Today, for International Women’s Day, we are sharing our updated figures on the mobile internet gender gap in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in advance of publishing our Mobile Gender Gap Report 2025 in May. These highlight that progress in closing the gender gap in mobile internet adoption across LMICs has stalled. Not only that, but the underlying rate in women’s mobile internet adoption has slowed. This is concerning and highlights the clear need to “Accelerate Action” – this year’s theme for International Women’s Day – when it comes to women’s digital inclusion.
Why does this matter?
Mobile is the primary way that most people access the internet in LMICs, particularly women. Our research has shown that when women use mobile internet, most report that it has had a positive impact on their lives and that they use it every day. Mobile phones and mobile internet help women feel more connected, supports livelihoods, and provides access to critical information and services such as healthcare, education and financial services. This includes access to important information that helps them in their daily lives and that they would not have received otherwise.
Addressing the mobile gender gap is a significant social, commercial and economic opportunity. Our analysis has estimated that over the period 2023 to 2030, closing the gender gap in mobile internet adoption in LMICs would add $1.3 trillion in additional gross domestic product (GDP), and closing the gender gap in mobile ownership and use in LMICs could deliver $230 billion in additional revenue to the mobile industry. Connectivity is also vital to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Our latest data reveals that women are now 14% less likely than men to use mobile internet across LMICs
More women in LMICs are using mobile internet than ever before but there remain persistent and substantial gender gaps in adoption and use.
Between 2017 and 2020, the mobile internet gender gap narrowed substantially, dropping from 25% to 15%. However, progress stalled in 2021 and 2022, when the mobile internet gender gap widened slightly. Promisingly, in 2023, the gender gap narrowed again for the first time in three years, bringing the gap back to 15%; the same level as in 2020. Unfortunately, our latest data from 2024 – released today – reveals that progress in closing this gender gap has stalled once again, with the figure remaining relatively unchanged at 14%. Our latest data also shows that women’s rate of adoption has slowed.
Gender gap in mobile internet adoption across low- and middle-income countries, 2017-2024:
The mobile internet gender gap remains widest in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. While across LMICs women are 14% less likely than men to use mobile internet, the mobile internet gender gaps in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are 32% and 29%, respectively.
Even when women start using mobile internet, they tend to use it less frequently than men and for a narrower range of services.
How can we accelerate action?
Our latest data highlights that increased focus, investment and collaboration is required from all stakeholders if we are going to address this significant and stubborn digital gender divide. Targeted efforts are needed from stakeholders – policymakers, mobile operators, the development community and others – working together to address the barriers women face.
The mobile gender gap is not going to close on its own. It is driven by social, economic and cultural factors, which result in women experiencing barriers to mobile ownership and use, including affordability, knowledge and skills, safety and security concerns, relevance and access. With millions more women offline than men, they are disproportionately affected by these barriers. Women also tend to experience these barriers more acutely due to social norms and structural inequalities, such as lower education and income.
Through the GSMA Connected Women Commitment Initiative, mobile operators are demonstrating that by taking concrete actions to address women’s needs and the barriers they face, it is possible to narrow the mobile gender gap. Since this initiative was launched in 2016, more than 50 mobile operators have made formal commitments with targets to reduce the gender gap in the customer base for their mobile internet and/or mobile money services. So far, they have collectively reached more than 80 million women with these services, accelerating digital and financial inclusion for women across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
But these gender gaps can’t be addressed by one organisation alone and much more is needed to close the digital gender divide. This year, as we reflect on the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action and the twenty-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society, we must ensure women are not being left behind in an increasingly connected world.
Our upcoming Mobile Gender Gap Report 2025 in May will provide more detailed data on the mobile gender gap and barriers faced by women in LMICs to inform efforts. Let’s all work together to #AccelerateAction to close the digital gender divide. When women thrive, society, businesses and economies thrive.
Our Mobile Gender Gap Report 2025 will be available here in May 2025. To receive our upcoming reports, please sign up to our newsletter here.
The Connected Women programme is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and supported by the GSMA and its members.
