While progress has been made towards decreasing the gender gap in mobile phone ownership and usage in low and middle income countries, a stark gender divide still exists and requires "targeted intervention" from the industry and policy-makers, according to new research published by the GSMA.

The GSMA this week released its Women and Mobile: Still an Untapped Opportunity report, finding that while some progress has been made towards closing the gender gap in mobile phone ownership and usage over the past five years, over 1.7 billion women in low and middle income countries worldwide still have no access to mobile facilities - accounting for 59 per cent of women worldwide.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the study finds this figure is higher than the global average, with 64 per cent of women in the region - totalling 307 million women - unconnected.

The gender gap is reflected in both mobile phone ownership and usage, the report finds.

In Africa, the gender gap in device ownership sees 27 million less females than males owning mobile devices - a 13 per cent gender gap. However, within the region, individual countries see this figure fluctuate substantially - for example, in Niger, the research found a 45 per cent gender gap in mobile phone ownership, while in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) the gender gap came to 33 per cent.

While the GSMA found that in general, wealthier countries with a higher per capita gross domestic product (GDP) reported a smaller gender gap in mobile phone ownership, in Africa a number of exceptions are apparent.

For example, Kenya has a much smaller gender gap in mobile phone ownership than expected given its level of wealth, which the GSMA attributes to the introduction of the M-Pesa mobile money service.

As a result of these exceptions, the report highlights the role of introducing female-relevant mobile products and services in closing the gender divide; adding that new products should focus on affordability and fostering enabling environments to overcome barriers for women.

Similarly with regard to mobile phone usage, the GSMA found a substantial discrepancy in how women use mobile devices as compared to men - with the former generally using mobile services less frequently or less intensively than their male counterparts.

For example, female mobile phone users were more likely to stick to basic mobile services such as voice or SMS; and reported a slower progression "up the ladder" of mobile services.

Challenges

The report cites a range of barriers more often faced by women preventing or hindering them from using more high-end mobile services, such as lack of access to internet-enabled services (and a higher prevalence of low-end handsets among women mobile users), lower literacy and education levels, a lack of technical literacy, and an increased sensitivity to price.

"Closing the usage gap between women and men is important to advancing the digital inclusion agenda and ensuring the voices of women and girls are represented in the digital world," the GSMA advised.

"These findings indicate the gender gap in mobile ownership and use is driven by a complex set of socio-economic and cultural barriers negatively affecting women."

Closing the gender gap in the mobile industry would also result in economic benefits. With the mobile industry having directly and indirectly contributed 3.6 per cent of the global GDP in 2013 - over US$2.4 trillion - drawing more women into this marketplace would further increase this contribution.

The report estimates that closing the gender gap in both mobile phone ownership and usage could add an additional US$170 billion in revenue to the mobile industry over the coming five years.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated bridging the mobile ownership gender gap increase revenues by US$5 billion by 2020, while bridging the usage gap in the region would contribute a further US$20 billion in the same timeframe.

However, the social and economic benefits of drawing more women into the mobile consumer base will not happen organically, the report concludes, but will require concerted action from industry players and policy makers.

According to the GSMA: "Without targeted intervention from the mobile industry, policy-makers, and other stakeholders, the gender gap in ownership and use is unlikely to close naturally on its own."

"Ensuring women own mobile phones on par with men will require deliberate, active efforts by industry and policy-makers, especially in situations where women face particularly high barriers for cultural or socio-economic reasons," the report finds.