Culture's consequences: Economic barriers to owning mobile phones experienced by women in India

This study broadens our understanding of the gender digital divide in India.Cultural factors create economic barriers for Indian women to own a mobile phone.Financially independent women cannot own some of the most inexpensive mobile phones. Economic barriers play the most significant role in precluding women from owning ICTs in developing nations. This qualitative study explores the factors responsible for creating economic barriers for 245 women in India, which prevent them from owning a mobile phone. Study findings reveal the specific ways in which cultural factors like (i) the long power distance between men and women, (ii) the gender role defined by Indian society for women, (iii) women's attitudes of avoiding uncertainty, and (iv) collectivistic practices, create economic barriers for the financially independent study participants. Due to the unfair economic disadvantages generated by the above cultural factors, it becomes challenging for the participants earning a little less than $2 a day to own some of the least expensive mobile phone handsets worth $15 or so on installments of $1 a month.

[1]  Devendra Potnis,et al.  Mobile Banking for the Unbanked Poor without Mobile Phones: Comparing Three Innovative Mobile Banking Services in India , 2015, 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[2]  Maha Shakir,et al.  Same but Different: Understanding Women's Experience of ICT in the UAE , 2010, Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries..

[3]  Catherine E. Connelly,et al.  Chapter XXVI Hofstede's Dimensions of National Culture in IS Research * , 2009 .

[4]  Brett Ory.  Bridging the gender gap at home , 2016 .

[5]  Slade Emma.  Mobile payment adoption: Classification and review of the extant literature , 2013 .

[6]  Richard Heeks,et al.  Supporting Women's ICT-Based Enterprises. A Handbook for Agencies in Development. , 2005 .

[7]  Gary Marsden,et al.  After access: challenges facing mobile-only internet users in the developing world , 2010, CHI.

[8]  G. Hofstede.  Culture′s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations , 2001 .

[9]  Arul Chib,et al.  Midwives with mobiles: A dialectical perspective on gender arising from technology introduction in rural Indonesia , 2011, New Media Soc..

[10]  B. McSweeney.  Hofstede’s Model of National Cultural Differences and their Consequences: A Triumph of Faith - a Failure of Analysis , 2002 .

[11]  Siriginidi Subba Rao.  Bridging digital divide: Efforts in India , 2005, Telematics Informatics.

[12]  Moshe Zviran,et al.  Comparison of end-user computing characteristics in the U.S., Israel and Taiwan , 1996, Inf. Manag..

[13]  M. Hilbert,et al.  Digital Gender Divide or Technologically Empowered Women in Developing Countries? A Typical Case of Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics , 2011 .

[14]  Rohan Samarajiva,et al.  Who’s got the phone? Gender and the use of the telephone at the bottom of the pyramid , 2010, New Media Soc..

[15]  Farid Shirazi,et al.  Information and communication technology and women empowerment in Iran , 2012, Telematics Informatics.

[16]  Felix B. Tan,et al.  Beyond Models of National Culture in Information Systems Research , 2002, J. Glob. Inf. Manag..

[17]  Hester W. J. Meyer,et al.  Information Technology and Indigenous People , 2008 .

[18]  N. Hafkin,et al.  Gender information technology and developing countries: an analytic study. Executive summary. , 2001 .

[19]  Heikki Karjaluoto,et al.  Mobile banking adoption: A literature review , 2015, Telematics Informatics.

[20]  Geetanjali Gangoli,et al.  Mothers-in-law against daughters-in-law: Domestic violence and legal discourses around mother-in-law violence against daughters-in-law in India , 2011 .

[21]  Sophia Huyer,et al.  Cinderella or Cyberella?: Empowering Women in the Knowledge Society , 2006 .

[22]  Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa,et al.  An Information Company in Mexico: Extending the Resource-Based View of the Firm to a Developing Country Context , 1998, Inf. Syst. Res..

[23]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Gender Differences in the Perception and Use of E-Mail: An Extension to the Technology Acceptance Model , 1997, MIS Q..

[24]  Chandra Talpade Mohanty,et al.  Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity , 2003 .

[25]  Mahanagar Doorsanchar Bhawan,et al.  Telecom Regulatory Authority of India , 2012 .

[26]  M. Mooij,et al.  The future is predictable for international marketers , 2000 .

[27]  R. Baskerville.  Hofstede Never Studied Culture , 2003 .

[28]  Chee-Sing Yap,et al.  Top Management Support, External Expertise and Information Systems Implementation in Small Businesses , 1996, Inf. Syst. Res..

[29]  John Simister,et al.  Gender-Based Violence in India: Long-Term Trends , 2010, Journal of interpersonal violence.

[30]  Miguel Nussbaum,et al.  Cultural divide and the Internet , 2008, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[31]  A. Daly.  The Diffusion of New Technologies: Community Online Access Centres in Indigenous Communities in Australia , 2008 .

[32]  Srivasava Anupama,et al.  Female feticide in India: A social evil , 2010 .

[33]  Devendra Potnis.  Mobile technologies & socio-economic opportunities for disadvantaged women: A study of information behavior in a developing nation context , 2010 .

[34]  Sophia Huyer,et al.  Women and gender in ict statistics and indicators for development , 2008 .

[35]  Richard Duncombe,et al.  Researching impact of mobile phones for development: concepts, methods and lessons for practice , 2011, Inf. Technol. Dev..

[36]  K. Garrod.  Bridging the gender gap , 1998 .

[37]  Deborah Tannen,et al.  Critical Discourse Analysis , 2005 .

[38]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Culture′s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values , 1980 .

[39]  Farida Khan,et al.  Gender-differentiated Impact on Minority Youth of Basic Computer Education in Mumbai City , 2009 .

[40]  Mason A. Carpenter,et al.  Top Management Teams, Global Strategic Posture, and the Moderating Role of Uncertainty , 2001 .

[41]  Hani I. Mesak,et al.  An Exploratory Examination of the Influence of National Culture on Cross-National Product Diffusion , 2005 .

[42]  Peter Meso,et al.  Cyberspace across sub-Saharan Africa , 2002, CACM.

[43]  S. Cecchini,et al.  Can information and communications technology applications contribute to poverty reduction? Lessons from rural India , 2003 .

[44]  Sonia Puri,et al.  Gender preference and awareness regarding sex determination among married women in slums of Chandigarh , 2007 .

[45]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[46]  C. Welzel,et al.  Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence , 2005 .

[47]  Devendra Potnis,et al.  Cell-Phone-Enabled Empowerment of Woman Earning Less than $1/Day , 2011, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine.

[48]  Amar M. Dhere,et al.  ICT and Empowerment of Rural and Deprived Women in Asia , 2009 .

[49]  B. R. Sharma,et al.  Gender Based Violence in India: A Never-ending Phenomenon , 2004 .

[50]  G. Hofstede.  Dimensions of national cultures in fifty countries and three regions , 1983 .

[51]  S. Huyer,et al.  Overcoming the Gender Digital Divide: Understanding ICTs and their Potential for the Empowerment of Women , 2003 .

[52]  Harry Scarbrough,et al.  Cultural influences on IT use amongst factory managers: a UK–Japanese comparison , 2001, J. Inf. Technol..

[53]  Jacqueline K. Mitchelson,et al.  Research on leadership in a cross-cultural context: Making progress, and raising new questions , 2003 .