The digital gender divide is about more than access, according to new Girl Effect report

Despite what may feel like an endless wave of technological advancements, from AR to AI, women and adolescents around the world still face a global digital divide. For young girls especially, the access problem runs much deeper than hardware or cost, as a new global report documents continued gender-based attitudes that are keeping girls off phones and offline.

The 2023 Girls & Mobile report was compiled by Girl Effect, an international nonprofit using inclusive media and technologies to address the gender divide, working in collaboration with Vodafone Americas Foundation, the charitable arm of global telecommunications provider Vodafone; international children's humanitarian organization UNICEF; and education activist Malala Yousafzai's nonprofit, the Malala Fund. Prior Girl Effect research has explored how mass media campaigns co-designed by youth can drive routine vaccines, and how carefully designed chatbots can help girls feel empowered to take action about their health. 

Girl Effect released its first Girls & Mobile report in collaboration with Vodafone in 2018, presenting results of a global survey of 3,000 adolescent girls that found that adolescent boys were 1.5 times more likely to own a phone than girls. 

"For girls, access is much more diverse and colourful than simply whether they 'have' or 'have not' got a phone. Access is often transient, and diverse ownership, borrowership, and sharing practices are flourishing… When girls have less access to mobile, they have fewer opportunities to learn to use mobiles in ways that benefit them — and they perceive the phone as being more dangerous than girls who have more access."

The 2023 report takes a wider look at this global digital landscape, surveying more than 10,000 young girls from nine low- to medium-income countries. It focuses on a network of what the nonprofit calls TEGAs, or Technology Enabled Girl Ambassadors, who are trained to use Girl Effect's house-designed mobile app and act as market researchers and advocates for their communities. 

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While the latest data shows overall technology access increased since the 2018 edition, a variety of social barriers still impede a fully digitally connected youth population. The Girls & Mobile report also found that a widely-held fear of increased vulnerability for some youth populations — rightfully inspired by growing concerns for the treatment of girls online — might be negatively shaping girls' self-perception and holding them back. 

Access increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but so did costs

Across all adolescents surveyed by Girl Effect's research team, 50 percent reported receiving greater access to mobile phones and internet during periods of lockdown, with 47 percent reporting continued access as lockdowns ceased. 

However, another third of respondents reported cost barriers that prevented them from going fully online alongside their peers. In the United States, the pandemic's exacerbation of the digital divide among working Americans and school-age children was due in part to a lack of technology investment among lower income and rural communities across the country — in Girl Effect's findings, rising prices for technologies and mobile internet data around the world also added to gaps between digitally-connected and digitally-deprived youth, and made them more at risk for exclusion. 

According to the report, 40 percent of adolescents reported that their mobile phone access is dependent on having to borrow or share devices, commonly from their parents or caregivers.

While permission-based use of phones overseen by parents and family members is often the go-to monitoring tool for worried parents, many young people reported they still use phones in secret, borrowing from friends and digitally-connected peers.

The gender divide still exists

Girls and boys expressed equal interest in having devices and social media accounts, but access to mobile phones and the internet is still universally unequal, the report found. 

Girl Effect's TEGA network in countries including Ethiopia, India, Rwanda, and Tanzania found that 50 percent of girls surveyed had exclusive ownership of a phone, compared to 58 percent of boys. Only 66 percent of girls reported having ever used a smartphone, while 78 percent of boys were familiar with smart devices through firsthand use. 

Adolescent girls also were found to face higher cost barriers, especially during periods of lockdown, as many were prevented from finding their own jobs or independent income sources. TEGA researchers found that phone access was most commonly dependent on parent permission after completing chores and school assignments. And this kind of requirement disproportionately affects girls in the home: According to prior UNICEF research, girls are assigned a significantly higher portion of housework compared to boys. Additionally, technology access is increasingly tied to gender norms around female modesty and sexuality, Girl Effect reported.

"This sends a clear message to girls that phones are 'not for them,'" the report articulates, "an attitude that can be traced to some of the core social factors contributing to the gender digital divide."

Broadly, technology access is a continued worry among women's safety and education advocates. Girls & Mobile points to a June report from the GSMA, a nonprofit network of mobile network operators and businesses, and a recent UN Women brief, which indicate slowing tech adoption among women globally and complex, gendered impacts of technology and gender-based violence. 

Assuming girls are more vulnerable than others is exacerbating the divide

As Girl Effect outlines, these particular women- and girls-focused worries obscure a larger social process at work, one that places the burden of protection on caregivers who often lack consistent tech access and education. This, the report finds, produces digital barriers based on expectations, gender norms, and offline permissions assigned to adolescent girls by parents, their peers, and even themselves — first outside digital spaces, and then online.

Despite shared risk of online scams and harassment regardless of gender — and girls being overwhelmingly more vigilant about online dangers and making use of privacy tools more often than boys — the report found that girls are still told they are "less competent" and more at risk when using the internet. 

"Girls are internalizing what they are being told (that they are 'vulnerable') and acting in a way that reinforces these gender norms and limits their own online usage," the report states. "Girls being told — and then believing — that they are vulnerable can have much broader consequences and impacts on a girl's self-confidence and self-esteem, and directly impacts her ability to use mobile devices to access the information and connections she needs to support her physical and mental health, education, and future opportunities."

A majority of youth surveyed reported only having access to borrowed or secret devices, with borrowed phones most commonly lent from parents — borrowed phones often come with greater restrictions and monitoring that limit their use. Girl Effect says this can impede girls' access to phones because of a widely held belief that girls will "get themselves into trouble" online. The majority of adolescents who reported having secret devices were girls, most likely due to what Girl Effect calls "intensive gatekeeping" and lower mobile access more broadly.

Around 82 percent of parents and 65 percent of girls believe that young women are more likely to "get themselves in trouble" if they have their own mobile phone. A fifth of digitally-connected girls surveyed by Girl Effect impose self-enforced restrictions on their internet use.

"They are being told they are 'vulnerable,' 'less competent,' and unable to protect themselves online," wrote Girl Effect CEO Jessica Posner-Odede. "This offline sexism is not just preventing girls from accessing today's digital devices; it is shaping their own beliefs about their ability to participate and engage online. We can't bridge the digital divide with devices and access alone; we need to start by articulating and addressing the deeper social and structural challenges girls experience everyday."

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Generational and educational barriers heavily influence access

The gender divide also exists for how young people use their phones. Girls, on the whole, reported using devices primarily for educational purposes, including attending online classes and completing schoolwork, while boys reported significantly higher recreational uses for their phones, like playing online games and posting to social media. Girls were also less likely to report freely expressing themselves while on the internet.

According to researchers, "This in many ways reflects the assumptions and realities girls face when accessing these devices: that girls should use only phones for more educational and 'meaningful' purposes compared to boys."  

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While girls also reported a greater awareness of the positive potential of online education and phone use beyond social connections, the report argues that generational differences among parents and children are continuing to widen the digital divide. Children, according to survey responses, often absorb and repeat their parent's beliefs on online behavior (such as the worry of becoming "addicted" to the internet, encountering troublesome content, or not feeling competent enough to use phones), while simultaneously finding ways to get around these restrictions.

"We can close the gender digital divide, but we need to demystify the internet and address the root causes and social norms preventing girls from equal access. By working with youth and their parents on the solutions, we can transform how we create products and ensure a more equal and inclusive digital future for all,” wrote Posner-Odede.

Fixing the digital gender divide 

The Girls & Mobile report includes recommendations for creating a more equitable digital environment beyond simple device access. Tech designers and advocates, for example, can and should create content assuming youth are sharing or borrowing devices, including clear log-in and log-out instructions, multi-factor authentication, and easy functions to allow youth to not leave a digital footprint on borrowed phones. Similar design additions are used often among safety organizations, such as "quick escape" buttons for visitors of websites with information on domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or, most recently, abortion.

Mobile phone companies, the report advises, can make it easier for youth to share phones or SIM cards, making internet access more simplified for borrowed devices. 

For girls specifically, the report argues for continued expansion of education and online learning programs, which act as common gateways for girls to access mobile devices, in concert with a social shift in how communities talk about girls' safety. The researchers argue that by perpetuating the stereotype that girls are less competent online than boys, girls are more likely to self-censor, not fully participate, and to have their access limited by others and by themselves.

"This report serves as a strong reminder that we are living in a critical moment of history," Posner-Odede concludes. "We can decide how this new digital world evolves and operates. We can choose whether this space is open and inclusive or, like the public domains of our past, it remains gendered and inaccessible to women."