. South Asia has the largest mobile gender gap of any region worldwide, while the most digitally mature LMICs in East Asia & Pacific have more equal levels of mobile ownership and use. South Asia has driven most of the reductions in the mobile internet gender gap. Over 78 million more women have come online in South Asia in the last three years, while in other regions, considerably less progress has been made.
Report launch webinar recording
Watch the recording of our recent webinar, ‘Understanding the Mobile Gender Gap in 2020’, in which Oliver Rowntree, Senior Insights Manager for the Connected Women programme and author of the report, shares the key findings, analysis and recommendations.
Download previous reports and resources
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The GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report 2019 has been ranked in the top 3 of the best free mobile tech reports in 2019 by IT Research Finder.
The Connected Women programme is funded by the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Swedish International Development Cooperation (SIDA) and is supported by the GSMA and its members. The programme’s research and work is also funded by the Gates Foundation.
