Do mobile phone-enhanced networks equally benefit men and women?

Abstract

Mobile phones present opportunities to expand engagement with wider social, economic and governance networks, in the context of broader development aims. Networks in themselves represent flows of information, socio-economic interactions and transactions increasingly mediated by ICTs. But do they present the same opportunities and benefits to men and women? What inhibits and enables effective engagement? This paper addresses these questions in relation to urban street traders in Kampala, Uganda, exploring their perspectives to establish the extent to which networks expand opportunities for poor women. It looks at their potential and argues that situational and contextual factors rooted in individual circumstances and choices, multi-dimensional forms of poverty, and historical, socio-political and economic conditions, shape outcomes in complex and contradictory ways.