LOOKING THROUGH A SATELLITE LENS
Covid-19 doesn’t seem to have led to an overall decline in mobile ownership among women, at least so far. Although women were more likely to have lost their jobs and experienced financial strain from reverse migration in some markets, mobile ownership among women remained largely unchanged in 2020. However, there are some exceptions at country level. In India, more women now own mobile phones, particularly smartphones, whereas there has not been much change for men. Numbers of those using mobile internet has grown rapidly, while the gender gap continues to
decrease. Across LMICs, an additional 112 million women started using mobile internet in 2020-21. This growth is driven mostly by women in South Asia, where 45 million came online. This is noteworthy, as South Asia has consistently had the largest gender gap, but between 2019 and 2020 it declined from 50% to 36%. Even during the pandemic, women’s mobile internet use stayed the same, or increased, in every surveyed market, and the gender gap in mobile internet use improved, or stayed the same, in every surveyed country, except Kenya. Here, women’s mobile internet use has remained flat.
In Kenya, 42% of male mobile users, and 39% of female mobile users who do not use mobile internet, cite handset cost as the single most important barrier to mobile internet adoption.
Europe & Central Asia
Gender gap in mobile ownership Women unconnected Mobile ownership rate for women
-2%
92%
Proportion of women who use mobile internet Gender gap in mobile internet use
69%
13m
Women not using mobile internet
4%
52m
Middle East & North Africa
9%
50%
63m
17%
82%
23m
East Asia & Pacific
1%
76%
198 m
34m
3%
96%
Latin America & Caribbean
19%
67%
13%
75%
1%
67m
71%
201 m
38%
39%
74m
30m
2%
87%
36%
37%
372 m
182 m
Sub-Saharan Africa
South Asia
WHAT’S GOING ON IN KENYA? The pandemic appears to be having a disproportionate impact on women’s mobile access and use in Kenya. While overall mobile ownership remains largely unchanged among men in Kenya, and smartphone ownership has grown, overall mobile ownership declined slightly for women, and the proportion of women who own a smartphone has not increased. Kenya was the only surveyed country where the gender gap in mobile internet use has widened, from 34% in 2019 to 42% in 2020.
23%
23%
43%
25% 14%
47%
31%
19%
32%
34%
11%
32%
Basic Phone
Feature Phone
Smart Phone
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