Mobile phones and women's empowerment in Maasai communities: How men shape women's social relations and access to phones
Mobile phones and women's empowerment in Maasai communities: How men shape women's social relations and access to phones
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.04.013
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发表时间：
2020-05
影响因子：
5.1
通讯作者：
Kelly H. Summers;Timothy D. Baird;E. Woodhouse;Maria Elisa Christie;J. McCabe;Felista Terta;Naomi Peter
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kelly H. Summers;Timothy D. Baird;E. Woodhouse;Maria Elisa Christie;J. McCabe;Felista Terta;Naomi Peter
移动的电话已被许多人视为增强全球南方妇女权能的有前途的新工具。然而，有些人断言，新的信息和通信技术可能会扩大权力较大的人和权力较小的人之间的差距。很少有研究调查哪些妇女会受益，以及在什么条件下受益。本研究旨在通过考察坦桑尼亚北方马赛农牧社区内妇女的各种经历，更好地了解移动的电话与妇女赋权之间的关系。具体而言，我们提出三个指导性问题：（1）马赛妇女如何获得和使用手机？(2)手机支持或破坏了哪些授权过程？（3）这些过程是如何嵌入到不同的社会关系中的？为了解决这些问题，我们使用一个框架，将社会关系方法与可持续生计方法的修改版本相结合。我们的团队在2018年6月至7月对马赛妇女进行了半结构化和个人利益相关者访谈，以了解她们对手机，社会关系和赋权多个方面的看法。我们使用演绎和归纳的定性策略分析了这些访谈的内容。这些努力产生了多方面的结果：（1）妇女使用手机的机会是不固定的;（2）增强权能和剥夺权能的途径多种多样;（3）手机加剧了不平等;（4）妇女的身份是交叉的;（5）妇女的网络仍然是同质的。总的来说，这种方法和这些见解提供了一个比许多研究更保守的移动的手机的好处，也是一个重要的技术赋权叙述发展学者和从业人员。
Mobile phones have been heralded by many as promising new tools to empower women throughout the Global South. However, some have asserted that new information and communication technologies (ICTs) may serve to amplify disparities between more powerful and less powerful people. Few studies have examined which women stand to benefit and under what conditions. This study seeks to better understand the relationships between mobile phones and women’s empowerment by examining diverse women’s experiences within Maasai agro-pastoralist communities in northern Tanzania. Specifically, we ask three guiding questions: (1) How do Maasai women access and use phones? (2) What processes of empowerment do phones support or undermine? and (3) How are these processes embedded in diverse social relations? To address these questions, we use a framework that integrates a Social Relations Approach with a modified version of the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach. Our team conducted semi-structured and individual-stakeholder interviews with Maasai women in June-July, 2018 to learn their perspectives on phones, social-relations and multiple aspects of empowerment. We analyzed the content of these interviews using deductive and inductive qualitative strategies. These efforts yield multiple findings: (1) women’s access to phones is fluid; (2) multiple pathways to empowerment and disempowerment exist; (3) phones reinforce inequalities; (4) women’s identities are intersectional; and (5) women’s networks remain homogenous. Taken together, this approach and these insights provide a more conservative account of the benefits of mobile phones than many studies and also an important technology-empowerment narrative for development scholars and practitioners.