Accelerating digital and financial inclusion
Mobile has the power to transform lives. But while access is spreading quickly, it is not spreading equally. There remains a significant gender gap in mobile phone ownership and use. It is critical that we work together to address this issue to advance women’s digital and financial inclusion for women and unlock significant commercial and socio-economic opportunities. When women thrive, societies, businesses and economies thrive.
Opportunity
We have an opportunity to contribute to the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls through mobile.
Supports UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG #5 (Gender Equality)
Mobile can make women more connected, safer, and able to access services such as health and financial services.
In a GSMA study across 11 low- and middle-income countries, including both mobile phone owners and non-owners:
• 74% - 98% of women in every country said mobile phones save them time (or would save them time)
• 89% - 100% of women in every country said mobile phones help them (or would help them) stay in touch with friends and family
• 68% - 94% of women in every country reported they feel safer (or would feel safer) with a mobile phone
But there is a significant gender gap in mobile phone ownership and use, particularly for more transformational services like mobile internet and mobile money.
Women in low- and middle-income countries are, on average, 10% less likely to own a mobile phone than men, 26% less likely to use mobile internet and 33% less likely to use mobile money The gender gap is wider in certain parts of the world – e.g. women in South Asia are 26% less likely to own a mobile than men and 70% less likely to use mobile internet.
Closing the gender gap also represents a significant market opportunity for the mobile industry and can spur economic growth.
We estimated that if mobile operators in low- and middle-income countries could close the gender gap in mobile ownership and mobile internet use today, this would generate an estimated incremental revenue of $15 billion over the next 12 months.
What we need
To close the mobile gender gap we need to address issues of gender equality and social norms and focus on:
Accessibility
including to quality network coverage, handsets, electricity, agents and formal IDs
Usability and Skills
including of handsets and services and addressing a lack of awareness and understanding
Affordability
including handsets, tariffs, data and transaction fees
Safety and security
including addressing harassment, theft, fraud and data protection
Revelant
of policies, content, products and services
How to get there
Our top 3 recommendations:
The Mobile Industry
Understand your gender gap and the women in your market by conducting consumer insights research and collecting and analysing gender disaggregated data
Make women part of your business strategy including setting KPIs to target women
Ensure your products, services, marketing and distribution consider women’s needs and the barriers they face to mobile access and use
Development Community
Embed activities that drive women’s mobile access and use in your initiatives
Invest in research to better understand women’s mobile access and use and how to reduce the gender gap
Raise awareness of the barriers to women’s mobile access and use
Policy Makers and Regulators
Ensure appropriate policy and regulation to lower access barriers for women
Promote gender equality in education and invest in programmes that improve digital literacy for women and girls
Improve women’s safety on mobile through effective policies and strategies including legal frameworks and awareness campaigns
Read more about practical actions you can take to address the mobile gender gap
Accelerating digital and Women financial inclusion for women
The gender gap is not going to close on its own. Its root causes are driven by a complex set of social, economic and cultural barriers. These obstacles can only be overcome with targeted intervention by all stakeholders.The GSMA Connected Women Programme aims to reduce the gender gap in mobile internet and mobile money services and unlock significant commercial and socio-economic opportunities.
Recommendations for action: bridging the gender gap in Internet and broadband access and use
In March 2017, the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development’s Working Group on the Digital Gender Divide, co-chaired by the GSMA and UNESCO, launched a report that outlines a set of practical actions that stakeholders can take to address the gender gap in internet access and use
Download the report to read more about this issue and what practical action you can take
W20 Digital Inclusion Background paper
As Topic Chair of the Digital Inclusion workstream within the W20, the GSMA commissioned this background paper which summarises the present situation of the digital divide, describes the challenges involved, and reviews existing recommendations for coordinated action to support women’s empowerment and equality.
Download the paper to get an overview of the importance of digital inclusion of women
