INTRODUCTION India has one of the highest gender gaps in mobile phone access in the world. As employment opportunities, health messaging (mHealth), access to government entitlements, banking, civic participation and social engagement increasingly take place in the digital sphere, this gender gap risks further exacerbating women's disadvantage in Indian society. This study identifies the factors driving women's unequal use of phones in rural Madhya Pradesh, India. METHODS We interviewed mothers of 1-year-old children (n=29) who reported that they had at least some access to a mobile phone. Whenever possible, we also spoke to their husbands (n=23) and extended family members (n=34) through interviews or family group discussions about the use of phones in their households, as well as their perspectives on gender and phone use more broadly. Our analysis involved comparing wife-husband pairs to assess differences in phone access and use, and thematic coding on the determinants of women's phone use using an iteratively developed conceptual framework. RESULTS While respondents reported that women could use the phone without needing permission, this apparent 'freedom' existed in a context that severely constrained women's actual use, most directly through: (1) narrow expectations and desires around how women would use phones, (2) women's dependence on men for phone ownership and lower proximity to phones, (3) the poorer functionality of women's phones; (4) women's limited digital skills, and (5) time allocation constraints, wherein women had less leisure time and were subject to social norms that discouraged using a phone for leisure. CONCLUSION Our framework, presenting the distal and proximate determinants of women's phone use, enables more nuanced understanding of India's digital divide. Addressing these determinants is vital to shift from re-entrenching unequal gender relations to transforming them through digital technology.

中文翻译：

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笼子里的自由：重男轻女的性别规范如何限制印度中部农村妇女使用手机。

简介 印度是世界上移动电话接入方面性别差距最大的国家之一。随着就业机会、健康信息 (mHealth)、获得政府权利、银行业务、公民参与和社会参与越来越多地出现在数字领域，这种性别差距有可能进一步加剧印度社会中女性的劣势。这项研究确定了导致印度中央邦农村妇女不平等使用手机的因素。方法 我们采访了 1 岁儿童 (n=29) 的母亲，她们报告说她们至少可以使用手机。在可能的情况下，我们还通过访谈或家庭小组讨论与他们的丈夫 (n=23) 和大家庭成员 (n=34) 进行了交谈，了解他们家中电话的使用情况，以及他们对性别和电话使用的更广泛看法. 我们的分析涉及比较夫妻对以评估电话访问和使用方面的差异，以及使用迭代开发的概念框架对女性电话使用的决定因素进行主题编码。结果 虽然受访者表示女性可以在不需要许可的情况下使用手机，但这种明显的“自由”存在于严重限制女性实际使用的环境中，最直接的原因是：(1) 对女性如何使用手机的期望和愿望狭隘，(2 ) 女性在拥有手机方面依赖男性并且与手机的距离更近，(3) 女性手机的功能较差；(4) 女性有限的数字技能，以及 (5) 时间分配限制，其中女性空闲时间较少，并且受到不鼓励使用手机休闲的社会规范。结论 我们的框架展示了女性手机使用的远期和近期决定因素，有助于更细致地了解印度的数字鸿沟。解决这些决定因素对于从重新巩固不平等的性别关系转变为通过数字技术进行转变至关重要。