Mobile Phones And Gender: Do Women Really Own Their Technology?
In
2020, my housekeeper called me after one month of the lockdown to ask if I was
still going to pay her the monthly salary even though she was unable to report
to work. She said that her wage was the only source of money for her family,
which included her husband, an autorickshaw driver, and their three children.
She
urgently emphasised how little money he was making at the time. I agreed to pay
but asked if she could give me her bank account information or a Google Pay or
Paytm account number so I could transfer the money electronically because our
apartment did not permit visitors and I did not have enough cash.
Her
husband's account was blocked due to some KYC issues, and she didn't have a
bank account, so the only person in the family who could provide for the
family's needs didn't have a phone of her own or a bank account. The irony of
this situation is that she had to ask another male relative to share his phone
number in order to transfer the money.
The
epidemic significantly altered my domestic help's life; she now has her own
bank account and mobile phone, the latter of which first allowed her children
to take classes online. The GSMA Report from 2021, The Mobile Gender Gap
Report, which discusses how women are now in a better position to negotiate the
ownership of a technology-based gadget at home as the onus of monitoring the
children's online education invariably falls on them, matches these life
milestones with hers. This naturally encourages women to experiment with their
mobile devices, download new apps, look for new information online, and seek
advice from their social networks on suggesting tasks that may be completed
using a mobile device.
Purchase
but not fully Possess
Beyond
these numbers, one must consider the socioeconomic issues that exist. My
housekeeper no longer carries a phone with her when she reports working in
2022. She commutes by public transportation at least three kilometres away from
her home. She said, "The kids use the phone," adding, "My
equilibrium is over as my son, who is in his mid-teens, is attracted to images
and videos," when questioned.
This
puts into perspective an important truth, namely that even if the mobile was
purchased with the needs of this middle-aged woman in mind, its ownership
inevitably passes to the male family members and the kids.
Although
the pandemic made efforts toward increasing the number of women who had mobile
phones, the device still rarely stays in a woman's hands. Despite having mobile
phones, women are hesitant to use social media platforms or even conduct online
searches out of fear that they might find something they don't want to see or
read, or out of concern that they might use the platform incorrectly, according
to the GSMA report and a recent study on women audiences by Meta.
As
a part of a digital literacy initiative run by Meta in 2019, I was providing
digital literacy mentorship to young women from rural West Bengal. While
interacting with the participants, I noticed that although this programme gave
each of them an Android phone, their families soon took control of it.
They
would use it to download different programmes and utilise the offered data. One
participant also shared her parents' opinion, according to which using a phone
is a major distraction that shouldn't be promoted.
The
idea that a woman's morality can be compromised or distracted by a mobile phone
reinforces the idea of possessing but not utilising a phone. The National
Health Survey also notes that a large percentage of women own phones but rarely
use them.
While
the government and NGOs in India steadily promote mobile ownership and other
technological adoption, women are unable to possess their own devices due to
societal norms and patriarchal structures. As a culture and a nation, we still
need to concentrate on using the technology responsibly and not be alarmed by
the nature of some internet content. To ensure that the internet does not
obstruct the advantages that technology could provide, we must also educate
ourselves on good digital hygiene.