Beyond the gender (dis)empowerment dichotomy: The mobile phone as social catalyst for gender transformation in the Global South

Abstract

Over the past two decades, increasing attention has been drawn to gender impacts arising from adoption and usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs), the mobile phone especially, by marginalized women in the Global South. Grounded in the theory of structuration, our study challenges techno-determinism and structural functionalism embodied in a prevailing gender (dis)empowerment dichotomy, and instead reveals the contextually situated and dynamically negotiated techno-socio relationships. It allows for examination of the mobile phone in the interactions between agency of women to get empowered and their situated gendered social power structures. While the phone reinforces structural constraints via facilitating access, surveillance, and intervention from those of higher patriarchal statuses, it simultaneously enables women’s strategic responses involving avoidance, accommodation, and collaboration. The constraining yet empowering processes conceptually make the functioning of the mobile phone as socially catalyzing the development of self-consciousness by women, and furthermore, the clustering of awakening individuals toward emergent female collective power.

From Silicon to Himalayan Valley(s): Tales of Serendipitous Exposure and Interfaith Contact on Social Media

“…Prior studies in Islamic societies, including Pakistan, have found that Muslim parents believe women should not use social media (Costa, 2018;Jamil, 2021;Schoemaker, 2016). Such cultural patterns have also been reported in non-Islamic contexts, such as China, where smartphones are believed to be associated with losing control over women (Pei & Chib, 2020). Moreover, a recent report shows that 78.5% of men in Pakistan use social media compared to 21.4% of women (DataReportal, 2022), revealing significant gender digital divide.…”

Resilience and (Dis)empowerment: Use of Social Media Among Female Mainland Low-Skilled Workers in Macao During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…They were required to report their work progress by uploading photos. And their mistakes were also posted, which sometimes made them feel embarrassed and lose face (see Pei & Chib, 2021). Yet workgroup surveillance was acceptable to participants: ''This is a monitor but also my job.…”

“…Apart from the dynamic between existing power structure and individuals’ ICT uses, users do have the power or agency (Giddens, 1984) to act against the structural constraints to meet their own needs based on the learned and stock knowledge. Taking WeChat Group as one of the examples, Pei and Chib (2021) have found that mobile phones empowered the Chinese female rural-urban migrant workers to negotiate agency for strategic responses like blocking family members to avoid patriarchal pressure, engaging with factory management, and forming alliances to challenge the uneven gender power relationships.…”

Covert resistance beyond #Metoo: mobile practices of marginalized migrant women to negotiate sexual harassment in the workplace

“…Such situated strategic responses to sexual harassment can hardly be equated with the overt and collective challenges to patriarchal hierarchy manifested in western feminist movements (Clark, 2004;Coşkun, 2018;Gülçür & Ilkkaracan, 2002;Runge, 2011). Instead, marginalized women are more likely to exhibit individualized resistance in subtle forms, which rarely risk confrontation with men from higher social strata (Chib & Chen, 2011;Pei & Chib, 2020a).…”

“…We note that mobile devices have been deeply integrated into different aspects of the daily gender practices of these marginalized migrant women, possibly re-shaping their situated gender culture (Chib & Chen, 2011;Pei & Chib, 2020a, 2020bOreglia & Srinivasan, 2016). So, we question whether and how these marginalized migrant women deploy mobile communication technologies to enact strategies to cope with sexual harassment in their situated socio-cultural contexts?…”