AfricanWomen and ICTs
Investigating Technology, Gender and Emp owerment
Edited by Ineke Buskens and Anne Webb
The revolution in information and communication technologies (lCTs) has vast implications
for the developing world, but what tangible benefits has it brought, when issues of social
inclusion and exclusion, particularly in the developing world, remain atlarge? In addition, the
gender digital divide is growing in the developing world, particularly in Africa. So what does
ICT mean toAfrican women?
Investigating Technology, Gender and Emp owerment
Edited by Ineke Buskens and Anne Webb
The revolution in information and communication technologies (lCTs) has vast implications
for the developing world, but what tangible benefits has it brought, when issues of social
inclusion and exclusion, particularly in the developing world, remain atlarge? In addition, the
gender digital divide is growing in the developing world, particularly in Africa. So what does
ICT mean toAfrican women?
Afican Women and lCTs explores the ways in which women in Africa utilize lCTs to facilitate
their empowerment;
whether through the mobile village phone business, through internet
use, or through new career and ICT employment opportunities.
Based on the outcome of an extensive research project, this timely book features chapters based on original primary field research undertaken by academics and activists who have investigated
situations within their own communities and countries. The discussion includes such issues as the notion of lCTs for empowerment and as agents of change, lCTs in the fight against gender-based
violence, and how lCTs could be used to re-conceptualize public and private spaces.
ICT policy is currently being made and implemented all overAfrica, but the authors argue
that this is happening mostly in the absence of clear knowledge about the ways gender
inequality and lCTs are impacting each other and that by becoming alert to a gender
dimension in ICT developments at an early stage of the information revolution, we may be
able to prevent greater scaled undesirable effects in the future.
Contents
Introduction
lneke Buskens
and Anne Webb
lneke Buskens
and Anne Webb
1. Doing research with women about their lives - Ineke Buskens
PART 1: Finding Oneself in ICT Space: acceptance
and use
and use
2. Women's use of information and communication technologies in Mozambique: A tool for empowerment? -Gertrudes Macueve, Judite Mandlate, Lucia Ginger, Polly Gaster and Esselina Macome
3. Considering ICT use when energy access is not secured:A case study from rural South Africa
- Jocelyn Muller
- Jocelyn Muller
4. Women's use of cell phones to meet their communication needs - A study of rural women from northern Nigeria - Kazanka Comfort and John Dada
PART 2: Female Only ICT Spaces: safety, self expression and sharing
5. Egyptian women artisans facing the demands of modern markets: Caught between a rock and a hard place - Leila Hassanin
6. When a gender-blind access policy results in discrimination: Realities and perceptions of female students at the University of Zimbabwe - Buhle Mbambo-Thata, Elizabeth Mlambo, Precious Mwatsiya
7. Using lCTs to act on hope and commitment: The fight against gender violence in Morocco -
Amina Tafnout and Aatifa Timjerdine
Amina Tafnout and Aatifa Timjerdine
8. An alternative public space for women: The potentiaf of lCTs - Leila Hassanin
PART 3: Using ICT SpacesActively, Effectively and Creatively
9. Mobile phones in a time of modernity: The quest for increased self-sufficiency amongst women fishmonger and fish processors in Dakar - lbou Sane and Mamadou Balla Traore, Senegal
11. Women entrepreneurs in Nairobi: Examining and contextualizing women's choices -
Alice Wanjira Munyua
10. The names in your address book: Are mobile phone networks effective
in advocating for women's rights in Zambia?
-Kiss Brian Abraham
11. Women entrepreneurs in Nairobi: Examining and contextualizing women's choices -
Alice Wanjira Munyua
12. Internet use and empowerment of women entrepreneurs of the textile sector in Douala
- Gisele Yitamben and Hise Tchinda
- Gisele Yitamben and Hise Tchinda
13. lCTs as an agent of change: A case of grassroots women entrepreneurs in Uganda - Susan Bakesha, Angela Nakafeero and Dorothy
Okello
Okello
14. The mobile pay phone business: A vehicle for rural women's empowerment in Uganda - Grace Bantebya-Kyomuhendo
PART 4: Creating New Spaces Through lCTs: Self determination
and influencing others
15. Professional women empowered to succeed in Kenya's ICT sector - Okwach Abagi, Olive Sifuna, Salome Awuor Omamo
16. Reflections on the mentoring experiences of ICT career women in Nairobi, Kenya: Looking in the mirror - Salome Awuor Omamo
'17. Our journey to empowerment: The role of ICT - Ruth Meena and Mary Rusimbi
18. Epilogue: From a woman's place to
a woman's s Day -lneke Busken
a woman's s Day -lneke Busken
