The Gender Divide In Pakistan Telecom
According to a recent study by Sir Lanka based research organization LIRNEasia, Pakistan has done well in terms of mobile access at the bottom of the pyramid compared to India and Sri Lanka; however a large gender divide in terms of both access and use exists. I think such basic market research is the key to understand the trends and I commend LIRNEasia on their work in social sector. The following is taken from the report.
A recent five-country survey of telecom use at the “Bottom of the Pyramid”, or BOP, has shown that mobile ownership at the BOP in Pakistan was found to be as high as 23%. Despite having the lowest per capita GDP among the countries studied, Pakistan beat both its South Asian counterparts Sri Lanka and India on this count, with mobile ownership at the BOP in these countries at 22 and 9 percent, respectively. Almost 66% of these mobile connections had been taken up in the preceding year (i.e., since mid-2005).
However the most interesting part of the study for me is where it shows a significant gender divide exists in the telecom area.
Men appear to have more access to mobiles and public phones (including telecommunication centers, public pay phone booths, etc.) than females. Individually owned mobiles are used as the primary phone (most frequently used) by 30% of males, but only 11% of females (See Figure)
Public phones are used as the primary phone by 45% of males, but just 24% of females. Among females, the preferred primary phone (48%) was either a neighbor or friend’s phone or another household member’s mobile phone (compared to 13% of males). A similar, but less pronounced pattern was seen in India, but not in any of the other countries studied.
In addition, phone ownership was lower among females (29%) as compared with males (43%); such differences were not seen in the other four countries.
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