How digital agency can advance women-led development

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital adoption as education, work, commerce, and state services shifted online. Initiatives by the government for digital inclusion have also expanded women’s internet access. As such, many women became first-time internet users to meet these everyday needs. However, certain gaps continue to persist.

Persisting barriers 

While women’s internet use has risen, the shift from digital access to empowerment is incomplete because structural inequalities continue to shape who benefits from digital technologies.

For instance, a significant gender gap persists in internet use, with 64.3% of women using the internet compared to 80.5% of men. A substantial rural-urban gap is also there, as only 58.6% of women use the internet in rural areas compared with 77.3% in urban areas. 

The enduring impediments to women’s digital empowerment include gender norms, class, caste, religion, ethnicity, disability, rural-urban divides, and unequal control over financial decision-making. 

Structural factors behind the digital gender gap

The digital gender gap is rooted in social and structural gender inequalities. For people who know of mobile internet, the top barriers in its adoption include affordability, literacy, safety concerns and digital skills. Women are disproportionately affected by these barriers, particularly due to social norms and structural inequalities, like lower education and incomes. 

Women’s usage of technology is often interpreted through patriarchal moral expectations and usually looked down upon. For instance, in response to a Right to Information query in 2014, police officers in Uttar Pradesh cited misuse of mobile phones as a reason behind the increase in sexual crimes.

Women’s usage of mobile phones is monitored or restricted by their families, especially in rural areas. The GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report 2025 reveals that one of the top barriers for mobile internet users in India is safety and security. Moreover, Lakshmi Lingam and Isha Bhallamudi, in their book chapter “Good Girls” and “Smart Boys”: Mobile Phones and the Social Reproduction of Gender (2025), argue that there are gender, caste, and class barriers to access and use of mobile phones. 

In addition, there appears to be a moral panic over digital technologies disrupting traditional forms of control over girls and women. Gendered norms of safety and moral protection continue to regulate women’s access to, use of, and empowerment through digital technologies. These restrictions have consequences that extend beyond communication and information access, and limit women’s economic participation and financial autonomy.

Financial digital gap

Women’s participation in business and financial decisions can be better facilitated on personal devices. Digital connectivity can benefit MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises), as it creates access to markets and promotes entrepreneurial ventures. 

A 2018 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) study found that a 1% increase in mobile broadband penetration is associated with a 0.20% increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in developing countries. But women’s lower access to mobile phones, mobile money, mobile internet, and other mobile services, particularly among those with low literacy levels, low incomes, rural backgrounds, or disabilities, limits their ability to use digital technologies for business.

Women are often not trusted with making financial decisions and discouraged from spending their own money. This affects not only female business managers and owners, but also the beneficiaries of direct cash transfer schemes due to limited control over its use.

In their 2021 study, Emerging insights from digital solutions in financial inclusion, Sharon Buteau, Preethi Rao, and Fabrizio Valenti show that out of 874 women artisans in the handicraft sector in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, 50% do not have a separate bank account for business purposes, and about one-third do not have a linked mobile account. 

The digital financial gap is directly connected to how women are socially viewed as having less financial knowledge and are not trusted to make financial decisions. Even when they earn their own money, their family members, especially male members, make financial decisions on their behalf. Addressing this gap therefore requires ensuring that women have ownership of and independent control over digital devices.

Ownership of digital devices

Ownership of digital devices is crucial to ensure digital autonomy, as it becomes easier to control digital usage without device ownership. Jingjing Chen’s 2021 article, Do mobile phones empower women? A perspective from rural India, highlights that mobile phone ownership is associated with increased women’s involvement in the decision-making processes. 

Sharing a device does not provide the privacy required for certain services, such as period trackers, maternal health apps, etc. Female users may not feel comfortable accessing private matters on shared phones.

Abdulrashid A Iliya and Chidi Ononiwu’s 2020 study, Mechanisms for mobile phone use in empowerment: A critical realist study of people with disabilities in Nigeria, shows how accessibility and acceptability with respect to people with disabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa are facilitated by mobile phones. 

This becomes particularly true for women with disabilities, as the cell phone can enable self-sufficient engagement with health services and special needs. Many of the state policies and welfare schemes related to maternal health, nutrition, etc., rely on digital platforms, which makes mobile ownership important for access.

Initiatives for digital inclusion

The Digital India initiative, launched in 2015, provides digital government services and connects rural areas with broadband networks. The Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA), launched in 2017, seeks to bridge the digital divide by providing basic digital literacy training to rural citizens across India. It primarily targets marginalised groups, including women. 

According to the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3080 in 2022, women constitute 52% of registered beneficiaries of PMGDISHA. These programmes have expanded access and basic digital skills. But meaningful digital empowerment requires more gender responsive measures that can navigate the social context.

Measures for an inclusive digital transformation

Therefore, digital inclusion should not merely be about access to technology. It should build digital agency – the ability to use technology independently to make decisions and exercise rights. There is a need to promote gender-sensitive digital literacy programmes, which involve not only women and girls but also their parents, community leaders, etc. 

Digital safety and cybersecurity education can be integrated into school curricula and community outreach programmes to address safety concerns. Local self-help groups and collectives can be leveraged for digital training, awareness, and peer support.

Targeted subsidies and vouchers for women’s mobile phone ownership, especially for low-income households, single women, women with disabilities, widows, etc., can promote ownership among women. Easier credit and microfinance opportunities for the purchase of mobile phones can help women better access technology. Mobile phone ownership should also be integrated with existing welfare schemes.

It is necessary to develop accessible digital financial services for women with inclusive app design, assistive technologies, and targeted support and awareness programmes. A 2024 study, Digital financial services, women’s economic empowerment and maternal stress: a qualitative study in rural Kenya, led by the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), shows that mobile financial services for women work only when they are paired with peer support groups and community-based education. Such an approach might be useful in India. 

Digital inclusion, key to women-led development

However, these interventions will achieve their full potential only when digital inclusion is recognised as a key pillar of women-led development. After all, bridging the digital gender gap is a social issue. Meaningful digital inclusion requires not only access but also ownership, digital literacy, financial autonomy, and the ability to exercise agency. These are essential for achieving women’s empowerment and advancing women-led development. 

For an inclusive digital transformation, women cannot be passive users of technology. It needs to be ensured that women own devices, make independent financial decisions, and participate fully in the digital economy. Only digital access accompanied by agency can truly advance the vision of women-led development.

Post read questions

1. Despite rapid digitalisation, women continue to face significant barriers to meaningful participation in the digital economy. Discuss the reasons and suggest measures to address them.

2. Evaluate the role of mobile phone ownership in enhancing women’s economic participation, financial inclusion, and decision-making.

3. Access to digital technology alone cannot ensure women’s empowerment. Examine the importance of digital agency in achieving gender equality.

4. Examine the role of government initiatives such as Digital India and PMGDISHA in promoting women’s digital inclusion.

5. Differentiate between digital access, digital inclusion, and digital agency. Why is this distinction important for policymaking?

(Rituparna Patgiri is an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati.) 

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