African Women and ICTs Creating New Spaces with Technology

by Buskens, Ineke; Webb, Anne

• ISBN13: 9781848131910
• ISBN10: 1848131917
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-15
• Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Summary

This book explores the ways in which women in Africa utilize Information and Communication Technologies to facilitate their empowerment; whether through the mobile village phone business, through internet use, or through new career and ICT employment opportunities. Based on the outcome of an extensive research project, this timely books features chapters based on original primary field research undertaken by academics and activists who have investigated situations within their own communities and countries. The discussion includes such issues as the notion of ICTs for empowerment and as agents of change, ICTs in the fight against gender-based violence, and how ICTs could be used to re-conceptualize public and private spaces.

Author Biography

INEKE BUSKENS is a Cultural Anthropologist and was Head of the Centre for Research Methodology at South Africa's Human Science Research Council for 5 years. She founded Research For the Future in 1996 and now works as an independent international research and process facilitation consultant. ANNE WEBB is a feminist qualitative researcher rooted in participatory action research approaches.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Foreword	p. viii
Introduction	p. 1
Doing research with women for the purpose of transformation	p. 9
ICT tools: access and use
Women's use of information and communication technologies in Mozambique: a tool for empowerment?	p. 21
Considering ICT use when energy access is not secured: a case study from rural South Africa	p. 33
Rural women's use of cell phones to meet their communication needs: a study from northern Nigeria	p. 44
Egyptian women artisans facing the demands of modern markets: caught between a rock and a hard place	p. 56
Female-only ICT spaces: perceptions and practices
When a gender-blind access policy results in discrimination: realities and perceptions of female students at the University of Zimbabwe	p. 67
An alternative public space for women: the potential of ICT	p. 77
Using ICTs to act on hope and commitment: the fight against gender violence in Morocco	p. 88
The names in your address book: are mobile phone networks effective in advocating women's rights in Zambia?	p. 97
Using ICTs: making life better?
Mobile phones in a time of modernity: the quest for increased self-sufficiency among women fishmongers and fish processors in Dakar	p. 107
Women entrepreneurs in Nairobi: examining and contextualizing women's choices	p. 119
Internet use among women entrepreneurs in the textile sector in Douala, Cameroon: self-taught and independent	p. 133
ICTs as agents of change: a case of grassroots women entrepreneurs in Uganda	p. 143
The mobile payphone business: a vehicle for rural women's empowerment in Uganda	p. 154
Creating new realities
Professional women empowered to succeed in Kenya's ICT sector	p. 169
Reflections on the mentoring experiences of ICT career women in Nairobi, Kenya: looking in the mirror	p. 183
Our journey to empowerment: the role of ICT	p. 193
Epilogue	p. 207
Notes on Contributors	p. 210
Index	p. 217
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.