The GSMA released research into the opportunities that mobiles provide to underserved women in emerging markets. Entitled “Portraits: A Glimpse into the Lives of Women at the Base of the Pyramid”, the report shows the wants, needs, aspirations and mobile uses of women living at the base of the pyramid (BoP), which are those living on less than $2 a day.
Conducted in partnership with the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), it brings the voices of BoP women to life through fictional, composite “portraits” of respondents. Here are the major findings:
- 74% of married women who did not want a mobile phone said it was because their husbands would not allow it. Thus, efforts to communicate the benefits of mobile should focus on the benefits for the whole family;
- 73% of participants expressed interest in entrepreneurship to help support their families;
- 38% of BoP women live “off grid”, without easy access to electricity, indicating that alternative mobile charging solutions will be key for many BoP women to fully realize the potential benefits of mobile phone ownership;
- 77% of BoP women have made a mobile phone call, but only 37% have sent an SMS, regardless of literacy levels. Apparently they did not find the SMS useful; and
- 84% of women wanted better healthcare information, though only 39% expressed a specific interest in receiving general healthcare information through their mobile phone.
And in case you want to know more, you can check out a more detailed report entitled “Striving and Surviving – Exploring the Lives of Women at the Base of the Pyramid” which will be launched to mark International Women’s Day on March 8, 2012 through mwomen.org.