Getting girls connected: helping the women of the future shape the digital world
Getting girls connected
A guest blog from Kecia Bertermann, Director of Digital Research and Learning at Girl Effect, a non-profit working for girls in over 50 countries, on issues from vaccination to education to economic opportunity. Kecia will be speaking as part of the ‘Half of all consumers’ panel at the Consumers International Summit. The session asks how we can ensure the voices of women and other marginalised groups are listened to in tech development and discusses what we can gain when women and girls’ needs are central to the design and delivery of digital innovation.
Good news: more than half of the global population is now online. 2018 marked the first year that we passed the 50/50 threshold, making it the first time in history that 50% of the population accessed the internet. Although internet access was once a sign of exclusivity and privilege, people increasingly see digital access as a ‘must-have’ for information, social connections, e-commerce and access to essential services like finance.
The bad news? The growth of internet access is slowing. Since 2015, the rate at which new users have gone online has actually decelerated. Overall, new users are increasing, but at a much slower rate. The reasons behind this are varied. Unfortunately, in many places around the world, there simply is no internet access due to infrastructure and connectivity issues. The relative cost of devices and/or data can also be a limiting factor.
These barriers, however, only partially explain the situation. The data also shows that, with the exception of the Americas, women around the world have less access to the internet than men do. To explore this disparity in more detail, Girl Effect with Vodafone Foundation recently conducted the first global study on mobile phone access with a focus on teenage girls and boys. We focused on mobile phones knowing that in most of the world, the internet is accessed via mobile phones rather than computer or tablet.
Girls vs Boys: the different barriers to getting online
Our research uncovered that in many countries, boys are 1.5 times more likely to own a phone than girls. In our sample, over half of the girls had to borrow a phone if they wanted access, compared to 28% of boys. This directly affects girls experience of mobile and the internet with girls describing their phone use in much more limited terms. Girls tended to mention phone functions such as making calls and using the calculator, whereas boys often mentioned a richer suite of activities, such as social media use, searching for information, applying for jobs and keeping up with the news.
In our research, we found that girls and boys alike mentioned cost as a barrier, but girls were much more likely to point to social barriers, explaining that parents were less likely to let them have or use a mobile phone than the boys in their family. Girls talked about their desires to access a phone, but at the same time described their fears of online harassment. We also spoke to girls who made a direct connection between having a phone and being led into prostitution or becoming pregnant with one girl expressing, “the girl who touches a phone is a bad girl”.
The picture emerging from this research is troubling: with less digital access, girls lag behind boys in terms of digital literacy. In a world where finance, commerce and professional services are increasingly being delivered more cheaply online, girls’ limited digital access and opportunities to participate on digital devices means that they are at high risk of being left behind in today’s digital marketplace.
Closing the mobile gender gap
If we act now, we can meet girls where they are; providing the information, inspiration and services that will help them access and navigate the digital world on their own terms. Our study into Girls and Mobile made a number of recommendations for organisations seeking to close the digital gender gap.
- Design from the user’s perspective. We need to recognise digital users come from many places on the user journey. Some users have continual access to devices and the internet, while other users have limited access and may rely on borrowed devices to carry out online tasks, and could be ‘re-learning’ skills every time she picks up a device. We need to meet users in a way that is engaging, entertaining and does not put her at risk. We have opportunities to creatively design in a way that helps users on their tech learning journey, building in intuitive safety and privacy safeguards along the way as well.
- Support girls to expand their digital horizons. It is not enough to design for the girl – we need to actively involve girls in co-creation. When girls have limited access to digital in their everyday lives, it is necessary to help increase their digital confidence and literacy while involving them in co-creation. Consider innovative approaches here, including design-thinking workshops and immersion sessions. In contexts where girls are stigmatised for using phones, it is important to provide safe supportive environments for learning and co-creation.
- Involve the people around the girl. If we want to increase digital access for girls in places where she has less access than boys do, we need to involve parents and community members. People often limit girls’ access to phones because of fears for her safety; in these instances, it is important to understand these fears and openly discuss benefits of digital access and safe ways to mitigate risks. Too often, parents are left out of conversations around supporting girls’ mobile access, when in fact their support can help propel girls toward a positive digital future.
Girls are lagging behind boys in digital access and use, but if we take active steps now, we can support girls in accessing the opportunities of mobile and ensure they are not falling further behind their male peers. This won’t be easy and will require a wide-ranging effort to engage girls and their communities so that we can effectively design digital experiences for girls and in turn, close the mobile gender gap.