ABSTRACT

Data from qualitative and survey research with young people in 24 locations (urban and rural) across Ghana, Malawi, and South Africa expose the complex interplay between phone ownership and usage, female empowerment, and chronic poverty in Africa. We consider gendered patterns of phone ownership and use before examining practices of use in educational settings, in business and in romantic and sexual relationships. While some reshaping of everyday routines is evident, in the specific context of female empowerment we find little support within our sites for the concept of the mobile phone as an instrument of positive transformative change. The phone's application in romantic and sexual relationships demonstrates particularly strongly the way phones are complicit in constraining women's empowerment and points to potential wider repercussions, including for educational and entrepreneurship trajectories. Women's agency is still mired within wider structures of patriarchy and chronic poverty: existing inequalities are being re-inscribed and reinforced.

摘要

来自定性和调查研究的数据来自加纳，马拉维和南非的24个地区（城市和农村）的年轻人，这些数据揭示了电话拥有和使用，女性赋权以及非洲长期贫困之间的复杂相互作用。在研究在教育环境，商业以及恋爱和性关系中的使用习惯之前，我们考虑电话拥有和使用的性别模式。尽管日常工作的一些重塑是显而易见的，但在赋予女性权力的特定环境下，我们发现在我们的网站上很少有人支持将移动电话这一概念视为积极的变革手段。该电话在浪漫和性关系中的应用特别有力地证明了电话在限制妇女赋权方面的同谋方式，并指出了可能产生的广泛影响，包括教育和创业轨迹。妇女机构仍陷于父权制和长期贫困的更广泛结构中：现有的不平等现象正在重新列入并得到加强。