By Telecom
Lead Team: Seventy-four per cent of married women who did not want a mobile
phone said it was because their husbands would not allow it, according to a
GSMA survey.
Seventy-three
per cent of participants expressed interest in entrepreneurship to help support
their families, indicating that mobile solutions that help manage business or
set up mobile retail enterprises could be particularly impactful;
Thirty-eight
per cent of BoP women live off grid, without easy access to an electricity
source. Although access to electricity varies by market, low-cost, alternative
mobile charging solutions will be key for many BoP women to fully realize the
potential benefits of mobile phone ownership;
Seventy-seven
per cent of BoP women have made a mobile phone call, but only 37 per cent have
sent an SMS, regardless of literacy levels. They did not find the SMS
services useful so products targeted at them should be of demonstrable
practical value, according to GSMA research called Portraits: A Glimpse
into the Lives of Women at the Base of the Pyramid.
Eighty-four
per cent of women wanted better healthcare information; however only 39 per
cent expressed a specific interest in receiving general healthcare information
through their mobile phone. GSMA suggests that mobile health offerings have to
be closely geared towards women’s needs and communicated clearly to be fully
utilized.
The research
covered women living at the base of the pyramid (BoP), which are those
living on less than US$2 a day.
The research
was conducted in partnership with the Australian Agency for International Development
(AusAID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
with primary research undertaken by TNS.
This
research highlights the gaps in access to, and use of mobile phone technology.
There is significant potential for using it to empower women and we are
continuing to work with the GSMA mWomen Program and USAID to reduce the mobile
phone gender gap,” said Melissa Stutsel, director Gender Policy at AusAID.
The GSMA
mWomen Program commissioned multi-country research and primary fieldwork was
conducted with more than 2,500 BoP women in Egypt, India, Papua New Guinea and
Uganda, with secondary research contributions from other parts of the
developing world.
