While there had been a previous uptick in the adoption of mobile internet by womenin low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), recent data shows this progress has stalled.
With the exception of the Sub-Saharan Africa region, over the last two years, LMICs did not exhibit much in terms of decreasing the mobile internet gender gap during the period under review, says Claire Sibthorpe, head of digital inclusion at the GSM Association (GSMA).
Sibthorpe was speaking to ITWeb ahead of today’s release of the 2025 GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report, which shows an underlying slowdown in mobile internet adoption.
The eighth edition of the GSMA report examines data on women’s mobile access and use across 15 LMICs, the barriers they face to adopting and using mobile internet, and how this compares with men’s usage.
According to the report, progress stalled in closing the gender gap in mobile internet adoption across LMICs, with the gap remaining relatively unchanged in 2024.
Only 50 million women started using mobile internet in 2024, compared to 85 million in 2023, when the mobile internet gender gap narrowed, it states. The rate of adoption among men remains relatively unchanged.
It indicates that women are 14% less likely than men to use mobile internet, leaving approximately 235 million fewer women than men using mobile internet in these countries. Overall, there are 885 million women still not using mobile internet across LMICs, about 60% of whom reside in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Sibthorpe says several factors contributed to the stagnation noted in the latest findings, including economic and political turmoil, as well as the big climatic occurrences.
Such events always disproportionally impact women, making it impossible to close the gap, she notes. “Last year, there were more women getting online than men; this year it’s the same number of women as men getting online.
“We’d like to see more because there’s still a big gender gap…we’d like to see women catching up. While more women are getting online, they’re just not at that rate of increase seen pre-COVID.”
Even though the gap remains widest in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, at 32% and 29% respectively, the GSMA witnessed positive signs for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Sibthorpe describes this as really positive. “In Sub-Saharan Africa, for the last two years, the gender gap has decreased. This year, it’s the only region where we saw it decrease.
“There’s still a lot of women who are not online, but it’s positive that in a region where there is a significant gap that there’s been that progress and it’s against the trend.”
The report reveals that between 2017 and 2020, the mobile internet gender gap narrowed substantially, dropping from 25% to 15%.
However, progress stalled in 2021 and 2022, when it widened slightly. In 2023, the gender gap narrowed again for the first time in three years, bringing the gap back to 15% − the same level as in 2020, only to remain relatively unchanged at 14% today.
“The data highlights the urgent need for increased focus and investment by all stakeholders working together to close the digital gender divide,” comments Sibthorpe.
“The mobile internet gender gap is not going to close on its own. It is driven by deep-rooted social, economic and cultural factors that disproportionately impact women.”
Expensive hurdle
Like previous years, handset affordability remains a critical barrier to mobile internet adoption. Mobile devices, or smartphones, remain the primary method that most people in LMICs access the internet, particularly women.
According to the report, the cost of an entry-level handset represents 24% of a woman’s monthly income in LMICs, compared with 12% for men.
While 61% of women in LMICs own a smartphone, it still leaves around 945 million women without a smartphone − 230 million fewer women than men, marking no significant change since 2023.
“In Sub-Saharan Africa, the reason why both men and women are not getting online is that handset affordability is a much bigger barrier than South Asia, where we see reports of literacy and digital skills as a higher barrier.
“You won’t be surprised when you see these big gender gaps, because if you consider handset affordability, women have lower income, lower access to money and control of a household’s finances, in many cases. If you have a barrier like handset affordability, it will disproportionally impact women.
“In regions like South Asia, we saw quite a drop in their gap pre-COVID and that seemed to correlate with improved affordability, especially in places like India. Affordability made a difference.”
She notes that literacy and lack of digital skills are also top barriers to access.
“When men and women, who are currently underserved, get access to a smartphone or internet-enabled smartphone, they can use the internet in ways that benefit their lives.”
According to the report, the economic impact of the mobile internet gender gap is substantial, and closing it could add $1.3 trillion to LMIC economies by 2030.
Based on GSMA estimates, closing the gender gap in mobile ownership and use over this period would deliver $230 billion in additional revenue to the mobile industry.
“The phone is often a lifeline; it provides critical information. During COVID, it’s how women were receiving information about health services and were able to educate their children. People use phones for financial services, financial inclusion, and keeping in contact and keeping themselves safe,” says Sibthorpe.
“In addition to this, there is the GDP opportunity. If we close the mobile internet gender gap from 2023 to 2030, it could generate $1.3 trillion in GDP and that is not a small figure. It’s not just about women and their families; it’s also a huge economic and commercial opportunity.”
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