Posted by Juliette Terzieff:
For decades women’s rights advocates have been struggling through linguistic, cultural and political considerations in search of a workable strategy to empower women around the world – and the truth is that there is no single magical formula that can address the many varied challenges faced by women. But could it be that the mobile telephone is the great equalizer women and their advocates have been waiting for? Many would like to think so.
Women, particularly in the developing world, face economic, educational and personal health challenges related to gender, that are often exacerbated by poverty and infrastructure gaps. While many governments and international organizations like the United Nations push for gender equality, the truth is that politicians in many countries around the world are either incapable or unwilling to successfully push for the kind of change that would make that a reality.
Enter the mobile phone. Hundreds of millions of the world’s poor are able to own and access the devices, using services like pre-paid accounts to minimize costs. Mobile telephone services can erase many of the challenges associated with infrastructure limitations and promote capabilities like mobile banking that open up previously inaccessible economic opportunities.
Major ICT companies including AT&T, Vodafone, France Telecom and Microsoft have joined forces to support the GSMA mWomen Programme to reduce the mobile telephone gender gap and sign up 600 million female customers in developing countries by 2014. The program, run by the Group Sociale Mobile Association, brings together private and public stakeholders within the international development field such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. State Department, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and BBC World Service Trust to increase female ownership of mobile telephones and provide critical life services to populations of women living on less than $2 a day.
But even those within the industry warn that expectations for rapid, mass change must be managed and multi-stakeholder efforts are likely best positioned to maximize impact.
“It will take more than a single technology provider to close the gender gap,” Vodafone Content Services Director Lee Epting says. “Often a phone is seen as a tool for freedom, and men in some cultures might not want women to have that freedom. You need a forward looking man to help make those changes happen.”
In the growing field of mHealth a broad array of stakeholders are deploying mobile telephone applications to improve women’s and children’s health. The mHealth sector, say proponents, leverages technology to overcome infrastructure, distance and other challenges to accessing care while cutting the health care sector’s contributions to global warming.
In many African countries travelling distances and a dearth of qualified medical personnel, combined with a lack of medical supplies and cultural considerations result in some of the worst maternal and child mortality rates in the world. Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia combined to account for 87 percent of the world’s maternal deaths in 2008, according to the United Nations. While progress has been made in ensuring that the percentage of pregnant women in the developing world seeing a skilled health care worker at least once during pregnancy – with rates rising from 65 to 81 percent between 1990 and 2009 – access to concentrated proper care remains unattainable for millions of women.
Over 400 million people now have cell phones in Africa – using the devices to create infrastructure and job and product markets, and share information at levels previously impossible.
While maternal mortality rates in the U.S remain low, they doubled between 1996 to 2006, from 7.6 per 1,000 births to 13.3. The increase gives the U.S. one of the highest percentages in the developed world. Pinpointing specific causes for the rise has proven challenging, but U.S. officials have turned to technology in a bid to help women access proper care. The free Text 4 Baby program provides text messages via mobile phone to expectant and new mothers, sending educational information throughout pregnancy and the first year of a child’s life.
Supporters of greater access to mobile telephones point to mHealth applications and other innovative uses of available technology, such as a texting service to alert women when area wells are running, as not only contributing to personal security and well-being but ultimately to the economic independence that will empower women and promote communities’ development.
Tags: at&t, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Cherie Blair Foundation, gender equality, gender equity, GSMA, mHealth, mobile phone, U.S. Department of State, Vodafone, women's rights
Excellent idea! Thanks for keeping us posted on these developments!
I think there are many things that can be done to promote equality and spread information. Using mobile devices is a great tool that can be useful to many women (and men)!
Great article.