Against 24 per cent of women mobile internet users in Bangladesh, 40 per cent of adult men in the country use mobile internet, according to a report.
The report titled 鈥楾he Mobile Gender Gap Report 2024鈥�, published by the GSM Association, commonly known GSMA or Global System for Mobile Communications, said that despite a significant increase in awareness of mobile internet, a critical step to adoption, 68 per cent of women in Bangladesh owned a mobile phone, while only 24 per cent adopted mobile internet use, amongst the total percentage of the adult population in Bangladesh.
The report also said Bangladesh has the highest percentage (40 per cent) of gender gap in Asia in terms of mobile internet use, also the country has the second largest gender gap in mobile ownership by women in the region.
It said that 66 per cent of the women in Bangladesh were aware of mobile internet in 2022, the percentage increased to 74 in 2023.
The GSMA surveyed a total of 12 countries for the report, including four Asian countries.
Amongst which, neighbouring country India and Pakistan have 30 per cent and 38 per cent gender gap respectively in terms of mobile internet adoption, while having 12 per cent and 38 per cent gap in terms of mobile ownership respectively.
The other country, Indonesia has just 8 per cent gender gap in terms of mobile internet use, and 13 per cent in mobile ownership.
The report also showed that in terms of using mobile internet on a daily basis, both the genders in Bangladesh showed poor performance.
Only 37 per cent of men used mobile internet daily, while just 21 per cent women used mobile internet on a daily basis.
The GSMA found in their report that only 16 per cent women in Bangladesh used mobile internet in diverse ways, while the ratio in men was 33 per cent.
BM Mainul Hossain, a professor at the Institute of Information Technology under the University of Dhaka, said that if women did not own a smartphone, they would not be able to access to different government online services.
鈥楾he most alarming thing is that the GSMA report showed only 16 per cent women used mobile internet in diverse ways, and the reason behind that is they lacked digital skills and literacy. The government should address the issue immediately,鈥� he added.
The GSMA in its report said that the top barriers to mobile ownership for women and men who still do not own a phone are affordability, literacy and digital skills.
Gender gaps in smartphone ownership also vary across survey countries and are widest in Pakistan (49 per cent), and Bangladesh (43 per cent) amongst the Asian countries, the report said.
Most people who are aware of mobile internet feel that it is equally important for both men and women to use it, the report observed.
However, among those who do not feel that it is equally important, a greater proportion believe that it is more important for men to use mobile internet.
The report further said that in countries where 鈥榞atekeepers鈥�, such as husbands, fathers or other senior family members, might dictate whether and how women use the internet that highlight the need to account for and address such social norms in efforts to advance women鈥檚 digital inclusion.
In 10 of the 12 survey countries surveyed for the report, both male and female users reported social media and instant messaging to be the most common mobile internet use case.
The top barriers preventing men and women from adopting and using mobile internet are mobile internet awareness, handset affordability, literacy and digital skills and safety and security concerns, the report said.
The report also showed that even when women have the same level of education, income, literacy and employment as men, they are still less likely to use mobile internet.
