Mobile phones and rural women in South Asia and Africa: a systematic review

Abstract

Mobile phones are the most popularly used Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tool globally, although its usage among rural women in South Asia and Africa is remarkably low. This is alarming given that ICTs are fast emerging as a development imperative globally. Thus, it is opportune to generate a clear and comprehensive understanding of rural women’s patterns of mobile phone (MP) usage, the challenges therein, and to what extent they are able to negotiate the gender power relations embedded in mobile phones to access emancipatory spaces. This paper attempts to engage with these questions based on a systematic review of studies published in these two regions. The paper concludes that despite the persistence of several barriers to women’s MP use, there remains enormous scope for the inclusion of MPs in the everyday lives of rural women, especially for delivering outcomes in the context of livelihood, e-health services, and personal well-being. It also highlights the need for more studies to understand how women negotiate gender power relationships embedded in the use of mobile telephony and access new possibilities and freedoms. These studies need to engage with methodologies that permit more in-depth understanding of the nuanced processes of performing gender and negotiating gendered meanings associated with the use of MPs.