I’ve sometimes been glad to see a clip of African traders broadly smiling while praising their business success spurred on by their smartphones. Technology is a blessing for these marketers, I thought smugly; imagine phones, laptops, tablets, and digitalization helping to wipe out the African gender gap.
Alas, a lengthy article in “Afrika Sued” (Jan/Feb) told me how wrong I was! It seems the gap grows ever more widely! To keep to this issue of technology, I was dismayed to read in an article by Rachel Nduati that in 2017, a survey by an international organization, GSMA, found that the chance that a Sub-Saharan woman had access to a smartphone and internet was 30 compared to that of a man. According to Unesco, only 17% of Tanzanian women had access to the Internet, against 35% of men. This leads to further important economic and social differences.
Great to learn that feminine movements are anxious that women should own smartphones. Projects need to be supported concerned decrease this gender-based disadvantage and enable women to take advantage of socioeconomic possibilities.
As I said, this is only one example among several that highlights the urgent need for women to catch up. Another striking issue was mobility and land ownership, quoting Tanzanian Dr. Olivia Lwabukuna of London’s SOAS University, who says that 70% to 80% of women produce the continent’s food yet own no more than 10% of the land. The African Union’s (AU) Agenda 1963 planned that at least 20% of women should have access to land in rural areas by 1923, which they use and control. This goal has by no means been reached.
This fact-studded piece is a wake-up call to read on Women’s Day, but it is also something to pin up for an everyday read to encourage one’s actual support!