Mobile Phone Use and Women’s Empowerment in Bangladesh: An Analysis of the Bangladesh Financial Inclusion Insights Survey 2017

Ashim Kumar Nandi and Ann-Zofie Duvander ()
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Ashim Kumar Nandi: Department of Sociology, University of Barishal, Barishal 8254, Bangladesh
Ann-Zofie Duvander: Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-23

Abstract: Despite steady economic and social development in Bangladesh, women are in an underprivileged situation in many ways. This study explores the association between the use of information and communication technology (ICT) and women’s empowerment in Bangladesh. This study employs ordinary least squares regression, the ordered logit model, and the multinomial logit model, using Financial Inclusion Insights (2017) Survey data, to investigate the relationship between mobile phone use and women’s empowerment. The study’s main result indicates that mobile phone use facilitates women’s empowerment in general, but the impact needs to be considered for different groups of women. Housewives who are restricted within the household are impacted less than non-housewives by mobile phone use, contrary to our expectations. Also heads of households and spouses of heads of households, who are in very different positions in a patriarchal family structure, are similarly impacted by mobile phone use. This result implies that ICT only affects the empowerment of women who are not restricted to the household, and we conclude that ICT access alone is not enough to ensure women’s awareness about their rights.

Keywords: mobile phone use; women’s empowerment; patriarchy; household decision making; Bangladesh (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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