Disasters Are Gendered: What’s New? - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 264

In the most recent case, in Bihar, the village offi cials claim mobile phones were
“debasing the social atmosphere” by leading to couples eloping. In recent times the “elope-
ment” from these villages have been increasing rapidly. The council has also imposed a fi ne
of 10,000 rupees ($180) if a girl is caught using a mobile phone on the streets and married
women would have to pay 2,000 rupees ($36.60).
Jagmati Sangwan, vice president of the All India Democratic Women's Association,
said that the men who head such village councils “want women to get cut off from the pro-
cesses of modernization, education and employment” (Global Voices Advocacy 2012 ).
Almost everywhere, communication and information technology is masculin-
ized, and it is not unusual to fi nd social proscriptions against women owning and
using mobile phones. Outright legislation banning women from using mobile
phones, as in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, is unusual, but patriarchal presumptions
about the inappropriateness of women using phones are widespread and are equally
“effective” at restricting women's access to mobile phones. Economic inequality
similarly restricts women's access.
A recent global survey underscores the importance of mobile phones to women's
well-being: women with phones report feeling safer, more socially connected, more
confi dent, and have more opportunities for economic development. From an early
warning perspective, phones may now be, literally, lifesavers. But the gender gap in
mobile phones is considerable: in low- to middle-income countries, 21 % fewer
women than men own a mobile phone; in sub-Saharan Africa, the gap is estimated
to be 23 %; in the Middle East, 24 %; and in South Asia it rises to 37 %. In low and
middle income countries overall, in regions where mobile phone network coverage
exists, there are 300 million fewer female subscribers than male subscribers (GSMA
Development Fund 2012 ).
The main impediments to women's phone use identifi ed by this survey were:
￿ Illiteracy and lack of confi dence in knowing how to navigate mobile phone
instructions.
￿ Lack of access to and cost of electricity (to charge the phone) and the costs of the
mobile service.
￿ Male disapproval: 82 % of married women in the survey said that their use of
mobile phones made their husbands suspicious (GSMAm Women Programme
2012 ); 74 % of married women who reported that they did not want a mobile
phone said it was because their husband wouldn't allow it (GSMAm Women
Programme 2012 ).
Against this backdrop of male disapproval and patriarchal policing, text message
alerts sent to cell phones may simply not reach women. Moreover, texting in itself
may have an even greater gender skew. Among women who use mobile phones, fewer
use the phones for SMS messages or know how to use the text function. In the GSMA
survey ( 2012 ) of women at the “bottom of the pyramid” (socially and economically),
77 % have made a mobile phone call, but only 37 % have sent an SMS, regardless of
literacy levels. These women reported that they did not fi nd the SMS service useful.
If a “household” owns a mobile phone, it will most typically be in the control of
male household members - who may or may not share the phone with female